Kingston Counterfeit Fake 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drive Found On eBay
Kingston’s latest usb flash drive product line, DataTraveler 150 is the victim of counterfeiters. Scammers and Fraudsters know a good thing when they see it. The reputation of Kingston for quality products is the perfect target. eBay is the favorite place to sell counterfeit items especially for flash technology. The conduit market is worldwide.
eBay does little to stop these sellers. At most, a fraudlent seller gets a little tap on the wrist, a suspension for a few months. Meanwhile eBay victims are ignored. The damage to brand name products with lowered consumer confidence matters little to eBay’s drive to profit. The only thing eBay will do, is scurry to hide the evidence. How? If they suspend a seller, they now have the opportunity to erase his listings. Cover their tracks and the fake flash sellers tracks from eBay members and any brand name companies that might investigate. Because of this behavior, the FrankenFlash Project is now forced to delay warnings and alerts – until they can collect evidence.
The lastest brand name drive to be counterfeited and sold on eBay is the 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drive.
Kingstone released this drive in the fall of 2008. SOSFakeFlash’s network continues to grow and Blogger123 (nom de plume) reported to SOSFakeFlash with evidence on eBay seller abestpartner0. abestpartner0 has sold 1300+ 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drives to eBay members.
Here is the investigation and evidence from SOSFakeFlash:
Blogger123 received his drive from abestpartner0. It looked like a genuine Kingston drive.
You might be wondering why the drive has been taken apart. Well, in Blogger123’s case he got the worst fake of all – a fake without a flash drive chip. Yes, no flash drive. He was unable to write anything to the drive as there was no drive. At the moment he does not dare to pry off the other half of the case as it is glued and like other victims of this seller he is pursuing.
This is what the drive looks like.
Perhaps someone was asleep on the assembly line? Well Kingston goes through a lot of effort to protect their products and has serial numbers that you can use to validate your flash drive purchase. Each drive, just like software has a unique number.
Blogger123 read:Kingston USB Flash Drives – Detect Counterfeits And Fakes – Product Verification and used the Memory Verification
He received a reply:
Kingston Validation Confirmation
You have entered the following information:
Serial Number: KT13852-00015788License Key:
G8xxxxx-xxxxxxxxEmail
Address: Blogger123@PlanetPluto.comThe flash memory product you inquired was already registered by another user, so it may not be authentic Kingston memory product. We suggest that you double check the information on the product label. (Refer to the Kingston Verification website for details).
so the serial number was already registered. That means it was stolen, just like software serial keys can be stolen. Every Kingston drive gets it’s own unique number to combat fraud.
SOSFakeFlash asked us to delay publishing this information as eBayers are getting together. abestpartner0 sold over 1300 of these drives. They sold for less then 1/4 of the usual retail price and offered free shipping too.
Everyone is very interested to know just how eBay will handle this problem:
- Will they try to hide the evidence as they always have?
- Will they come clean with eBayers who bought the drives?
- Will they pretend they have no responsibility for allowing band name counterfeits to be sold?
- Will they tell Kingston, it never happened?
- Just when will eBay grow up and behave in a professional responsible way?
- When will they show transparency and address the problem of counterfeit and fake flash products instead of continuing in denial?
- When will they institute strict and rigorous guidelines for listing such products and actually hold sellers accountable?
SOSFakeFlash made sure to get all the eBay item numbers in case eBay tries wiggle out of this one.
The FrankenFlash Project was founded by victims of fake flash device purchases. They realised this was a serious global problem. It is one thing to be skunked out of money, another to lose important data that can NEVER BE REPLACED!
Members of the Project are very disheartened to see just how quickly a wonderful new drive such as the Kingston DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drive has fallen to predators of fake flash profit! It costs a lot of money to innovate technology and this is the last thing Kingston needs!
For older members in the FrankenFlash Project – Kingston is an Icon. It is the brand we all trusted for any flash based needs. The author is typing this article on a computer using Kingston Ram Chips!
