If you bought a flash drive from any of these sellers you are at risk of data loss. Do not use these drives. You must test them and file a claim with paypal immediately! Do not delay.

If a seller deregisters from eBay, this does not mean you can not file a claim. You can, if you are in the time window. Many ebayers have filed claims with Paypal and recovered their money in full. In fact, it is often easier when a seller tries to run. You are advised not to delay. Make sure to test your drive with H2testw 1.4 and arm yourself with the facts.

When a seller deregisters you can no longer leave feedback and you will not be able to view the listing if you select it from your won list. You will find the item description on your won list, and the ebay item number too. This information is also available in your paypal transaction account. If you need information on how to file a claim, please write to sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com for a guide.

SOSFakeFlash has worked very hard to neutralize these fake flash sellers. Not an easy task as pengsoloshow,itchee98, kaho.chan are power sellers. Power sellers often hide under eBay's skirts - enjoying a lot of protection and privileges. They are difficult to corner and expose for their fake flash deeds. But it can be done and is being done. eBayers have had enough. They have lost important data. They have lost money. They are no longer prepared to let dishonest sellers of flash drive products continue. They are overloading both eBay and PayPal with their complaints. It is very important to let both eBay and PayPal know how you feel! They can not ignore an avalanche of angry victims. They also need your help to spot those who sell fake flash.

Please review the details for each seller.

pengsoloshow

pengsoloshow ( 2763) Not a registered user
Positive Feedback (last 12 months): 99%
Member since: Dec-24-07 in China

pengsoloshow was eBay seller of Counterfeit usb flash drives. A power seller on eBay, our first confirmed fake dates back to July 2008. He has sold hundreds of counterfeit 32 GB flash drives. The true capacity is generally as high as 7.9 GB and therefore few eBayers discover in general testing before they leave feedback - it is only when the data loss begins that they find they have bought a fake from this seller. pengsoloshow is another seller id controlled by the Don Of Fake Flash In the Orient - 3ToTrade.

SOSFakeFlash has published the following articles at this site on pengsoloshow.

Alert - pengsoloshow - Ebay Fake Flash Seller
Posted on October 4, 2008

Why eBayers Don’t Get Refunds When They Return Fake Flash
Posted on October 5, 2008

pengsoloshow - eBay Fake Flash Seller Linked To Counterfeit Ring - SOSFakeFlash’s Mission
Posted on October 4, 2008

itchee98

itchee98 ( 10149) Not a registered user
Positive Feedback (last 12 months): 98.2%
Member since: Jul-06-07 in Hong Kong

itchee98 was an eBay seller of Counterfeit usb flash drives. itchee98, a power seller who dealt in volume is estimated to have sold thousands of fake flash items ranging from 8GB to 32GB going back to November 2007.He engaged in hit and run behavior. SOSFakeFlash believes that this seller never sold a true capacity drive. See the article SOSFakeFlash published at this site:

Alert - itchee98 - Ebay Fake Flash Seller
Posted on October 3, 2008

kaho.chan

kaho.chan ( 1363) Not a registered user
Positive Feedback (last 12 months): 98.7%
Member since: May-14-08 in Hong Kong

kaho.chan was an eBay seller of Counterfeit usb flash drives. A fairly recent id that appeared on Ebay in May 2008. Controlled by the eBay seller ID 3ToTrade, kaho.chan was used for hit and run selling. 3ToTrade has been forced to stop listing Counterfeit Flash USB drives on August 13th, 2008. Another id Whatcools, also controlled by 3ToTrade started listing counterfeit drives on August 13th, 2008. Whatcools, 3totrade have been suspended on eBay. kaho.chan and pengsoloshow have deregistered.

kaho.chan was devious - switching immediately to private auctions when 3totrade began receiving a lot of negatives. Stopping this seller was more difficult as it was not possible to warn the buyers to test their drives. The victims of kaho.chan were not going to rest! SOSFakeFlash is happy to report they have succeeded in stopping this id, part of the counterfeit ring at last!

SOSFakeFlash has published the following articles at this site on kaho.chan:

kaho.chan Ebay Fake Flash Seller Controlled by 3ToTrade
Posted on September 5, 2008

3ToTrade - Whatcools - Shopwithmela - kaho.chan Sinister Counterfeit Flash Drive Connection On Ebay
Posted on September 6, 2008

Sinister Counterfeit Connection - Fake Flash Drive Ring On eBay
Posted on September 6, 2008

Kaho.Chan - eBay Fake Flash Seller - Tricks eBayer
Posted on September 15, 2008

Whatcools - Suspended For Private Auctions- eBay Fake Flash Seller
Posted on September 27, 2008

If you bought a drive from any of these sellers, test it. Do not store any important information on the drive unless you can confirm you have the true advertised capacity available. If you do not have the advertised capacity - file a claim IMMEDIATELY with PayPal.

photos. Enjoy up to 4,000 MP3, WMA or AAC songs, watch up to 60 hours of videos and share hundreds of photos with your friends. Even expand your portable music, video or photo collection by adding additional content through the convenient SD memory slot.

Product Type: Flash Portable Media Player

Features:

Package Contents:

	Creative Zen 2GB Digital Multimedia Device - 70PF216300111 Audio Player, Video Player, Photo Viewer, FM Tuner, Voice Recorder - 2.5" Active Matrix TFT Color LCD - Black
	Creative Zen 4GB Digital Multimedia Device - 70PF216200111 Audio Player, Video Player, Photo Viewer, FM Tuner, Voice Recorder - 2.5" Active Matrix TFT Color LCD - Black

Creative Zen 8GB Digital Multimedia Device - 70PF216000111 Audio Player, Video Player, Photo Viewer, Voice Recorder, FM Tuner - 2.5" Active Matrix TFT Color LCD - Black

Manufacturer: Creative Technology, Ltd
Manufacturer Part Number: 70PF216100111
Manufacturer Website Address: www.creative.com
Brand Name: Creative
Product Line: Zen
Product Name: Zen 16GB Digital Multimedia Device
Marketing Information:

