Be Wary of FAKE 1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB USB Flash Drives Part 2

Just because you buy from a UK seller, it doesn't mean it's perfectly
fine. Do you realise that maybe the UK seller buys in bulk from a
seller in Hong Kong, China, or somewhere in the Far East and then asks
the seller not to leave feedback so people won't know that it's Far
East stock?Some sellers say it's 'UK Stock', which I think is a safer bet but still no guarantee.The
best thing to do is buy from a UK seller who sells 'UK Stock' and then
test it immediately after receiving it to see if it really holds the
storage it claims to. Most people who buy a 2GB, 4GB or 8GB USB Pen
Drive don't try to fill it up fully for a long time and so they don't
realise until it's too late.Adding files slowly upto the 'fake'
storage size will seem fine as there is some sort of programming, code
or application which either compresses or 'fakes' the files you save.
For e.g. a 128MB USB Pen Drive re-programmed to 2GB will save 128MB
fine, but anything above that is compressed or fake 'hex' data and
these files will stop working within days, weeks, or months if you are
lucky. Too late to get a refund. Sure the seller will say it was a
one-off problem if you have a problem with yours within days, and send
you another fake 128MB posing as 2GB and you'll happily delude yourself
for a short while until you realise that you ignored your instincts,
the alarm bells, and me telling you that you should ask for a refund -
yes, some have ignored my advice when I have shown them proof, they
don't want to face the fact that they've been scammed. It's a natural
human instinct... but ignoring the proof is just plain stupidity my
friends.Look up the seller x.gui by clicking community at the
top of eBay's pages, type in x.gui and look at how many negatives he's
got. He's recently made his feedback private (maybe he got the idea
from me) to hide the feedback comments I left for him. I hid my
feedback before I had the negative feedback from him, I wanted people
to go to my 'About Me' page and see it. My feedback is shown there so
I'm not hiding anything, just encouraging people to read my 'About Me'
page and my Guide/s.He's been scamming people for months,
probably years I don't know. I was suspicious of how cheap they were
selling so took my vigilante approach and bought a few with the
intention of sending them off for inspection. It cost me a little to
say the least, but I counted on getting a refund.Unfortunately
I couldn't get my refund as I couldn't resist letting others know they
are buying fakes. How could I stand by (or sit by) and watch people buy
128MB USB Pen Drives that have been messed about with to appear 2GB?
They weren't really Sony either but most didn't care about this. I knew
they'd care that their shiny 2GB USB Pen Drive wasn't actually 2GB so I
risked getting my refund to help others. Noble? Not really, I just
can't sit and do nothing and I thought I'd still get my refund. I'm a
little selfish like the rest of us so I wanted my money back first but
I thought I'd still have a chance of getting my refund AND I could stop
him selling so went for two birds with one stone.I stopped him
selling... for now. If we stick together as honest eBayers, then we can
help make this large problem a smaller one. I'm not going to delude
myself, it won't completely disappear but we can help reduce the
problem.Just remember, the best thing to do is not buy USB Pen
Drives that will be shipped from Hong Kong, China, anywhere in the Far
East. Even if you buy in the UK, the seller you bought from could be
getting his stock from the Far East. Go for a seller who sells 'UK
Stock' and even then test it thoroughly. If you buy a 1GB USB Pen
Drive, try saving a LARGE file, like a 700MB file on it. DON'T save
something like ten 50MB files and think "yeah, I've tested it upto
500MB" because you you added ten 50MB files, not a LARGE 500MB or 700MB
(any large file) to it. The Pen Drive is designed to fool you. It can
easily deal with small 50MB files and 'fake' them. If you try saving a
LARGE (about 700MB or more is best) file to it, a 'fake' USB Pen Drive
cannot work quickly and hard enough compress it, or to 'fake' it onto
the USB Pen Drive. A real one? A real one will have no problems at all.
This is the BEST way to test it. As far as I know it works everytime.One
last note, all of the above can also apply to Memory Cards. A lot of
Sony PSP compatible Memory Sticks are on eBay, naturally as the PSP is
quite popular so I'm told. I don't know as much about these Memory
Cards but I have heard or people (and read on forums) of people's woes
with fakes so be careful!Take care, and enjoy eBaying, because I do...