Beware of Purchasing Fake USB Flash Drive on Ebay

A week ago, an ebayer bought this 32GB USB-Stick on Ebay for £49
He paid immediately via Bank-transfer, good deal!
When he received it, he found out it’s not working.
He shakes it, he could hear somthing rattling inside.
So he decided to open it up, just to find out it was EMPTY!!!

Fake USB Flash Drive

Fake USB Flash Drive

Ebay Help Guide

How to avoid buying fake/counterfeit USB Flash Drives?

1. An item that sells less than half the market price in your country is a sign of counterfeit items.
2. Never be deceived by high eBay feedback of the seller by not doing your homework.
3. Check seller’s past selling history.
4. Avoid sellers who have their bidder’s ID protected or hidden.
5. Check model against manufacturer’s web sites to see if you can find a match.
6. Avoid misleading slogans such as ‘Opening special’, ‘New product not yet available in your country’.

How to tell if your USB Flash Drive is counterfeit and has fake oversize capacity?

1. Fake USB Flash Drive unable to store data as advertised. Google Search this keyword “detect fake counterfeit usb flash drive capacity” to find tools to test your purchased USB Flash Drive a.k.a Thumbdrive. The tools help to determine the exact USB Flash Drive capacity that you should be expecting. If its lesser than computed, its a counterfeit product.
2. Counterfeit model cannot be found/matched with any genuine models on manufacturer’s website.
3. Takes excessively long time (1 to 3 hours) pretending to write data, but can’t be read.
4. Genuine SanDisk, Sony and Kingston USB always bundle with preloaded manufacturer software on the unit.

How to get full refund and how to expose fraudulent sellers?

File a report to PayPal/eBay by completing the Item Not Received or Significantly Not as Described process dispute after 10 days of item closing date so they are alerted of the development of fraudulent transaction and seller’s BAD record will be permanently written in PayPal/eBay dispute system.

If you have paid by Paypal, complete the Paypal Buyer Complaint Process to obtain full refund from Paypal within 45 days. Effectively you will get your money back either from the seller or from Paypal. Most important by going through the PayPal/eBay reporting procedure, you have assisted the process of exposing fraudulent sellers on eBay.

Since you have NOT been provided with what you have paid for, it does not falls into seller’s return policy of faulty product so that they can get away for you to return the fakes at your own cost. Counterfeit is FRAUD, do not settle with the seller unless the seller is paying for all the associated return shipping cost of the item. You are covered by the 90 days protection period under eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program. However, item value needs to be over $25 to be elligible for coverage under eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program.

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2 thoughts on “Beware of Purchasing Fake USB Flash Drive on Ebay

  1. chua123

    Sometimes you will also get fake external hard disk. They mount a flash drive into an external hard disk casing together with several nuts to increase their weight.

  2. Uemnly Jo

    Hey there, is anybody able to recommend on good free ebay app which can bid automatically just as the auction ends? (I cannot remember what this is called. Thank-you