Technical Information

Product Features: Voice RecorderAudio PlayerFM TunerVideo PlayerPhoto Viewer

Storage

Flash Memory Capacity: 16GB

Display & Graphics

Screen Size: 2.5"
Display Screen Type: Active Matrix TFT Color LCD
Display Resolution: 77000Pixel
Color Support: 16.7 Million Colors

Memory

Memory Card Support: Secure Digital (SD) Card

Image

Image Formats: GIFPNGBMPJPEGTIFF

Audio

Audio Formats: AudibleAACWMAWAVMP3
Maximum Number of Songs: 4000

Video

Video Formats: MPEG-2DivXMPEGXviDMPEG-1MPEG-4WMV
Maximum Video Playback Duration: 60Hour

Camera

Effective Resolution: Not Applicable

Interfaces/Ports

Interfaces/Ports: 1 x USB 2.0 USB1 x Audio Out

Software

Software Included: ZEN Media Explorer

Power Description

Power Source: Internal Battery

Battery Information

Battery Rechargeable: Yes
Battery Run Time: 25Hour

Physical Characteristics

Color: Black
Dimensions: 2.16" Height x 3.26" Width x 0.44" Depth
Weight: 2.1 oz

Time for flash drive education, are you ready for a little shopping tour? Let's head off into cyberspace - destination China. Let's see the drives as they are offered by the manufactures, their true capacity before they are reprogrammed by the devious into frankenflash!

We have been wondering for a long time why all the models investigated aren't more than 8GB when tested.

As of 2007 it appears that China did not manufacture chips with a capacity beyond 8GB. To have a 16GB drive you would need two chips working together under a controller chip to present 16GB of space. So for 32 GB, 4 chips would be needed. We at SOSFakeFlash are not chip "experts", some of us do know a lot about technology - but we are not at that level.

It goes without saying the more a flash chip can hold, the more expensive it will be. You can buy four 8GB drives on sale for the price of one 16GB drive in some countries. Recently the 8GB Kingston DataTraveller retailed on sale for less than $20 US at a reputable retail chain. In the same geographical region, the Verbatim Store 'n' Go 16GB was on sale for $95 US.

Verbatim is one of the most reputable and reliable flash drive brands. They are currently manufactured in Taiwan and offer a limited lifetime warrently. The largest size they are offering? 16GB. That's right. Verbatim doesn't offer 32GB or 64GB yet or at least not as of the time of this post.

Another Popular Brand is Kingston - the highest they offer is 16 GB, except for a limited edition of a 32GB,Kingston DataTraveler 150 32GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) Model DT150

Let's head off to China for our shopping trip. In Flash Drive Education 102 we will visit the United States, let's start with Flash Drive Education 101 first!

Our objective in China? To see if we can find the drives being sold on eBay and the sizes the manufactures offer for a model. You may wish to bookmark this article as your lesson may be short or long - it depends on your interest level.

Begin by clicking on a few sites we have chosen for you, then off you go to explore in earnest! Scroll through the pages to see a drive that might look like one you bought or is similar to the picture for an eBay listing.

POP Electronic Co., Ltd.

Shenzhen Feetek Electronics Co., Ltd.

Time to visit the main shopping site. Explore, investigate and learn. You might want to book mark this page if you need a break from Flash Drive Education 101.

Main Shopping Site

So what are your thoughts after this shopping adventure? Did you find drive(s) you bought? If so what did the manufactures offer in size? Were the size capacities smaller than the listing of advertised capacity size on eBay? Did your testing with H2testw 1.4 come close to the size the manufactures offered. If so...the question is, WHO TURNED THE INNOCENT DRIVE INTO FRANKENFLASH!

Did you by any chance come across any strange memory offerings such as a range for a drive 128mb to 16GB with the keyword optional? That is an odd word, to use. Since when is memory size optional? Unless...you have to do the reprogramming yourself? It is not clear to us at SOSFakeFlash as to what this means.

Did you see any models offered similar to those on being listed on eBay? The difference being that the drives on eBay advertise a much larger size than what the manufacturers offer?

Did anyone see a manufacture offering a flash drive of more than 8 GB? Let us know? We took the class and in the few hours we spend, we did not find one. Did you find a 16GB or 32GB or 64GB being offered by a manufacturer?

Please feel free to share your thoughts on your "shopping trip" to China with a comment.

Rate Us

We don't have a function on this site for rating. If you feel this article was helpful to you, please rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 in a comment! We need to know if articles like this one is useful or not. If so more will be coming.

1 means lousy article, 5 means okay, 10 means you like your education and shopping trip.

Next lesson in the series is Flash Drive Education 102.

eBay is a place where people expect to find bargains. Good value, low price. It has become a cultural thing - Globally.

In North America during the mid 1990's Sprint introduced a commercial slogan "More...for less". Candice Bergan, swept her arms out for "more" and brought them together to emphasize the "less". Who ever thought that this would permeate our subconscious? The world is driven now by "More for Less". On eBay we believe the prices are lower because the retail store and it's overhead has been removed. For many items this is very true. But there is a lowest possible price - rock bottom. People generally do not sell things below cost. Most need to make a little profit to stay in business.

With flash usb drives there is a rock bottom price that must be paid. Anything less and a seller will be out of business. If you visit http://www.nofakeflashdrives.com/ you will learn that honest manufacturers in 2007 could not produce an 8 GB usb drive in China for less than $25 US. That included a very modest profit at the time. True, prices are dropping but not to .99 cents or 4.99 US for an 8GB drive.

Most of us thought the reason the drives were cheaper on eBay is that retail chains were putting a high markup on the drives. eBayers continue to fall by the thousands each day into the fake flash pit following that assumption. Almost all members of SOSFakeFlash are victims of fake flash drives. Yes, we thought we were cutting out the middle man too.

