Do you wonder how fake usb flash drives, memory cards and mp players can continue to be sold on eBay? Why fraudulent sellers in Asia can continue to get away with it? While SOSFakeFlash and the FrankenFlash project work around the clock investigating and issuing internet alerts to warn consumers, a lot of eBay members betray. Finding the alerts, they leave negative feedback, file disputes to get their money back, then they leave follow up feedback saying they will remove negative feedback if they get a refund – exactly what an eBay seller of fake memory is hoping for.
TechReporters at FakeFlashNews asked KittyFireFlash at SOSFakeFlash for his opinion.
KittyFireFlash replied:
Some eBay members are very naive. Others unfortunately use our information to get refunds, but do not consider other eBay members also frauded. This is a real problem. It angers those who sacrifice their free time to volunteer on the project. They view it as a betrayal.
eBay members and their responses to the problem mirror our real world.
You have noble people who consider others and even sacrifice their refunds for the sake of fellow members. They even leave that response in feedback too.
You have other people who only think of themselves. They are exploitive by nature. Upset at being frauded, they look for opportunities to get their money back. Frequently they are people who actually paid the least and scream the most. They will leverage information on the internet to assist themselves. They will not make a contribution. In short, they users, in the worst sense of the word.
We saw this response. It make us sad. It happens a lot.
It is hard enough to fight eBay fraud, but what do we do about eBay members who choose to sell out their fellow members? This a question often raised at our site.
In the last 18 months, it has been the major cause for people leaving the project. It is not the fake flash sellers, but the behavior of many frauded victims that makes peopel who help give up, usually in disgust at the actions of some. We can’t blame them. They have valid grounds.
At the moment we are not sure what we will do about this. There is a strong possibility we might shut down our investigative and reporting activies, if it continues. There are those who advocate taking a 3 to 6 month break. Simply leaving eBay victims to their fate. It’s a hard call. We have prepared the global community with a lot of information, perhaps more than enough.
We vote on actions. I am trying to delay a shutdown. I am against it as there has been a lot of positive progress. Yes, I am just as upset as everyone else, but why should everyone suffer just because some eBay members prefer to betray? I prefer to consider everyonee who fought hard and made sacrifices: in personal time and or financial (no refund) since they understand the issue, know what data loss means and because they have integrity. Keyword, integrity.
Why should a few bad apples spoil things. Ok, they do a lot of damage. Ok, they are in the same class as fake flash memory sellers, yes they are stupid and low, but they do not represent the majority of eBay members. Most are honest and decent.
What we see on eBay generally is nothing more than a mirror of the world in which we live. Good. Bad.
People who report into SOSFakeFlash and then change their feedback for a refund are at risk of having their information removed from the database. A lot of people don’t know this. Yes, we do it. Especially when a blatant action that lead to more eBay members being frauded. It might reduce our statistics, but does it really matter? It just takes one report to reveal a fake memory seller on eBay.
FakeFlashNews receives updates on the metrics from SOSFakeFlash. It’s hard to argue with their data. One report is enough to detect a fraudulent seller on eBay – additional reports, that is just additional commentary.
We like the work SOSFakeFlash does to help eBay members. TechReporters agree with KittyFireFlash, we all need to look at the positive efforts and avoid looking at the negative. If you have been frauded on eBay and are confused by the high positive feedback a fraudulent seller receives, you need to be aware that many eBay members change their negative and neutral feedback to receive a refund. The ironic part is, most who leave comments such at the one documented in this article don’t get the refund. Since they leave follow up feedback they are out of feedback options when the seller DOES NOT REFUND. Perhaps this is a sort of justice in itself. The frauded buyer willing to allow fraud to other eBay members, is ultimately frauded again! No refund. The seller wins of course, but at least the buyer who betrays, pays a price too.
Additional Reading:
Fake Flash News - Internet & eBay Fraud 
Ian
May 19, 2010
I think that buyers who have been defrauded need to be made aware (and the feedback does not necessarily get noticed as in my case) that these sellers are NOT honourable gents from China. They seldom actually refund, even if they say they will, they very often report buyers for non payment AFTER making a refund if they ever do. They quite often ask you to close a case on Paypal (which gives them their money back) and then do not refund anything. 1st class con artists would be a better description of these crooks from China.
Mo
May 18, 2010
One cant blame the defrauded victim on ebay who most likely work hard for their money and will be more than happy to get their hard earned money back. The fact that they do initially leave a negative feedback and later on do a follow up to the affect that they do authorize ebay to remove their negative feedback (but in fact these feedbacks and follow ups are still there for potential future purchasers to see), on the blackmail by the seller for their refund, together with the fact that your good work here is outlining this fact, should be a good way of exposing these people. I dont personally feel that such defrauded ebayers who are forced to leave follow up such as mentioned, are betraying anyone or your good work which I hope continues. I cant see how these defrauded people could help anymore. By refusing to be refunded? What purpose does this serve other than leaving those poor disappointed people out of pockets. In fact I believe they have killed two birds with one stone, having left the RED negative feedback and then leaving a follow up by blackmail for their refund that they authorize ebay to remove those feedbacks, but the fact is that those feedbacks are still showing and not removed should be something that hopefully gives a hint to those potential future buyers. Keep up the good work and dont let these to dishearten you as you are exposing them no matter how small the contributions you make might be but its a contribution and believe me until the man lives on this planet the man will cheat one way or another. Take good care
Regards
Mo
p.s. I have just been defrauded myeslf by the way by tenda09 of Hong Kong China, for a supposedly 16GB Micro SDHC card which turned out to be no more than 2 unuseable GB, which I am trying to repair with no luck yet (have posted for help elsewhere on this site as chipgenius could not give much info. about this card). So in order to both do the non-betrayal act as well as not be out of pocket I will try to get my refund first and then leave a big bad feedback for this crook. how? simple. In order to beat a crook just give them their own medicine without feeling guilty about it either. watch this space for details on how to beat them at their own crooked game later. cheers
Ian
May 9, 2010
I think many do not even know the difference between “faulty” and “fake” for one thing. The vastt majority of ebay members and traders are honourable people, trusting people, and take the sellers word that the item is “faulty” never suspecting that they have in reality been properly abused! Thats one reason why buyers give comments like the above. The other reason is blissful ignorance, as in my case. I left Positive feedback because I really thought the device was OK genuine 100% capacity, but little did I know. I did a follow up AFTER getting a refund and indicated the seller was a fraud. In another case (I really was naive) I bought an item I later suspected was a fake (after reading up on here) and asked for a refund, which the seller (safe2star) promptly made, but then proceeded to badger me with Non Paying Bidder cases AFTER making a refund! ebay throws those out if you let them know by the way. So thats the 3 main circumstances as I see were these kind of feedback comments arise. Some sellers are very good at bullying the buyer, see elsewhere on this site.