Report A Fake 2008-2010 (April)
The Fake flash memory wars are raging. Especially on eBay!
Please report your fake flash memory seller to us – see below for the information we need. We do not have all sellers of counterfeit and false capacity usb flash drives, mpx players and memory cards on file. Your contribution helps everyone.
Addresses of sellers from your mailing envelopes are very helpful. It helps us to spot fraud rings operating on eBay. Use the search box and type in your sellers id, if there is an article make sure to leave a comment and also your progress in dealing with him.
As of June 2009, SOSFakeFlash announced a zero tolerance policy. One confirmation can lead to an alert against an eBay seller. We need to reduce the number of victims, too many being frauded. Regards, From the Fake Flash Angels at SOSFakeFlash
- It is important you test your item to find it’s true capacity. Read: H2testw 1.4 – Gold Standard In Detecting USB Counterfeit Drives
- Do not assume if you have made a paypal claim and it has been closed that you can not reopen it. Many victims have been forced to do this.
- Do not leave positive feedback in exhange for a refund. You only make the problem worse. It is probably why you bought from the seller in the first place! Read: eBay Victims do not leave positive Feedback or change FB to positive to get refunds! Any seller who tries to make you do this is in violation of eBay rules.
Any company who had been involved directly or indirectly with a transaction involving fake flash memory items is liable and responsible – if they chose not to respond to the situation or take the warnings issued by customers seriously. To ignore the issue is to condone it.
- Reminder eBay see: EBay Ordered to Pay $61 Million in Sale of Counterfeit Goods
- Reminder PayPal: Steele Settlement Website
If you have confirmed that you have a fake (purchased from eBay) and you wanted it entered into the database as evidence so we can post an alert or update counts against a seller we will need the following information from you:
- eBay item number
- eBay Seller id
- Your eBay Buyer id (d0n’t forget this please)
- Your output from H2testw 1.4
- eBay item description title
- Seller address complete if you have it (mailing envelopes, eBay, PayPal). Important to build profile and track multiple id’s
- Seller email address
- A short word of you experience and or thoughts if you like (optional)
Reminder, your eBay Buyer id is NOT published on the internet when you report in to us. eBay fake flash memory seller ids are published on the internet to warn other buyers.
If your seller used private auction listings to hide the listing, or a multiple item buy now listing please send a screen capture of the listing to help us cut down on the investigation time.
To capture your buy now listing is very important if the seller is not on file with us (eBay Fake Memory Seller Lists) , if the seller is suspended you will lose your evidence and so could we.
Send this information directly to sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com
We will not enter information into the database from a public site without 1-4.
If you are reporting several sellers (it happens) please keep the 1-8 pattern. Easy to understand, the more you save us time the faster we can investigate and enter.
There is no time limit in reporting a seller, you can find a lot of information inside of your paypal account for proof. We have had cases as old as 18 months from purchase being reported. It is why recording in a database is so important.
SOSFakeFlash is very strict about collecting information, data that can be supported and has witnesses to the fake flash memory deed. The alerts and posts we publish – are based on evidence.
The data used used to build the list of fake flash memory sellers on eBay. It is also used to issue summary reports on the problem. Data from victims helped us to produce this report: Global Report – eBay Fake Memory 2008 – 2009 , a two year effort. If anyone wants to dispute with us, we can send them an angry mob of fake flash victims. So if you would like to have your item(s) recorded for the record please send us the information above to: sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com
It is important to report even if the seller is already on the list or an alert is issued.
It increases the counts and evidence against the seller and for the degree of fraud on eBay too. . We publish the sellers and the current counts in our eBay fake flash sellers list. We also produce statistics and reports from the information you send.
In your feedback please put the calling card of “SOSFakeFlash” + “H2testw“. It helps people to find us and get help. It also unnerves fraudsters as it means their days are now numbered. If you left positive feedback, do a follow up to your original feedback – to let everyone know what you discovered. This makes a difference too. If you have a little time, contact at least 5 other buyers from your fake flash seller to warn them to test. It’s a chain reaction, it helps others, reduces victims and soon brings these fraudulent sellers to the attention of both PayPal and eBay.