In Flash Drive Education 101 we mentioned that an 8 GB Kingston DataTraveller sold on sale for slightly less than $20 US. That is because this model is very slow and is being dumped to liquidate. 16GB will soon be the standard offering. We also did a litte shopping trip in China to review what manufactures offered.

Another mistake many people make is to multiply. If there is a 4GB, an 8GB, there should be 16GB, 32GB and of course 64GB! As you jump in size expect to jump in PRICE! The higher price will not be a simple 2 x 8GB = 1 16GB drive! Expect to pay upto 4x what you would pay for an 8GB drive! If you want 16GB. As for 64GB forget it, they are experimental and cost more than $1,500 US at the moment!

So where are those 16GB and 32GB drives! Are they on eBay? Yes, some are. Before trying to find them on eBay let's visit the United States. Newegg is an internet site known to sell true flash drives. Unfortuately they do not ship internationally. Still, it is a good site to research for information on flash drives. Also customers are allowed to review the products and post their experineces. Let's check out the drives offered in 16GB and 32GB. You will notice, there is no 64GB!

For 16GB Drives

For 32GB Drives

So what did you see? Newegg is considered cut rate in prices.

Did you notice something about the brand names? The drives are generally from well known manufacturers of memory chips for PC's and Laptops. It makes a lot of sense.

What about the prices? About 40% more than you paid on Ebay? 50% more? Remember Newegg is considered bargain basement - inexpensive.

How did people rate the drives? Did you see one you liked? If so, take down the information and begin your search to hunt on eBay. Do you find the model you are interested in? If so, you need to do two things:

1) Research the sellers negatives and neutrals with this tool:

http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs

2) Contact eBayers who bought the drive from the seller

See who bought the drive and left postive feedback. Contact them. Ask if they checked the true capacity of the drive with H2testw 1.4 Find out how long they have used and how much they have stored on the drive. If you only hear wonderful things - you can consider bidding or buying the drive.

Research Before You Buy

Given the situation with fake flash drives on eBay, we recommend that you restrain yourselves from bidding. Instead, find out who bought the model, contact them to test and wait to hear from them on the results. You can refer them to this site if they seem suspicious of you or your motivations. Contact more than one person. If you get good news, you can bid on a drive.

If you do bid and you have wonderful happy news, a True Flash Seller on eBay, be sure to come back to this site and post and leave a comment.

Or write to SOSFakeFlashDrive@gmail.com

Give us the eBay item number, your id and your evaluation of both drive and seller. We would like to publish a list of good eBay sellers offering true capacity drives! You have no idea how often we are asked for the "Good" sellers! Please let us know, your fellow eBayers are desperate!

Rate Us

We don't have a function on this site for rating. If you feel this article was helpful to you, please rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 in a comment! We need to know if articles like this one is useful or not. If so more will be coming.

1 means lousy or useless, 5 is okay and 10 means you enjoyed Flash Drive Education 102.

It is illegal to use the Postal System in most countries to send or receive counterfeit merchandise. You will find more details about this in other articles at this site and in the Guide sent to eBayers. See the news article list for details.

Still many eBayers, especially in the past have obeyed PayPals orders to try and release their funds being held to ransom by PayPal.

The sad fact is, many never see a refund. Why? Simple. The address to return the counterfeit item doesnt exist or is incomplete. It is sent to never never land. The eBay fake flash seller for once, is actually able to tell the truth. They never received the counterfeit back. How could they? They gave the wrong address to the victimized eBayer!

Selling counterfeit flash drives is illegal. The sellers know this. They like what they do. The profits are terrific. Like any criminal - they don't want to be caught. That means covering your tracks, making sure there are no obvious trails leading back to you. As we have presented in many articles, the fake flash sellers on eBay are no dummies. They are skilled in lies and deception. It is a business. Criminal and illegal - they don't want to be sent to prison, they want to enjoy the good life fake flash profit bring - at your expense!

SOSFakeFlash has observed that if an eBayer contacts the seller before filing a dispute with PayPay, they get one address. If they file a claim they get another address. Usually there is a Hong Kong address and an address in Mainland China. So which is THE address? Good question. Nobody knows.

We just published an alert: Alert - pengsoloshow - Ebay Fake Flash Seller. This id has been connected to the Counterfeit ring SOSFakeFlash has been investigating. We presented the old address we had on file for returning items and the new one.

The old address which was real:

Zhong Lisha(PS)

Zhong Lisha(PS)
32B, XiaoFeng Building ,
YouYi Road, Luohu District,
Shenzhen, 518002
Guangdong Province
China

The new address which is incomplete:

Chinese Guangdong Province,
Shenzhen,
Luohu area lake shell new village 138 403, 518001,
China

FakeFlashStopper is very experienced with Counterfeit flash drive sellers on eBay. Many times over having been through the return to the fake flash sellers ordeal. FakeFlashStopper reviewed the addresses and said:

October 4, 2008 at 7:42

Also I would like to point out, some of the addresses that paypal ask you to return back is of cause and most likely to be not a real one! So if you are require to return the drive, it a very likely chance the seller would not have recieve the drive (or would have but lie and say did not) and paypal cannot confirm you have return it - so No refund!.

Take the 2 different address above, and notice wat the different: Address 2 only provide the suburb, town, village and post code. But the problem is which street? which building? etc.

I don't think SOSFakeFlash can make it any clearer. pengsoloshow is in trouble and does not want the fake flash drives returning to a real address. The same applies to most of fake flash sellers.

Take the registration on eBay for the Don Of Fake Flash - 3ToTrade. This is what is on file:

Chiu Sui Chun

User ID: 3totrade
Name: Sui Chun Chiu
Company:
City: default
County: default

Interesting is it not? What conclusions do you draw from this?

Recently an eBayer battled with PayPal, see the article:

PayPal Apologizes To eBayer Ordered Return Counterfeit Items Using Postal Services - Fake Flash eBay Sellers

Posted at the begining of this month. FlashStormer made it pretty clear about return addresses. If you use the Negative and Neutrals tool to check out complaints against a seller and see many disappointed eBayers who sent items back and still did not get a refund, now you know why - the items went to fake addresses or incomplete ones.

