What Does a Fake MP Player Look Like Inside? How Do You Check The Real Capacity For The Memory Chip?
Have you ever wondered what a fake MP Player looks like inside? It looks like a real one, except for one very important difference! The flash storage chip inside will be much smaller than the advertised capacity. The controller chip will have been altered to lie about it’s true size. People who find they have problems with their MP players often use the program H2testw to test and find the true capacity of their MP Player. There is also another way to verify if H2testw is reporting the true. Opening up the MP Player and verifying the flash chips used.
We are printing an article from SOSFakeFlash to give you a visual demonstration on how you can verify chips. It uses a true reported case as the example:.
SOSFakeFlash publishs a lot of consumer alerts on fake flash sellers prowling ebay for buyer victims. Evidence is collected and stored in a database. eBayer id’s, eBay item numbers, the model sold by the seller along with other important information.
It leads to alerts being issued on the internet and sellers being added to the famous eBay Fake Flash Sellers List. As time goes by the counts against sellers increase. Some times a victim will report in months after the fact, long after the ebay listings have disappeared. The project works hard to preserve information. Alerts are issued after the information has been collected, not before! Necessary given eBay’s recent behavior of shutting fake flash sellers down quickly to be able to remove all traces of lising information.
SOSFakeFlash, in this article will take you inside of a fake MP Player purchased on eBay and show you how it is possible to prove it is a false capacity, confirming what the program H2testw 1.4 reports in capacity testing.
Paypal likes to demand that victims return fake flash usb drives or mp players or memory cards to get a refund. “Return the crime to the criminal!” they order. On other occasions they will dismiss the test results of H2testw 1.4 and demand you find somebody at Southby’s to certify that you received a counterfeit.
The FrankenFlash Project has been in operation for over 14 months, they know something about fake mp players, usb flash drives and memory cards. The simple fact is, when the devices are taken apart – the truth is revealed. It only confirms what the program H2testw 1.4 reports. The secret? It lies in the actual flash drive nand memory chips in the device!
For most victims, taking apart a fake MP Player is not a task they feel up to. The latest contributor, Niko is up to the task and is presenting his findings for everyone to see! He has two fake MP Players to reveal to you, this is the first one sold by hitech2day. You will quickly see there is nothing “defective” here! It is clear deception on the part of fake flash sellers.
To PayPal and eBay, do pay attention! To fake flash sellers, watch out! We do our homework “dears “.
Listed on eBay hitech2day offered this model. Is it 16GB?
When Niko opened the drive this is what he saw:
So what did the flash drive chip for storage show?
It was a samsung 904 k9lbgo8uom pcbo CAK468P2
If you visit InspectorTech’s site you will see the following post: Samsung Nand Flash – How To Decode Flash Storage Chips To Find True Capacity
and if you scroll down you can visit the samsung link. Give this a try. http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/partnumberDecoder.do
now enter the information characters for:
k9lbgo8uom
This is good practise for anyone with a samsung nand flash drive chip to try out!
There is no “m” available for the last character.
So click on search.
So here we see the real chip size. It is 32G bit. 8 bits is a byte so we need to divide by 8. That makes 32Gb /8 = 4GB.
So eBay seller hitech2day has lied about the true capacity! hitech2day was not selling a 16GB MP Player but a 4GB MP Player. eBay, PayPal are you still with us? Can you do the math and follow the evidence? Do you really think ebay buyers are complaining without cause? If ebay members can do their homework, why can’t you? It’s not rocket science, you know.
Now the controller chip for the MP Player difficult to read in the photo:
It is:
AK2025
8L014BA 1LP
We can’t tell you much about it at the moment.
eBay members are not imagining things about the fake mp players being sold on eBay.
The problem is very real! Both eBay and PayPal are very much aware of it. Only they prefer to show a blind eye. After all, the money is good! The FrankenFlash project has observed that eBay and PayPal do not intend to put a stop to the traffic in fake mp players being sold.