SOSFakeFlash 
TAK said
Ugh, I give. I didn’t take the proper steps in the proper order. eBay was damn useless, even when I got a person (partly my fault, I forgot to be like “so you want me to write out an address that’s completely in Chinese?”). They wouldn’t budge! So I may have screwed myself over. Also what I believe didn’t help is the guy is no longer registered with eBay (should have pressed that little issue as well). And my bank couldn’t get the money back (my guess was ONLY because I didn’t use my check card, which has the Visa logo on it). I hate to give up, but I’m at a serious loss here. Only other thing I could do is file a report with PayPal and threaten to report him to the Chinese authorities (I still have the emails he sent me as well as the test results from H2testw, but I threw out the fake memory stick after I smashed it, another bad idea), but I couldn’t find anything about their postal laws. So, yeah. Unless I can find something, I give up. So in light of this, I have unlinked my bank account from PayPal and ONLY have my aformented check card, so I’ll be able to have my bank issue a chargeback.
Wow, another long post. But yeah, I’ve run out of options real fast. Any help would be MOST appreciated.
KittyFireFlash said
TAK,
Did you get a supervisor on the phone? If you got a little human robot instead of a computer robot, you need to demand the robot get a supervisor on the phone.
Giving you a Chinese address, is not very bright on the part of eBay.
east-jewelry-art sales follow a typical pattern for some sellers. Jewelry followed by fake flash memory selling.
ask eBay about the 308 buyers screwed by east-jewelry-art at $US $28.99 US = $8928.92 Total for #170451777774 NEW 16G MEMORY STICK PRO DUO 16GB MS MARK 2 PSP
Then ask eBay about the 999 buyers screwed with listing #180477386040 for $27,701.10 US same item.
That makes a grand total of $37629.02 US.
Even if some people bought 2 items we have atleast 1,200 eBay members who were frauded by just this one seller.
The listing picture was for a Sony product.
Much depends on how you feel about all of this, Tak.
1) Let both eBay and seller get away with it.
2) Dig in and refuse to let go. Contact eBay again, and again and again.
Being deregistered suddenly on eBay? Sellers don’t run or get suspended without a good reason.
Have them look at: http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=east-jewelry-art&Dirn=Received+by
It matters little if you smashed it in anger. The policy for eBay and PayPal is that counterfeits (and it is SONY!), must be destroyed be destroyed. You have them for fake memory and for a counterfeit of the Sony product.
TAK said
You’re right, Kitty. I’m calling them again right now. Thanks for the additional help. I’ll report on the results.
TAK said
Well crap. Not only did they NOT help at all. The person REFUSED to give me a supervisor. Mentioning that the address was in Chinese didn’t do jack. I don’t know what else to do other than to keep calling and hope I get a DIFFERENT person. Perhaps I should be like “screw eBay” and go to PayPal, like it’d help much.
TAK said
They STILL WON’T BUDGE! I may have screwed myself on this when I first said there was no way I was sending it back. Maybe I SHOULD just take it to PayPal.
TAK said
Fine. I give up. You win eBay, you bastards win… this is too much damn trouble…
KittyFireFlash said
Tak,
Take a little break. Some fresh air, a little sun (if it is not raining where you are). In fighting eBay you have helped. Made a few employees day a little more miserable at eBay.
eBay did a pretty good clean up job for east-jewelry-art. But not good enough. Why? YOU!
We managed to get the info on what he sold and he is in the database and an alert will go out for the record, so yes, the seller is branded for the fraud committed against members.
id east-jewelry-art will be back, the score is a little too high to abandon.
The fact that they insisted you send to a chinese address when we doubt you can write in chinese (we can’t), demonstrates just how silly and stupid eBay can be. It also makes their new programme of “eBay Buyer Protection” another sham, just like the PayPal protection programme. Just trivial spin, giving eBay buyers a false sense of security.
What is worse?
Selling fake memory or selling fake protection from fraud?
Don’t give it. If we gave up, this internet site would never have been created. Also you should know that you have made an important contributions:
1) exposing another eBay seller
2)exposing the sham of eBay buyer protection
3) exposing how eBay continues to shelter and protect fraudulent sellers over frauded buyers.
In refusing to participate in the fraud (returning the item) you have fallen on your sword. You are not the first eBay member to do this and not the last. You have shown principals. If only more eBay members could stand TALL as you have done, this problem would soon be history.