SOSFakeFlash does not advise you risk breaking the laws of your country to use the Postal System to transit counterfeit items. The severity or penalities very much depend on your country - some are more strict then others. You now have another reason to avoid doing this - you will spend more money on postage and still risk never getting a refund. If a seller tells you they need the drive to as proof to claim against their source for fake flash acquistion - they don't need you drive - they just need to test one they have on hand.

flashdrivesbyseller08-32gbwithchart20081005.pdf

This is a simple easy to read list, lightweight for downloading too. It covers the 8GB to 32GB flash drives.

We are releasing this information to the public.

Note: If a seller was a victim, the seller is identified as such. See the article: Bay Sellers Can Be Victims - How Does This Happen? for details.

Unfortuately, those stopped can start up again when they think the coast is clear. It is a battle and eBayers are making progress.

fakessellersstopped20081005.pdf

See for yourself and download the current report.

See the USB drives sporting their counterfeit cloths. A Full report 84 eBay Sellers exposed, 163 drive models . This is the report everyone wants and for many eBayers wished they had before they bid on a counterfeit drive.

All the sellers on this list and all the drive models identified are counterfeits. In plainer English, FAKE!

You will find the report to download at the bottom of this article.

Can we support our claims?

Absolutely! We have all the evidence right down the the eBay Item number and the eBayer victim. For sellers on the list, if you don't like being there, too bad. If you can prove to us that you have contacted each and every person who bought the drive model from you and can provide supporting evidence from both buyer and pay pal that you refunded in full, with shipping and handling, you can contact us to discuss removal. You have done enough harm and damage to others - it is time for it to end. Are there eBay sellers who have contacted buyers and refunded? Yes. There are sellers who have integrity caught up in fake flash drives.

The ones who refund and contact buyers are the victim sellers, they are not the fraudsters that need to be stopped.

Any drive on this list is a beacon. You can be 99% sure that the rest for the same listing are fake too. We have been able to prove this over and over again when we investigate a seller deeper. You can also search using the tool: http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs Just type in the eBay Seller's id and see what comes up. Many entries there are not part of our investigation. The only thing that is clear, eBayers are trying to warn each other. Often their warning get lost in the volume feedback of a sellers feedback. A great tool, if useful to you please consider donating to them. Note: A reprogammed drive is not a defective drive. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the flash drive - only it's size. It is not as big as the reprogamming of the controller chip says. A counterfeit drive. Fraud.

mugshotreportebayfakeflash20081005.pdf

The Mug-Shot report is currently about 747 KB, not quiet 1 MB but could take a while to download if you have dial-up internet.

INTRODUCCIÓN

El futuro objeto de deseo de cualquier fanático de los móviles de alta gama ya está aquí. Sus características fueron filtradas desde hace ya varios meses, aunque se pensaba que su forma final no iba a ser como lo pensaban y en realidad las especulaciones fueron exactas, hoy lo tubimos en las manos y además pudimos comprobar que es un teléfono muy sólido quizás algo grande pero los usuarios acostumbrados al n95 no van a sentirlo incómodo, ya que es un poco mas delgado y su pantalla mas nítida y grande.
Como función principal tiene la ya típica cárama Carl Zeiss de 5 Megapíxels y Flash Led Dual, la conección inalámbrica 802.11b/g y por supuesto las novedades: Un sintonizador de TV con antena integrada y 16Gb de memoria integrada.

El N96 que ha basado su diseño en el Noka N81 también soporta la plataforma de juegos N-Gage 2.0 y posee 2 botones (Cuadrado y Redondo) encima de la pantalla (en el slide) para poder jugar con suma comodidad en pantalla apaisada como el ya conocido Nokia N81.

ESPECIFICACIONES

Tamaño Dimensiones: 103 x 55 x 18 mm, 92 cc
Peso: 125 g
Display Tipo: TFT, 16M colores
Tamaño: 240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 pulgadas
Sistema operativo OS: Symbian OS 9.2, S60 rel. 3.2
Reproductor MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA
Batería Standard, Li-Ion 950 mAh (BL-5F)

5 Megapixels, 2592 x 1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, video(VGA 30fps) y flash led dual
Cámara secundaria CIF para videollamadas
Navegador A-GPS integrado
Sintonizador de TV c/ antena integrada
Aplicación de mapas instalada cubriendo más de 100 países
Diseño Candybar

CONNECTIVIDAD

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G HSDPA 2100 / 900
Salida de audio standart 3.5 mm
Salida TV
Radio FM con RDS
Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP
MiniUSB
WiFi (wLan)

CONTENIDO DE LA CAJA:

Teléfono Nokia N96
Cargador Original
Cable de datos Nokia Original
Auriculares con comando y jack 3.5 mm
Cable AV p/TV
Manuales y Presentación
CD Drivers

¡PRECIO LANZAMIENTO!
1099U$D

Realizamos envíos a todo el país previo depósito bancario.
Se pueden realizar atenciónes importantes por pedidos de 5+ unidades.

pengsoloshow belongs to the counterfeit ring of the Don Of Fake Flash In the Orient (3ToTrade, Shopwithmela, whatcools, kaho.chan). This has only recently been discovered. To see the original post, with linking articles please go to September 6th, 2008 on the calendar. See the Article:

3ToTrade - Whatcools - Shopwithmela - kaho.chan Sinister Counterfeit Flash Drive Connection On Ebay

The return address submitted recently by an eBayer stung with fake flash from pengsoloshow back in July was:

Zhong Lisha(PS)

Zhong Lisha(PS)
32B, XiaoFeng Building ,
YouYi Road, Luohu District,
Shenzhen, 518002
Guangdong Province
China

If you review the article above, you will see the return addresses that SOSFakeFlash uncovered and put together. This was how we were able to put together who was in charge and at the helm of this fake flash ship.