Because of SOSFakeFlash’s recent discovery on eBay they advise that no one by any Kingston usb flash drives on eBay.
Go to a local retail store, or buy from a reputable internet site such as newegg.com or newegg.ca. Or better still, buy from Kingston’s site directly. Better to pay a little more and make sure you have the genuine article. Stay away from eBay for any usb flash drive purchases! Unless you buy from the tiny list of genuine sellers SOSFakeFlash has listed.
To buy any flash based item on eBay is to risk not only losing your money, but also your data. It is just not a safe thing to do. It is also not wise.
Update April 4th, 2009 – Visit these sites for additional information:
- New! Flash Drive Education. Fakes and Counterfeits http://flashdrivefacts.wordpress.com/
- Early News Warning On Fake Flash Sellers http://fightflashfraud.wordpress.com/
- Documented Fake Flash Sellers. Help. Main site: http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/
- Known Solutions For Repariing Flash Usb Devices. http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/
Hi I sourced and sold my own brand ‘Kingdom USB’ of 4GB 8GB and 16GB memory sticks which I sold on eBay.Unfortunatly I did not realise how many fakes I was competing with and as a result have lost thousands of pounds. So here is one seller of genuine flash drive sticks you will not see again on eBay, one less honest seller because eBay refuses to ban the fakers.
Norrie
Norrie
March 16, 2009 at 10:03 am
Ebay will have soon legal issues with this question. I think that who to blame is more ebay than these chinese criminals. Ebay sells them the weapon of crime and take the dirty money…
blogger123
March 16, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Mistakenly bought from the said seller the same Kingston Flash Drive. If I had searched first and found this site I could have prevented buying from the seller.
Thanks for the info. I tried emailing some of the buyers and gave this link/site.
X’llent job you did.
-Dan
DF
March 16, 2009 at 4:10 pm
DF give all the evidence to this site. Maybe we gonna need each other in the case that paypal doesn’t accept to return our money. After all, it’s a question of honor and not of dollars
blogger123
March 16, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I went through the same issue as you awhile back. Instead of not working, the USB was full of viruses, crashed my computer before syncing my hard drive with some network. I will only buy my electronics from a store like Best buy now. Its amazing how easy it is to replicate these products, they look the same…but they don’t act the same!
Sam D
March 16, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Here is the link from Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=260369564117
I won the item and received it. You can see also from the feedbacks how many people have bought the said USB Flash. Reported it to Ebay and Paypal, now its up to them.
Tried copying 11Gb and most of the files are corrupted. Tested the Flash using TestDrive (Dos Based) and it shows only 4096MB. Authentic USB Flash can be formatted to NTFS but this one you can’t. Noticed also the cheap plastic cover and there is no LED. The same Serial Number.
Hope this helps.
Dan F.
March 17, 2009 at 8:59 am
This is the worst case of fraud I’ve ever encountered so far on ebay (since 2002). Unbelievable! I bought a Kingston 32GB flash drive. The first time I used it, my computer told me it had a capacity of 31.6GB and I was able to actually copy about maybe 2GB worth of files onto it. Then I formatted it in Fat32. After that, I couldn’t access the drive anymore, and could not format it! I can now see why Chinese manufacturers and sellers have a reputation for being unreliable and/or producing shoddy quality products (unlike the Taiwanese and Japanese).
Harry Baung
March 19, 2009 at 5:55 am
I also got the fake. I reported. Here is my message to seller and paypal
“He so tricky that he use a original like or original Kingston packing and sent the product. Also it showed 32gb in computer . But actually it is less than 8gb. Also the product casing is very loose. Also the number of product on the packing was registered by another user. Some of the buyers identified the fake. But others still don’t know.
He is day by day creating new profile and selleing fake kingston DT150 32Gb. He has sold over 2400 by auction. all are fake.But only some of the buyers identified it.
He have cheated over $100,000 by this profile and same amount with another profile http://myworld.ebay.com/niuren2008
I need you to take action against the fake seller in name of kinston and also tell other buyers to file for refund, many of them don’t know this is fake.