You don’t believe us? Please have a look at this:
Just how far back in time does it go? If you are a victim of a fake flash MP Player, make sure that you register there. You can also register for other fake flash items too! Let it grow! And grow! The FrankenFlash Project collects information too, so do not forget SOSFakeFlash or to report in! Every item matters and counts.
SOSFakeFlash issue’s alerts on the internet to warn and assist victims. They can not and will not issue an alert without evidence. It is very powerful! It is a record and it stays forever. They also will NOT remove an alert! If a seller on eBay is caught, the alert stays!
Niko is currently searching for a solution to repair this fake MP Player. If one is found he will present it to everyone.
Keep an eye out for Niko’s other fake flash MP seller and his repair solution coming soon.
SOSFakeFlash published an alert on seller hitech2day, please read: hitech2day Ebay Fake Flash Seller Alert – China Fake MP Players
Hi,
I came accross this article and wanted to tell you my brief story! Last October I set up a seller acct in Ebay. I did not know what to sell yet, then I came accross all these inexpensive MP4 players! I stayed up for days bidding for the best price to resell them!
I bought 4 in a week. One like yours here, one the same size & look as a Ipod, and 2 very classy (In pic) looking model, black with no name except 8GB on it. It took 3 to 4 weeks to get them, then I tested them and started to resell them. Fortunately I loaded one up with a couple movies (MP4), that was around 6GB. Suddenly the thing started showing duplicate files, making weird noises, and even the radio stopped working! Having been in Field Service for years, I did some research and finally came accross someone complaining about “Hacked Chips” and that they got away with it because it only says 8GB on it, which if questioned the company said, yes we mean Giga-Bit, not Giga-Byte! 2 of the other Black units however were way off! They said 8GB, but were actually 2!? So anyway I mainly wanted to say, as I had to do 1 refund on Ebay because I caught on in time, that you should look into it thoroughly, as I was a New Ebay Seller, and this was my first investment with honest intentions. If it had happened to me now, by the look of your article, I might have not only gotten taken, but Banned from Ebay & PayPal before I could even get my business going! So Please, be careful pointing those fingers too fast!
Thanks
Patrick Colton
May 23, 2009 at 12:18 pm
To Patrick Colton
Some of those involved in the project were sellers who landed with fake merchandise themselves so we are well aware of the fact that it it is easy to land in this position. The problem is so large that our team cannot do the outreach work to warn every seller we notice selling potentially fake items – though we did try to get to as many as we could until we simply became overwhelmed with the number of new sellers.
We now have to rely on readers like yourselves to do it – and you will see that many posts (where we think it is possible that the seller doesn’t know) that we suggest ebay members contact the seller and ask that they test with h2testw. Please try to warn any new seller you notice with similar items to the ones you bought that they are likely to be fake and get them to test. If we don’t warn of possible fakes those (and there are many) who are deliberate fraudsters may have sold hundreds. Most buyers don’t test them before leaving positive feedback – so hundreds of positive comments are made for a fake item. More ebayers buy because the seller has good feedback – so an ever increasing number of victims.
We do not want to persecute anyone for making a mistake, and if someone proves to be an honest seller who does the honourable thing we will say so. So Patrick – please help us out by keeping your eye open and contacting sellers whose items look as though they could be fake. You will be doing innocent sellers, buyers, ebay and us a favour if you can get them to check their merchandise.
A word to all sellers:
On every ebay listing it says:
Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this item
Please take this seriously – it is your responsibility to ensure your items are genuinely as described before listing them for sale. If you are selling brand name goods check that the item really exists by looking at the company’s website or contacting them with information like serial nos etc. If you are selling flash memory items such as memory cards, MP players and USB flash drives test them with h2testw to ensure they are not faulty and have the capacity claimed by the supplier.
fightflashfraud
May 24, 2009 at 9:04 am