The return address just submitted by a new victim of pengsoloshow is:

Chinese Guangdong Province,
Shenzhen,
Luohu area lake shell new village 138 403, 518001,
China

Notice, no person name is in the address.

The Don of Fake Flash has been suspended on eBay. eBayers saw to that - they were patiently waiting for him to reappear. The victims of 3ToTrade were not going to let him triumph again in his fake flash profits. This time they were armed and ready with their keyboard fingers. 3ToTrade was thunderstruck - negatives? Negatives? That does not happen to a fake flash seller like 3ToTrade. Well it did and soon eBay was preparing to slam him onto a glass slide for examination under the microscope of fraud.

So realizing his coming ordeal with eBay he polished his halo, put on his white gown of innocence and stopped listing fake flash drives. He channelled his fake flash drives into whatcools and kaho.chan. Once again eBayers warmed up the their keyboards and began the attack! SOSFakeFlash already knew of his sleeper ids, only 3ToTrade did not know there was such a thing as SOSFakeFlash. They lit their bonfires and began sending smoke signals of warning to eBayers. They raced in to drag their fellow shoppers from fake flash flames.

The New victims of the sleeper id's were counselled by the victims of 3ToTrade. They shared their own personal stories of woe with the new victims. They issued boxing gloves to the victims. Then an orderly march of victims proceeded to the Paypal dispute console.

What happened? Once more, negative? Negative? kaho.chan and whatcools reeled in shock. Immediately they switched to devious private auction listings. The victims of whatcools dragged a battering ram to eBay and reported the listings over and over and over again. They advised of our site, and the evidence. Whatcools was suspended. The early victims of whatcools are still fighting for their refunds but the later victims have been successful - whatcools under 3ToTrade is not interested in landing up in jail for the sake of the Don Of Fake flash.

Kaho.chan is still in operation, he managed to switch to private auctions before the eBayer army was able to warn the buyers. Unfortuantely, under this sort of auction it is almost impossible to find the victims, or atleast not before they have left postive feedback and become harmless to the sellers nicely padded fake flash positive feedback score.

So what on earth does all this have to do with pengsoloshow? Simple. It took longer for us to find the connection. The fake flash angels have just too much work on their plates. They have paying jobs they have to do. This work is strictly volenteer. Nobody gets paid. Volenteers even have to dig into their own pockets to fund their missions. So unfortunately we did not make the connection in time to rescue the victims of pengsoloshow.

The fact this seller has changed his return address speaks volumes. It means the Don Of Fake Flash isn't going to stop selling flash drives - until somebody in Chinese law enforcement catches up with him. Re-education will be a challenge when they do. Perhaps he should be reprogrammed with the software used to turn innocent flash drives into diabolical frankenflash? As we learn, so does he. He is covering his tracks - trying to remove evidence from eBay and PayPals eyes. He did not want to lose his precious pengsoloshow id as well and found another location in China.

If you are reading this and you bought a drive from pengsoloshow, you can be almost 100% sure you have a fake. We don't have a lot of investigated fakes, but we have 3 of the 4 models sold confirmed. It only takes one confirmation to flag that the rest for a model are counterfeit too.

• October 3rd, 2008 - we have 4 eBay listings confirmed fake.

These are the models sold under the eBay seller pengsoloshow All are confirmed as Counterfeit, recorded with eBayer ID and eBay Item Number - Standard Procedure. Presented as listed at auction. Counterfeit items tied to criminal activity enjoy no protection. If you bought one of these usb fake flash drives from pengsoloshow, you should test immediately with the software H2testw 1.4 . Do not store any important data on the drive until you can confirm you have 32 GB (minus formatting overhead) for the 32 GB Models. If your model is not shown here. Contact us, we are missing one of the 32GB we have on file.

These are the 32 GB Models sold by pengsoloshow since date, 2008.

Should your drive not report the true advertised capacity:

1. Immediately attempt to move any data you have stored on the drive to another source. Be advised if you have stored more than the reported size from H2testw 1.4, you will not be able to recover it all - you can expect to see errors in the copy back.
2. Immediately report to eBay and PayPal to add your voice against this seller.

If the eBay Item number has disappeared from your won list. Please go to PayPal and search through your transactions for the approximate time frame of your purchase. You will find the details of your transaction and ebay item number. PayPal keeps this information for a long time. Use the email address:

Please include:

1. PayPal Transaction Number
2. Ebay Item Number
3. Date Of PayPal Transaction
4. Date Of eBay Item Listing
5. Your eBayer Id
6. Cite eBay Seller pengsoloshow
7. The results from your testing with H2testw 1.4
8. Any information concerning data loss and it's value to you

You are to inform them you wish to be part of the investigation against this seller and are adding yourself to the evidence. You expect to be fully refunded for the purchase and shipping and if you can prove data loss compensation for it as well. Furthermore, it is a fact that PayPal and eBay are aware of cases pouring in. You are invited to copy:

on your correspondence. This seller has sold hundreds counterfeit drives.

To see pengsoloshow's negative feedback click here.

In this article we cover:

1) Information on a Counterfeit Ring Operating on eBay
2) How The Mission Was Born
3) Our Message to eBay and PayPal
4) Why we have expended So much Effort Investigating a Counterfeit Ring

1) Information on a Counterfeit Ring Operating on eBay

In September 2008, we presented a series of articles on a counterfeit ring selling fake flash drives on eBay. The master controller id is 3ToTrade. He has satilite id's that he activates or sends into sleeper mode, when things get hot.

SOSFakeFlash while investigating 3ToTrade several months ago began noticing that other id's were connected. How? By the return shipping address. We now have another seller id to add to the ring - pengsoloshow.

Please see the posts for September 6th for more back ground information.

You will find many articles at this site on 3ToTrade, The Don Of Fake Flash In the Orient. eBayers who became his victims back in April 2008 and May 2008 - never forgot him. They also never forgot the cold and indifferent treatment they received from PayPal. It was at a time when both eBay and PayPal were busy promoting Buyer Protection and advertising how they were making eBay a better place to shop. You can imagine their shock.