Also i want you to report this to paypal and make the refund process more speedy. Paypal will also be cheated by the fake information given by this seller.”
tharun
March 21, 2009 at 7:55 am
I just got my drive 32gb Data Travler 32gb, it of course does not work. So I’m one more to add to the list as burned by this seller.
Jz-ts
March 27, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Bought one of these so called authentic 32GB Kingston keys from honest niuren2008.
First time I tried to use it the silver usb end slid inside the main body, popped it open with my baby finger nail with no effort, circuit board had been held in place with some hot glue. Tried to register and got back it was already registered. Drive is corrupt and chip has no manufacturer name on it.
All the documentation is as it was authentic from Kingston, but not, if that isn’t counterfeit what is.
Ebay/Paypal has a different version of what is counterfeit or fraud, it is as long as they make money, to hell with buyers.
Ripped
March 28, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Got my so called USB key all .gG, supposed to be 32G Kingston from niuren2008.
Flimsy piece of crappe.
Ran test as per below.
Warning: Only 471 of 31969 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
467.9 MByte OK (958320 sectors)
3.0 MByte DATA LOST (6288 sectors)
Details:1 MByte overwritten (2048 sectors)
3.5 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 7 sectors)
2.0 MByte corrupted (4233 sectors)
128 KByte aliased memory (256 sectors)
First error at offset: 0×000000000002f048
Expected: 0xadf196c5c24efbd1
Found: 0xadf196c5c24ef3d1
Fell apart while getting out of package.
Definitely not a or b grade flash memory, and not kingston.
I solely blame my self for buying, to cheap to be real, but all information on it is copied perfectly.
Ebay and Paypal are just a guilty if not more than the seller niuren2008.
H2testw version 1.3
Reading speed: 12.5 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
Canada USB
March 28, 2009 at 11:23 pm
i bought the same kingston usb from ebay and it doesnt work either. i couldnt get it to work, so i gave it to my friend and he informed me of this website. i was just wondering where on ebay and paypal can i contact them regarding this. thanks.
kris
April 1, 2009 at 9:00 pm
To Canada USB
We agree that Ebay and Paypal should pull their socks up – after all if our tiny team can spot fakes why can’t their (supposedly) much larger team do it? Make sure you get a refund from this fraudster.
If you used a credit card to fund your payment you can hit paypal in the pocket by using chargeback. The more ebayers that use chargeback the more likely it is that ebay (parent company of paypal) is likely to sit up and take notice.
To kris
You need to open a paypal dispute and follow the advice about refunds on sosfakeflash if you funded your payment from your bank account or a debit card. You can get your credit card company to do a chargeback if you funded your purchase with your credit card.
If you didn’t use a credit card and need to file a dispute through paypal go to the item in your won list and use the drop-down menu to find the “report a problem” link – if I remember rightly you will get to a link where you can open a paypal dispute.
fightflashfraud
April 1, 2009 at 9:32 pm
to tharun and anyone else who thinks the frankenflash project should sort it all out for them:
The frankenflash team is a small group of ebay victims of fake flash who put up ebay listings that attempt to warn people about the issue of fake flash or act as fakeflash angels and send ebay messages warnings to ebay members.
Several lost their ebay id’s as a result of these “crimes” and now work on posts for the blogs instead. All this is done unpaid in their “spare time” at personal costs.
These costs include financial loss by putting up listings, loss of ebay ID as a result of putting up listings ebay didn’t like or sending warning messages to other ebayers who bought fake flash – so much for sharing buyer experience!
If you want things to happen then you should do as I did – take the cudgels up and help them out!
madteacher
April 1, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Device Name: +[G:]+USB Mass Storage Device(USB2.0 Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 1221 PID = 3234
Serial Number: 2009040300030015
Revision: 2.10
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: micov(???)