After a break, you can decide if you want to go after eBay again. They hate it.
Some people prefer to forget their fake flash memory eBay experience. We can’t blame them. We would like to forget it too. But if we do, what about the next soon to be victims?
TAK said
Problem is, they already know I refused to sell the item, both from my case and my calls. And I mentioned a US Postal Code saying it’s prohibited to send counterfeit items to other countries, they said they never heard of it. But yeah, I’m just glad I was able to get that guy’s ass BRANDED as a fake seller. And like you said, I’ve helped show just how pathetic eBay’s “Buyer Protection” program is. I think I will take all that as a victory in of itself. At this point the money isn’t what matters, it’s the fact that others have been warned about another fake seller, and that there’s one less fake flash memory device in the world (I even destroyed the adapter it came with). I’m just glad I won’t have to be frauded again, since I have unlinked my bank account from PayPal and only have my debit card linked to it (which has the Visa logo on it so it gets the same chargeback power as a normal credit card). To war, fake flash sellers, TO WAAAAARRRRRR!
Paul said
I too was scammed on eBay by ‘obamastores’.
The 32gb flash drive turned out to be <.4gb. I have send a message to the seller, but have not received any reply to date. I have also filed a complained with PayPal.
If eBay is smart they better hold guys like that accountable for their actions, otherwise buyers, like myself, will think twice before entering into any more deals on eBay.
Buba2 said
Test resalt
Warning: Only 15991 of 15992 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
239.5 MByte OK (490688 sectors)
15.3 GByte DATA LOST (32258880 sectors)
Details:15.3 GByte overwritten (32258880 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
0 KByte corrupted (0 sectors)
16 MByte aliased memory (32768 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x000000000df98000
Expected: 0x000000000df98000
Found: 0x00000003e6f98000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 6.59 MByte/s
Reading speed: 7.80 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
This was to be a 16 Geg. micro SD. I have had it for a bout 2 months, I looked at on my computer when I first got it and loaded about 2 meg. of files and though all was good. I went to buy a 138 Geg flash drive and seen low feedback counts and got to looking and found the fake chip sight, tested my first SD chip in a usb adaptor and you can see the reading I got(less than 3 Geg). E-bay has removed the listing from my page and the seller is no more. So I guess someone got to them.
JumpingJackFlash said
My own investigation with my own money has found several frauds. Anything coming from this return address is faked out.
Zhang Dongsheng
Sunyou Logistics Limited
PO BOX no. 91629
Tsim Sha Tsui Post Office
Hong Kong
Two of the Ebay Ids Ive confirmed on many sales to be fake are
e-bay-wei
and
best-e-bay-sell
Those are two coming from the same address which when confronted on that told me they use a service to mail out. BULL. Both sellers quickly refunded me in full. I will test them again and have contacted many buyers who left positives to be aware of the issue and to test and complain.
Several more ID’s Ive confirmed to be selling fakes. Two Ive already had booted from Ebay, Im sure they will resurface with new IDs but one thing they dont have now is the Ebay discount which makes me want to puke. They must keep over 99% positives to get that!
andy-wjm ( 39180) 99.2%
best-e-bay-sell ( 23613) 99.0%
eBay Store: a nice small shop
bid2buying ( 9662) 99.3%
eBay Store: Bid2Buying Store
e-bay-wei ( 16055) 99.2%
eBay Store: HuaQiangBei Market
inaltd ( 4018) 99.3%
eBay Store: INA Ltd
ndspro ( 16691) 99.3%
novelfanet ( 15473) 98.9%
eBay Store: novelfanet
safe2star ( 35237) 99.1%
eBay Store: safe2star
showwhat ( 6676) 99.0% BOOTED!
tamstore003 ( 3804) 99.3%
tenda09 ( 999) 99.9%
urqiqiexpress ( 5081) 99.2% BOOTED!
zhixingstarshop88 ( 1876) 99.6%
Ive bought and tested MP3 players from each and ALL were fake.
JumpingJackFlash said
Another watch out for is DHGate. I bought 16GB Sony Pro Duo chips there and they were only 128MB!