The victims of 3ToTrade last spring, suffered data lost, almost all did not get a refund. This was compounded by the ill treatment from eBay and PayPal. So they were not victims once, but they were victimized three times! It was a serious error for the fake flash seller, eBay and PayPal.

2) How The Mission Was Born

The founder of this quest against fake flash, is also a victim of fake flash from other eBay sellers. The little little band of unfortuante victims of 3ToTrade huddled in their fake flash misery were found in the internet jungle. Unlike them, this person had a perfect record of clawing back every penny from a fake flash seller, and of course not returning counterfeit drives either. The rest is history. The march against fake flash began...

We don't tolerate mug slinging at countries, races or nationalities. The members of our organization span the globe. We are the many races and nationalities and have different religions as well. We are drawn together by our misfortune, our data loss and we don't want others to suffer what we have. First on our agenda is eBay.

3) Our Message to eBay and PayPal

We document. We record into evidence. Nothing we say is based on "I suspect" - we can PROVE! The day may come when we will have to submit the evidence in a court of law. We say "may" because the goal is to put an end to the situation on eBay. We don't care how, only that it DOES!

If eBay and PayPal learn from their errors and correct them, ensure that no flash drive can be sold on eBay without certification from a seller for true capacity, and will demonstrate they will immediately suspend and remove such a seller, ensure that everyone who bought such a counterfeit drive is contacted and reembursed in the future, then the goal is achieved.

We noticed recently that as soon as posts are released, the blog stats immediately jump. Somebody is monitoring and reading the moment we post something new! Who could be so interested in our new information. We wonder? And we can guess... Can you?

We will continue to leave a bread crumb trail for eBay and PayPal to follow.

SOSFakeFlash is seeing evidence that eBay is busy with their fake flash vacum cleaners... We know it isn't easy for you and we also know you do not dare to awknowledge us for legal reasons. That is fine with us. Keep reading our posts and work on removing these sellers.

As for PayPal, you need to stop torturing eBayers who claim - get more staff assigned. Issue communications to your claims agents on the subject of counterfeit flash drives and how to handle it. You did apologize to one eBayer recently. That is a start. But unfortunately too many eBayers are still being caught with your mindless robotic emailing tempates. Many would give up if it wasn't for us. But why should they have to stuggle with you? Do you need their money that badly?

4) Why we have expended So much Effort Investigating a Counterfeit Ring

It goes without saying we have a "Special Something" when it comes to the Don Of Fake Flash In the Orient. It is an intrigueing story and interesting. It is also an indication that the business of selling fake flash is organized. It has also been our biggest challenge and has consumed several months of our time. 3ToTrade is directly responsible eBayers going on the Warpath. His greed has spurred us into action.

It is also a study in how fake flash sellers operate and what they are willing to do to stay in business on eBay. It demonstated fake flash sellers studied eBay and PayPal and knew exactly how to manipulate both of them! It goes without saying they didn't expect eBayers to start studying them.

In our recent post:

Alert - pengsoloshow - Ebay Fake Flash Seller

We summarized the behavior of 3ToTrade and tied in pengsoloshow. We are repeating the information here for you to see how we linked a new id and also more on the mentality of 3ToTrade. It is a good review for anyone who wants to understand some of the devious things that can occur on eBay.

pengsoloshow belongs to the counterfeit ring of the Don Of Fake Flash In the Orient (3ToTrade, Shopwithmela, whatcools, kaho.chan). This has only recently been discovered. To see the original post, with linking articles please go to September 6th, 2008 on the calendar. See the Article:

3ToTrade - Whatcools - Shopwithmela - kaho.chan Sinister Counterfeit Flash Drive Connection On Ebay

The return address submitted recently by an eBayer stung with fake flash from pengsoloshow back in July was:

Zhong Lisha(PS)

Zhong Lisha(PS)
32B, XiaoFeng Building ,
YouYi Road, Luohu District,
Shenzhen, 518002
Guangdong Province
China

If you review the article above, you will see the return addresses that SOSFakeFlash uncovered and put together. This was how we were able to put together who was in charge and at the helm of this fake flash ship.

The return address just submitted by a new victim of pengsoloshow is:

Chinese Guangdong Province,
Shenzhen,
Luohu area lake shell new village 138 403, 518001,
China

Notice, no person name is in the address.

The Don of Fake Flash has been suspended on eBay. eBayers saw to that - they were patiently waiting for him to reappear. The victims of 3ToTrade were not going to let him triumph again in his fake flash profits. This time they were armed and ready with their keyboard fingers. 3ToTrade was thunderstruck - negatives? Negatives? That does not happen to a fake flash seller like 3ToTrade. Well it did and soon eBay was preparing to slam him onto a glass slide for examination under the microscope of fraud.

So realizing his coming ordeal with eBay he polished his halo, put on his white gown of innocence and stopped listing fake flash drives. He channelled his fake flash drives into whatcools and kaho.chan. Once again eBayers warmed up the their keyboards and began the attack! SOSFakeFlash already knew of his sleeper ids, only 3ToTrade did not know there was such a thing as SOSFakeFlash. They lit their bonfires and began sending smoke signals of warning to eBayers. They raced in to drag their fellow shoppers from fake flash flames.

The New victims of the sleeper id's were counselled by the victims of 3ToTrade. They shared their own personal stories of woe with the new victims. They issued boxing gloves to the victims. Then an orderly march of victims proceeded to the Paypal dispute console.

What happened? Once more, negative? Negative? kaho.chan and whatcools reeled in shock. Immediately they switched to devious private auction listings. The victims of whatcools dragged a battering ram to eBay and reported the listings over and over and over again. They advised of our site, and the evidence. Whatcools was suspended. The early victims of whatcools are still fighting for their refunds but the later victims have been successful - whatcools under 3ToTrade is not interested in landing up in jail for the sake of the Don Of Fake flash.