Chip Part-Number: MXT8208
Product Vendor: USB2.0
Product Model: Flash Disk
Tools on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=72332
Eugen Bilcik
April 5, 2009 at 6:36 am
Chip from Micron MLC Model=JS29F04G08FANB3_512MB Flash ID=89DC9095 Single Channel, Flash CE=1CE 72nm Flash Type=2K/page
Eugen Bilcik
April 5, 2009 at 7:39 am
Bought 25 Kingston 32 gb drives, none of them were any good, you can write to them and when you try to read the data, you won’t be able to read it…this company was supposed to be out of China, they shipped out of Charolette NC..I returned them, they said they would replace them, they never replaced them and I never got a refund of the $537.00..I reported to their local police and filled out an FBI form over the internet.
the name of the web site was shoponclearance.com and their email address was shoponclearance@gmail.com. I believe the drives were counterfeit. there website is no longer on the web, I believe they have moved and doing business with another name and website. beware of any company selling wholesale, no phone number in the us and they will only take a money order,wire transfer or a certified bank check. example of their ad is Kingston 32 gb drives $19.95 each in lots of 25
John Ozanich
April 8, 2009 at 12:19 am
Just got one from eBay passed off as a real one, The thing opens up easily with your fingers, Talk about trying to save $15 I just got one from newegg, Lucky PayPal should refund my money no problem, Click my name to see the pics of the inside of the one I got. It actually does have a flash chip on the other side of the board, Mine held 3.8MB of data before saying it was full, But showed up as 32GB in Windows XP & the data did read from it ok.
Bryan
April 20, 2009 at 9:46 pm
[...] die je aan mij hebt verkocht werkt helemaal niet. Je bent waarschijnlijk opgelicht. Zie link: Kingston Counterfeit Fake 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drive Found On eBay FakeFlashNews Ik zit hier dus met een USB-stick die niet meer werkt. Wat kan je hieraan [...]
Overige Kingston DataTravel 150 64 GB usb Stick - 9lives
April 22, 2009 at 2:47 pm
[...] a comment » Here’s a link to an interesting post on fake Kingston flash drives being sold on eBay. This is a good reminder to always buy flash drives (or any portable media) that [...]
Fake Kingston Flash Drives « Bob ‘n Alice On Security
June 14, 2009 at 6:15 pm
[...] mentiona si tu ca e fake, nu? Data traveler dti/32 gb is fake Kingston Counterfeit Fake 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drive Found On eBay Ia baga-i serialul de pe spatele cutiei aici si arata-ne un screenshot: Kingston Technology Company [...]
[Vând] Memorii USB (32GB)-Kingston Data Traveler 150- - Computer Games Forum
July 4, 2009 at 7:18 am
Hi I bought 2 Kingston traveler 150 64gb from a website http://www.kingstonusbcf.com for $158 and of course that everything that is cheap, becomes very expensive at the end. it doesn’t work!!! I should’ve known that. Living and learning! Tried sending email but never receive one back. So fake but perfect labeling and package. He signs as Zhang Yu and his personal email is hh6358@gmail.com. Hope I can help someone not to buy from them. Good luck
Bee
July 9, 2009 at 7:52 pm
We are well aware of the kingstonusbcf site and alerted Kingston to it. Kingston seemed to get it shut down temporarily a few weeks ago, but somehow it sprang back very quickly – they are apparently having difficulty getting it permanantly shut down. Probably because of the China connection.
fightflashfraud
July 9, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Item number: 290332169981
*HUGE* 128gb Kingston Flash Drive USB Memory stick
128gb Memory Stick, Flash Drive AUSSIE SELLER!!!!!!!!!
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290332169981&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.com.au%3A80%2F%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm38%26_nkw%3D290332169981%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1
Not sure about this one, Kingston DT 150 with 128 GB ?