After fighting with them they had me return to China and told me they would refund me when the seller received the item.
Well he received the item and they refunded me my purchase cost of 156.00 but the 31.00 in shipping they now tell me has to wait until the seller makes more sales then they will refund me! Looks like IM out 31.00 but thye havent herad the last. Sent their mail to the mayor of Beijing lol and told him this is why China has such a bad rep for business!
No response 🙂
JumpingJack
Paul said
Here is what PayPal had to say:
“Return the item to the seller, at the following address:
#F, first building, LuoHu golden coast
Luohu District
Shen Zhen
Guang Dong
######
China”.
WTF, are they nuts?
The sellers name is ‘obamastores’.
Test result:
Warning: Only 31979 of 31980 MBytes tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
3.6 GByte OK (7694304 sectors)
27.5 GByte DATA LOST (57798688 sectors)
Closed my eBay & PayPal accounts.
Ron said
Hello, i’m from Holland so my English may not be perfect
I’m a victim of the site from http://www.gosaving.net
i did buy two USB memory sticks from 64GB
First my computer did not recognized them at all, i formatted them and tested them with H2TESTW and the program everytime (after hours and hours and….) crashed,and then is just 9.7 GB on the stick ore tho windows says it is 62.5gb!! on it
On the stick is standing: MIC D33193
after searching on the internet it is a “Transcend D33193” type: V30 and looks the same also
But unfortently they ore unusable and no 64GB!
let this be a warning! dont by them!
a wright gosaving.net a several time, but no answer, so i did a today i clame Paypal, still waiting also
KittyFireFlash said
Hi Ron,
Thank you for reporting in. We contacted FakeFlashNews as soon as your comment came in.
You bought a counterfeit at false capacity. They investigated and published this story:
gosaving.net 64GB Transcend Counterfeit Fakes Sold. JetFlash V30 USB Flash Memory Drives
Thank you for reporting to us. SOSFakeFlash and the FrankenFlash Project is not just about eBay.
We also appreciate your writing in English – what matters is the message, not the spelling. Now if we could only write as well in Dutch!
Erica said
Hi, just bought a 8gig touch screen mp3, video, ebook, camera etc.. 2.8″ screen from HKBAY on ebay and it is a FAKE!
Here is the test results.
Warning: Only 7384 of 7763 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
3.4 GByte OK (7308800 sectors)
3.7 GByte DATA LOST (7813632 sectors)
Details:3.6 GByte overwritten (7569456 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
119.2 MByte corrupted (244176 sectors)
31 KByte aliased memory (62 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000000df0c0000
Expected: 0x00000000df0c0000
Found: 0x0843679043425355
H2testw version 1.3
Reading speed: 8.21 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
Will now bw filing a complaint with ebay & paypal for this scam.
Stay away from HKBAY.
Jose Manuel said
Hello, I have been deceived too. I bought my daughter a 16GB MP4 player, and it really is 2Gb. I ran H2testw and confirmed it. The scammer is called hkbay in ebay and now it wants to return the item and I pay the postage and then refunded me the article. He has sent me a name and address, which is ZhuoQiuGe (HK) FLAT C 11 / F FUNG WAN Xiao Fung Court GDN. 518,001 YAU YEE ROAD ShenZhen China. Everything seems fake. Please tell me what steps I have to continue to accuse him on ebay and/or PayPal.
Here is the test results:
Warning: Only 15961 of 15974 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
1.8 GByte OK (3805392 sectors)
13.7 GByte DATA LOST (28882736 sectors)
Details:12.9 GByte overwritten (27077568 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
881.4 MByte corrupted (1805168 sectors)
8 KByte aliased memory (16 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x000000007421a000
Expected: 0x000000007421a000
Found: 0x0000000074218000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 11.3 MByte/s
Reading speed: 14.9 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
Another on the group defrauded by Hkbay.