Kaho.chan is still in operation, he managed to switch to private auctions before the eBayer army was able to warn the buyers. Unfortuantely, under this sort of auction it is almost impossible to find the victims, or at least not before they have left postive feedback and become harmless to the sellers nicely padded fake flash positive feedback score.

So what on earth does all this have to do with pengsoloshow? Simple. It took longer for us to find the connection. The fake flash angels have just too much work on their plates. They have paying jobs they have to do. This work is strictly volenteer. Nobody gets paid. Volenteers even have to dig into their own pockets to fund their missions. So unfortunately we did not make the connection in time to rescue the victims of pengsoloshow.

The fact this seller has changed his return address speaks volumes. It means the Don Of Fake Flash isn't going to stop selling flash drives - until somebody in Chinese law enforcement catches up with him. Re-education will be a challenge when they do. Perhaps he should be reprogrammed with the software used to turn innocent flash drives into diabolical frankenflash? As we learn, so does he. He is covering his tracks - trying to remove evidence from eBay and PayPals eyes. He did not want to lose his precious pengsoloshow id as well and found another location in China.

If you are reading this and you bought a drive from pengsoloshow, you can be almost 100% sure you have a fake. We don't have a lot of investigated fakes, but we have 3 of the 4 models sold confirmed. It only takes one confirmation to flag that the rest for a model are counterfeit too.

So now we have five id's linked together:

1. 3Totrade
2. whatcools
3. kaho.chan
4. shopwithmela
5. pengsoloshow

By the way, we suspect there are more.

You can help us with our profiling by submitting the return addresses you were given for fake flash sellers. We need the seller eBay id, and of course the full return address and a name if it was provided to you. Please contact us if you have this information. It helps us connect the dots. And if we see a pattern we can publish for everyone to know about. You can play a part in fighting this fake flash war by submitting this information.

m0o0mzzz is a new arrival to fake flash selling and was caught quickly. This seller did not have the protection of a powerseller score to hide behind. In a very short period it is estimated that over 250 new eBayers are victims - almost all unaware they will experience data loss.

This is no innocent seller entering into the market of fake flash by accident. Why? Look at the seller id name chosen - "m0o0mzzz". Can you type this easily into a search box? Sellers who want you to find them use id's that are easy to type and remember. Sellers who don't want you to search for them will create an id that will be very difficult to remember or to type. This seller's id is more like a password then a name.

SOSFakeFlash is very happy that eBay was able to spot and nab this seller quickly! We wish they would contact the buyers to warn them, but they won't. Why? Understand that eBay wants members and they want good merchandise to be sold, but it is easier to sweep bad sellers under the carpet than to admit that they have a problem. To contact buyers means admitting there is a problem. It also means having to refund the buyers too. Doing this would be an act of good faith, but it also is bad for business. As a result, a hard decision is made. Neutralize the seller, sacrifice the buyers. For eBay, in their defense they will say "Well at least we prevented more victims!". True. But it is of little consolation to those who have lost precious files and money.

If you want to help, search this sellers feedback and contact a few buyers. Warn them to test their drives and not to store any important information until they confirm they have the advertised capacity. If this site helped you, do a good deed and help a few people to climb out of the fake flash pit.

The drive sold by m0o0mzzz is the classic fake. It is the easiest to take apart to find out what the controller chip is and the flash drive chip. This kind of drive has the highest success rate in being returned to it's original size (deprogrammed).

• October 3rd , 2008 we have 1 eBay listings confirmed fake.

This drive is confirmed as Counterfeit, recorded with eBayer ID and eBay Item Number - Standard Procedure. Presented as listed at auction. Counterfeit items tied to criminal activity enjoy no protection. You should test immediately with the software H2testw 1.4 if you bought this drive from the seller. Do not store any important data on the drive until you can confirm you have 16 GB (minus formatting overhead) for this drive.

This is the 16 GB drive sold by m0o0mzzz.

Should your drive not report the true advertised capacity:

1. Immediately attempt to move any data you have stored on the drive to another source. Be advised if you have stored more than the reported size from H2testw 1.4, you will not be able to recover it all - you can expect to see errors in the copy back.
2. Immediately report to eBay and PayPal to add your voice against this seller.

If the eBay Item number has disappeared from your won list. Please go to PayPal and search through your transactions for the approximate time frame of your purchase. You will find the details of your transaction and ebay item number. PayPal keeps this information for a long time. Use the email address:

Please include:

1. PayPal Transaction Number
2. Ebay Item Number
3. Date Of PayPal Transaction
4. Date Of eBay Item Listing
5. Your eBayer Id
6. Cite eBay Seller m0o0mzzz
7. The results from your testing with H2testw 1.4
8. Any information concerning data loss and it's value to you

You are to inform them you wish to be part of the investigation against this seller and are adding yourself to the evidence. You expect to be fully refunded for the purchase and shipping and if you can prove data loss compensation for it as well. Furthermore, it is a fact that PayPal and eBay are aware of cases pouring in. You are invited to copy:

on your correspondence. This seller has sold 250 to 300 counterfeit drives.

To see m0o0mzzz negative feedback click here.

Alarming is the number of drive models offered. We have 11 in our database from 8 GB to 16 GB. As of October 3rd, 2008 approximately 270+ drives have been sold to unsuspecting eBayers. If you bought a drive from this seller, test immediately!

In dealing with lucky_shop898, you can expect arguements. Our advise is to educate him. Send him the url address at this site for the H2testw 1.4 post and software. Also send the address to this post! There are currently 270 victims out there.

We need your help. Please review his feedback and contact those who left positive feedback. Tell them to google on lucky_shop898 and sosfakeflash and to test their drives! It will be your good deed for the day. An opportunity to help some other people out of the fake flash pit! Many eBayers have been saved from the consequences of fake flash drives by a friendly knock on the door from a fellow ebayer giving a warning...

• October 3rd, 2008 - we have 1 eBay listings confirmed fake.

lucky_shop898 has 11 different drive listing types in bid and buy now.

