FakeFlashNews

Seller wusimz has been on ebay since 14-Nov-08 in China and to date has almost entirely positive feedback. Intially this seller started with what may have been genuine 2GB flash drives then in mid December switched to selling fake 16GB drives. One model sold has been tested and shown to be a fake capacity drive. Here are pictures of the model:

Another model which we do not yet have test results for is a blatent fake – It is obvious from the large picture of the drive in the main body of the listing that it is a re-programmed 2GB Kingston flash drive being sold as a 16GB drive. Kingston drives of the type shown are colour coded according to capacity – green are 2GB whereas 16GB are dark red!

It is very likely that all drives being currently sold by wusimz are fake capacity. If you bought a 16GB flash drive from this seller do not store any data on it unless you can confirm that it is a genuine 16GB drive by testing it with h2testw.

If it fails the test and you confirm you have a false capacity drive (fake) please send your results along with the seller ID and item number to sosfakeflash@wordpress.com.

Use your test results as evidence to file a paypal dispute and claim a refund. You should also report the seller to ebay.

In recent weeks existing websites run by the FrankenFlash Project have been overwhelmed by consumers seeking help for false capacity flash devices purchased. The demand caused the international site to exceed it’s monthly bandwidth. Currently run by volunteers who fund expenses from their own pockets, the available sites have been limited. The issue needed to be addressed, quickly.

Everyone was cause by surprise by the sudden increase in visits. Instead of working on issuing alerts, efforts have concentrated on creating new sites to distribute the load. Two new sites have been added, both with translation features into 34 possible languages and also with enhanced printing features. The new sites will permit permanent caching of language pages.

SOSFakeFlash remains the main site, however it can not provide direct translation to reach the global community being impacted by this fake flash plague that is causing so much harm in data and financial loss to people and institutions.

The new sites joining the FrankenFlash Project are:

Ebayers Against Fake Flash Devices II at “http://ebay.totalh.com/“

FakeFlashNews II at “http://fakeflashnews.totalh.com/“

and are available now. We hope this will help distribute the load more evenly.

One feature these new sites have is a dynamic articles list on the menu tab. Using a free theme, Atahualpa 3.1.7 provided by http://wordpress.bytesforall.com/ – it packs tremendous power and flexibility. The author has worked very hard to prepare this new version. If you like the Atahualpa theme being used at the new sites, please consider a small PayPal donation to support the team that works on developing it. Just visit the bytesforall address we’ve given. If you found the translation features useful to you, see the little link under the language tables, By N2H, to go to the author’s site and leave a little donation too. He has been constantly improving his translation plug-in and put in a lot of hard work!

Let us know what you think of the new sites!

The main email address remains the same:

SOSFakeFlashDrive@gmail.com

The FrankenFlash Project’s – eBayers Against False Capacity Flash website is temporarily closed until January 2009. The demand for information on Fake Flash devices on eBay has been too high during the month of December 2008. We blew the bandwidth quota. Arraugh!

Fortuantely SOSFakeFlash is the main site, eBayers Against False Capacity Flash is a mirrow with additional features and translation for our international members. We apologize for the inconvience.
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This suspect seller sold many flash drives of the model pictured here in December using  private listings. Ebay has removed listings following reports  from ebayers that the seller was using private listings and that drives were likely to be fraudulently programmed. If you bought the flash drive pictured from this seller test it immediately with h2testw. If it fails the test open a paypal dispute and claim a refund immediately.

Another 120GB drive was advertised by a UK seller on Ebay in  mid December.  The seller had 100 of these drives and initially I thought he might be an innocent victim of fake flash because he withdrew a listing on 15th December. It now seems he is not so innocent after all.  If you bought a flash drive from ravrehal0113 you should test it with h2testw immediatlely and report the seller to ebay, paypal and the police. The seller is well aware that the drives are fake capacity but hoped to get away with a disclaimer – here is the wording of the listing:

SONY VAIO 120GB USB 2.0 Memory Pen Drive
With a massive 120 GB storage – the USB device is clearly visible from the pictures and I’ve included shots pretty much from every angle. I’ve also included a screen shot from Windows showing the USB drive to have 117GB of free storage.
I’ve come into possession of 100 of these units. I’ve tested the device and put info on them and working fine – but I’m selling it as a novelty item.  I can’t guarantee the unit or the  storage capacity. However, the devices do look the business and work. 
They’ll make great gifts for Christmas.
NB: Some will come with blister packaging showing in the pictures other will not (I’ve got 76 units with blister packaging with 24 without)

The packaging of the item is a giveaway – many fakes with similar packaging to this were sold a while back and now seem to be re-surfacing on the UK market. If you see drives with similar packaging (see image below) appearing on Ebay please contact the seller/s and ask them to test the drives with ht2testw for their own protection. In the UK the law is quite strict, if  people sell fraudulent items they are  liable to be prosecuted. In this case (as the drive is branded as Sony Viao) there are two potential offences the seller could be charged with:

• Selling counterfeit items (because of the brand name) 
• Ordinary fraud (because of the fake capacity)

This seller could possibly face a prison sentence  if  buyers report him to the police.

FakeFlashNews has an amazing discovery sent by SOSFakeFlash – a 120GB Micro Vault counterfeit drive has recently been sold on eBay from the United Kingdom. Hard to believe, but true. The packaging indicates that it must be a left over from the first wave of counterfeits send abroad at the end of 2007 or early in 2008. Counterfeiters of fake flash devices are rarely so outrageous in the size they will reprogram drives to anymore as the public is becoming more aware of size limitations in currently available technology. SOSFakeFlash has offered us their article to reprint at our site.

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FixFakeFlash from SOSFakeFlash, explains steps to rescue a fake flash (counterfeit) drive. How you can try to return it to its true size. Wrestling with FrankenFlash drives to make them useful is a mystery to most victims of fake flash drive purchases. The information FixFakeFlash has for you comes from the efforts of fake flash victims who succeeded in repairing their drives.
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FakeFlashNews has received an urgent communication warning against buying any bargain price 16GB flash drive pensticks on eBay. This warning is for unbranded flash USB drives mainly 16GB but also 32GB.

Interviewed by Techreporters, SOSFakeFlash, part of the FrankenFlash Project explains why they asked us to release a communication advising people not to buy:
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