Erica said
Jose, first report him to ebay by filing a complaint. Then go to your paypal account and open a dispute with them. Give them a copy of your test results and demand you want your money back. DO NOT send the player back! It’s probably a fake address. I paid $31 USD for mine and demanded at least $20 USD back and I keep the piece of junk. It worked. They’re just trying to intimidate you…they really don’t want the item back. They will plead and beg for you to meet them half way. Don’t fall for it, you were already scammed once…NOT AGAIN! Don’t settle for half, you can get more. When they finally give you your money back they will ask you to close the dispute with paypal. Make 100% sure that the money has been refunded to you first before closing that dispute. Once you close the dispute you can’t reopen it..ever! It took me about 4 days to finally get my money. Good luck to you. P.S – you can still use it as a 2 gig player.
a4 said
Be aware! Ebay seller cititrading sells fakes 32GB usb key.
32GB USB 2.0 Drive Flash Memory Pen Stick Thumb 32G S1
see test result:
The media is likely to be defective.
3.8 GByte OK (8104585 sectors)
27.3 GByte DATA LOST (57398647 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
27.3 GByte corrupted (57398647 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000000f7551200
Expected: 0x00000000f7551200
Found: 0x0000000000000000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 12.8 MByte/s
Reading speed: 10.0 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
Ellen said
Received 2x 32GB SDHC Cards yesterday from seller inaltd on Ebay, i was very happy to receive it for that great price so i started to copy data to them but after a few minutes i already noticed that something was NOT OK:( the files were corrupted and also when i tried to put a 16GB file on it then Windows said it didn’t fit on the disc so i suspected from that moment that it would be a fake card.. never knew before that this could be faked but i noticed when i used google and found an application to test and indeed it failed writing more than 3.5GB to both 32GB cards…i have filed a claim to paypal, still awaiting a 32GB Usb stick from that seller, i am afraid and suspect that it will be also a fake, here is a screencapture from one of my tests..
and here the links to the items i bought from this person:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320513005442&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320513006290&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320514930151&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
red said
Ellen,
Yes. Unfortunately, you are correct.
inaltd has their own alert here:
Please consider sending this information to sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com so that your items can be entered into the database of fake items:
1. eBay item number
2. eBay Seller id
3. Your eBay Buyer id
4. Your output from H2testw 1.4
5. eBay item description if the listing has been removed
6. Seller address (complete) if you have it. Important to build profile and track multiple id’s
7. A short word of you experience and or thoughts if you like (optional)
If you are interested in fighting back and stopping this seller, consider being a Fake Flash Angel:
J-Charles said
I had problem with a 128 GB kingston flash drive. I technician from kingston told me that it was fake, first because of the serial number missing on the connector. Paypal asked me to send the items back at my charge, I did it. But I had no refund! This was a fraud by paypal! The seller was willing the refund but paypal said no…
ITGuy said
To J-Charles
Welcome to the Ebay – Paypal game where the odds of you winning are very low.
A seller does not need permission from Paypal to refund money . The seller is using this as an excuse to avoid refunding your money.
The Ebay and Paypal policies around brand name counterfeits depend on the specific user agreement. The users agreements are specific to specific ebay / paypal domain you registered in (i.e. ebay.com paypal.com paypal.ca etc).
Extract from paypal.com user agreement.
If you lose a Significantly Not as Described Claim because the item you sold is counterfeit, you will be required to provide a full refund to the buyer and you will not receive the item back (it will be destroyed).
The problem is that paypal will make you jump through hoops to prove an item is counterfeit. The are reports manufactures of flash drives (sandisk) are very helpful in providing you proof that paypal will accept, however, that are not many reports of Kingson providing proof that paypal finds acceptable.
Individuals have reported that they forwarded pictures of the item to the sandisk and they received back confirmation that the product was counterfeit and Paypal refunded the buyer
M said
Hello,
I bought fake Kingston micro SDHC cards 16GB/32GB on dhgate.com and aliexpress.com, alwayys around 10-20$ per piece. Tests with H2testw showed clearly that it is fake flash, some with ~480MB real capacity and some with 1.9GB real capacity. The where stuffed in Kingston blisters and have a clean Kingston printing on it. But there are evidences to identify these fake micro SDHC cards:
1. Test it with H2testw.exe to find out real capacity
2. There is no lasered serial, all have the same printed serial
3. The SD adaptor they ship with it, is also fake and dooes only work in read-only mode… (makes it more difficult to test…
TechChips said
Review of fake flash seller lists underway.
Adjusting to new google searches.
We are interested to know if you have the new search page appearing and if you found it helpful to reach us.