This is the only model we have confirmed so far that was sold under the eBay seller lucky_shop898 It is confirmed as Counterfeit, recorded with eBayer ID and eBay Item Number - Standard Procedure. Presented as listed at auction. Counterfeit items tied to criminal activity enjoy no protection. If you bought one of these usb fake flash drives from lucky_shop898, you should test immediately with the software H2testw 1.4 . Do not store any important data on the drive until you can confirm you have 16 GB (minus formatting overhead).

This is the 16GB model sold by lucky_shop898.

Should your drive not report the true advertised capacity:

1. Immediately attempt to move any data you have stored on the drive to another source. Be advised if you have stored more than the reported size from H2testw 1.4, you will not be able to recover it all - you can expect to see errors in the copy back.
2. Immediately report to eBay and PayPal to add your voice against this seller.

If the eBay Item number has disappeared from your won list. Please go to PayPal and search through your transactions for the approximate time frame of your purchase. You will find the details of your transaction and ebay item number. PayPal keeps this information for a long time. Use the email address:

Please include:

1. PayPal Transaction Number
2. Ebay Item Number
3. Date Of PayPal Transaction
4. Date Of eBay Item Listing
5. Your eBayer Id
6. Cite eBay Seller seller lucky_shop898
7. The results from your testing with H2testw 1.4
8. Any information concerning data loss and it's value to you

You are to inform them you wish to be part of the investigation against this seller and are adding yourself to the evidence. You expect to be fully refunded for the purchase and shipping and if you can prove data loss compensation for it as well. Furthermore, it is a fact that PayPal and eBay are aware of cases pouring in. You are invited to copy:

on your correspondence. This seller has sold over 270+ counterfeit drives.

To see lucky_shop898 negative feedback click here.

Getting a refund from itchee98, is more than a challenge. This seller almost never refunds eBayers. He hides behind his powerseller status and he knows the weaknesses of PayPal and eBay down to a science. How else could a counterfeit flash drive seller survive for over a year selling fakes? itchee98 is smart. He will unload drives at lightening speed, one drive every hour of every day. When things get hot, he stops listing the fakes for a while, letting his score cool off - staying under eBay's radar.

Later in this post we will present to you the recent fake models we have uncovered.

Recently one eBayer whom we will call HotFlashSands decided to teach itchee98 a lesson. HotFlashSands had become a victim of many fakes. He like many other eBayers dragged the sellers to the PayPal dispute console. The only seller who refused to refund when found out was Itchee98. So...

HotFlashSands contacted somebody. This person bid on quite a few drives. Then left negative feedback and did not pay. How? Well eBayer Buyers are not the only ones who know how the game can be played. Not exactly ethical. But a seller such as itchee98, doesn't know what the word means. itchee98, got the message. He stopped listing the drives immediately. HotFlashSands had a good chuckle. The money itchee98 stole from him, was in turn stolen by another eBayer. itchee98 could sing, cry and wail for the money he lost in listing fees he was oblidged to pay eBay and PayPal.

SOSFakeFlash does not advise eBayers use this technique, however justified. Few eBayers know just what has to be done and how to carry out this out while not be found out. It is said, to catch a crook you need to think like one. This is beyond most Fake Flash victims, who are honest and unsuspecting of dirty deeds and dirty ways. There is a big difference in being a soldier and being a commando. So try to remain on the straight and narrow path. Most eBayers are not cut from commando cloth.

You would think that Itchee98, having been "tortured" as HotFlashSands put it, would have stopped for good. No, he just licked his wounds and hid. As soon as he thought the coast was clear and HotFlashSands had forgotten him, he came back to sell - with a vengence!

Itchee98 has sold drives ranging in advertised capacity from 8GB to 32GB. Inspection of his negative and neutrals reveals he never sold a true capacity drive. Remember it takes only one drive in a model to be tested to determine that the rest for the model are fakes too. SOSFakeFlash has only investigated the 32GB drive models.

• October 5th, 2008 - we have 34 eBay listings confirmed fake.
• October 2nd, 2008 - we have 21 eBay listings confirmed fake.

You can expect this to grow as eBayers receive in the post and test. Itchee98 is now under the microscope.

These are the models sold under the eBay seller Itchee98. All are confirmed as Counterfeit, recorded with eBayer ID and eBay Item Number - Standard Procedure. Presented as listed at auction. Counterfeit items tied to criminal activity enjoy no protection. If you bought one of these usb fake flash drives from itchee98, you should test immediately with the software H2testw 1.4 This also applies for any other model have not listed. Do not store any important data on the drive until you can confirm you have 32 GB (minus formatting overhead) for the 32 GB Models.

These are the 32 GB Models sold by Itchee98.

Should your drive not report the true advertised capacity:

1. Immediately attempt to move any data you have stored on the drive to another source. Be advised if you have stored more than the reported size from H2testw 1.4, you will not be able to recover it all - you can expect to see errors in the copy back.
2. Immediately report to eBay and PayPal to add your voice against this seller.

If the eBay Item number has disappeared from your won list. Please go to PayPal and search through your transactions for the approximate time frame of your purchase. You will find the details of your transaction and ebay item number. PayPal keeps this information for a long time. Use the email address:

Please include:

1. PayPal Transaction Number
2. Ebay Item Number
3. Date Of PayPal Transaction
4. Date Of eBay Item Listing
5. Your eBayer Id
6. Cite eBay Seller Itchee98
7. The results from your testing with H2testw 1.4
8. Any information concerning data loss and it's value to you

You are to inform them you wish to be part of the investigation against this seller and are adding yourself to the evidence. You expect to be fully refunded for the purchase and shipping and if you can prove data loss compensation for it as well. Furthermore, it is a fact that PayPal and eBay are aware of cases pouring in. You are invited to copy:

on your correspondence. This seller has sold thousands of counterfeit drives.

To Itchee98's negative feedback click here

The negatives for the 32 GB models are only starting to come in - you can expect more shortly.

Check back to see if the Tally increases. If you are a victim of Itchee98 please follow the steps outlined above and do add your comments if you like.