Peter
July 18, 2009 at 2:17 am
Hi Peter,
The listing has been removed by ebay – the DT 150 is only made up to 64GB – only the DT 200 comes in 128GB
fightflashfraud
July 18, 2009 at 10:09 am
WHO CARES IF ITS FAKE! IF IT HOLDS THE CAPACITY AND IT IS FOR A GOOD PRICE! THEN WHO THE HELL CARES MORON! GO BACK TO WATCHING YOUR STAR WARS! OR JAK OFF TO YOUR KINGSTON PROMO POSTER! LOL
leroy smith
September 16, 2009 at 11:41 pm
To leroy
LOL to you. You used the word “fake” not counterfeit. It is clear you do not understand the issues. It is advised you exercise your grey cells and attempt to READ!
The fact is “fakes” as a rule not deliver the advertised capacity
At the moment, SOSFakeFlash is being overwhelmed with emails reporting “fakes”.
For example a true 4GB chip that has been reprogammed to show 32GB means that the moment people exceed 4GB loss their files! There is no way to reclaim them as they can not be copied to the device.
Before you engage in LOL’s think. If you have the ability….
It is very popular to bash brand names, assuming that they are making millions of excess profit. In the case of Kingston and other brand names that manufacture usb flash drives it is another matter.
R&D costs money. BIG MONEY! It has to be paid for in order to fund future development and design costs. It is factored in to the cost of any genuine article. Do you think R&D is free leroy? Get real. If the R&D costs can not be reclaimed, you will not have any future innovation.
Your attitude toward Kingston is most unkind. Readers, just how many of you have Kingston menory chips in your PC’s and Laptops? True, they are expensive, top of the line. How many of you have had one of chips fail?
Kingston is known for quality products. If you did your search Leroy you would have learned that the counterfeits do not hold the capacity. It is our turn to say: LOL to you!
BTW we do not work for Kingston Technologies or any other brand name.
As for science fiction, star wars is not our favorite. We will let readers guess what our favorite sci fi is. Hint, beaming you up and losing you would not cause anyone grief at FakeFlashNews. You clearly demonstate that you jumped the gun and did notbother to research properly.
In future, if you are capabile, research before you “shout” in caps. Unfortunately, to anyone who does research, the “Moron” is not us…..we will skip who the moron is.
Consider yourself fortunate, Leroy that you have not been left alone in a room of victims who accidentally bought counterfeit non genuine false capacity Kingston fakes!
TechReporters
September 17, 2009 at 6:28 am
Further to TechReporters comments to Leroy
What led Leroy to this blog? Was it because he was a buyer of fake flash or because he is a seller?
He certainly did not take time to understand the issues around fake aka upgraded flash drives or fake merchandise coming from China.
Question to Leroy, would you purchase counterfeit tooth paste made in China? The stuff cleans your teeth but poisons you.
Randy
September 18, 2009 at 12:40 am
Leroy is obviously a complete numbskull!
He undoubtedly thinks a counterfeit flash drive is the same as the counterfeit Nike trainers he probably bought at his local flea-market.
If they were the same he would have found that his feet had either shrivelled up or vanished altogether when he took his trainers off!
fightflashfraud
September 21, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I also purchased an 32GB SDHC from one of those fake sellers. Yeah, that happened to me also. The card doesn’t work. Any os cannot read it, even my video camera. Now the seller has removed his profile from eBay..
Ali
October 11, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I also bought a Kingston 64GB pen, its seem´s all coming from china at low price are fake.
i have treid to do everething possible to use the 64gb, but it do not work.
Does paypal will return my money?
I advise all buyers of ebay to be careful.
This should not happen with all of the assurances given by our beloved owners of ebay …
Whitspirit
November 10, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Is it time for a class action against EBAY for allowing this to continue? Sounds like if we pushed the issue it may be in their interest to refund those that have purchased this unit..
BT
November 17, 2009 at 8:16 pm
BT,
Are you referring to the Kingston fakes and counterfeits sold on eBay or fake flash memory products in general?
For DataTraveler 150 32GB and 64GB fakes (counterfeits and false capacity) SOSFakeFlash has been monitoring and discovering very sad and shocking information. You don’t just find them on eBay. You find them at many internet sites.
Recently near perfect fakes have been shipping out of Singapore – for eBay sellers rerouting to this location. We suspect it is getting Hot in Hong Kong or that the almost perfect replication of packaging might be based in Singapore.
For Kingston counterfeits, it is very sad news for a wonderful company like Kingston Technologies. They have a very long reputation of delivering high end quality memory technology. I have many old machines, that use Kingston Memory chips and when I say old, I mean ancient. I can tell you that the last thing to die will be the Kingston chips these dinosaurs use.
It costs money to develop new products and technology and because Kingston is such a well known brand name and respected, it is being savagely attacked and exploited by counterfeiters.
Members at FightFlashFraud have worked with Kingston to alert them about fraudulent sellers on eBay. Frauded buyers have too. You can be sure that Kingston has had many listings pulled from eBay. However they need proof.
When it comes to brand name flash memory products eBay can’t really tell from listing descriptions. The fraudsters often use genuine photo’s or even more sneaky lately – avoid using the word Kingston anywhere in their listing to avoid queries by members, eBay and Kingston from spotting them. At most they use the word “DataTraveler”. In some cases now they even avoid showing a Genuine photo and use a generic usb flash drive. In this last case, the buyer is beyond delight when receiving a with a DT150 DataTraveler and usually blindly rushs to leave positive feedback.
The strongest indicator of a fake on eBay currently? The price! See FlashChipTutor’ site and also TechChips.
Given that the Kingston Fakes are everywhere on the internet eBay can not be singled out. However, eBay has a responsibility to invest in a few grey cells and examine 32GB and 64GB listing to detect them. Housewives after reading at SOSFakeFlash can. It is not rocket science.
eBay and also PayPal both have an obligation to refund any frauded buyers for Kingston items when buyers offer proof. eBay should set up a fraud unit for flash memory technology and if the fakes are to be sent anywhere it should be to them at their expense. Furthermore when a fake flash seller is detected for selling Kingston items, eBay has a duty to then search out all the buyers for the item, to contact them, to warn them, to refund them, to offer a sincere apology. If they would perform this duty perhaps they might begin to restore members trust and confidence. If eBay continues to resist, they can definately expect legal action to occur against them at some point.
You need to know this is a difficult problem BT. Even Kingston has difficulties shutting down known sites outside of eBay that sell fakes.
All the groups in the FrankenFlash Project, stress that people should only buy Kingston products from authorized resellers. When in doubt, contact Kingston – first. We all advise STAY AWAY FROM ANY KINGSTON ITEMS SOLD ON EBAY until it is older memory chips used in laptops and PC’s. We mean it!
Finally, for generic flash memory items sold on eBay. If eBay does not clean up it’s act eventually they will be in court. The problem with class action suits is that they take years. The issue is NOW. It is also will soon be a 6 year old problem on eBay. Surely eBay does have a few real employees, (besides automated computer programmes). SOSFakeFlash wants them to suck it up, face the facts and address the issue. Not next year, not in court 3 years from now, but immediately. Also to stop hiding the evidence, stop persicuting those who warn others. And most importantly, refund any buyer who submits evidence of a fake. That means last week, last year or whenever. Also to apologize to the member.
As we have repeatedly said BT – if eBay can not stop or control the issue and prevent fake flash memory products being sold, then they must ban them. Period. No more listings for mp players, memory cards or usb flash drives. It’s a simple solution, until they demonstate a will and a way to stop the sale of data poison.
Unfortuantely, they have chosen to bow to fake flash memory sellers, and reap the profits for fees. In doing so, they have lost many members. New ones and also old ones. Worse still, those frauded take every opportunity to sell those they know about their “buyer experience”. It stops people from joining eBay. It causes others to reduce their buying. This also applies to PayPal, too. Both are being damaged as members spread the news of their consumer experiences.
Meanwhile, on eBay uninformed members are busy buying fakes at unrealistic prices. Soon they will be visiting SOSFakeFlash…..
KittyFireFlash
November 18, 2009 at 4:30 am