How Can You Spot Fake Flash Memory Chips? What Is the Key Factor That Determines If MP3 MP4 Players, USB Flash Drives Or Memory Cards Are Fake Capacity?

How can you avoid fake flash memory purchases? Do you know what fake capacity is? If you are not careful you could buy memory cards, usb flash drives or MP Players that have reprogrammed chips that lie about their real size. These are dangerous items as they cause people to lose their information!

So what is the easiest way to spot a fake?

See the short video presented by blueloyalpromo.

then read the rest of this article to learn how you can protect yourself from buying fakes. Please answer the questionnaire at the end – we need your opinions and data!

blueloyalpromo mentioned a grey market. This market is real. To learn how flash memory chips are graded Please read: Genuine Verses Fake Counterfeit USB Flash Drives – A Guide – USB Flash Chips Used – Grades A B C D . You need to be aware of grading for chips.

As blueloyalpromo mentioned, the strongest indicator of a fake is PRICE! The FrankenFlash Project’s reserach has found this true.

SOSFakeFlash documents fake flash memory products sold on eBay. Their eBay fake flash sellers Lists continues to grow as buyers report in. Sadly many did not know about the true cost of memory chips.

FlashDriveFacts attempts to promote awareness for both potential sellers and buyers. They have an extensive catalogue of brand names that have been counterfeited.

To avoid buying a fake as a consumer, or as a potential reseller, pricing is the most important factor. Prices in 2009 are going up for flash chips used in MP Players, memory cards, and usb flash drives, NOT DOWN!

Read these articles:

• What Are The Real Costs For Flash Chips In China? Guide 2009
• Flash Memory Prices Are Rising In 2009 – Up To 25% Since April 2009. Danger Of Grade C and D Being Used In False Capacity MP Players, USB Flash Drives And Memory Cards.

blueloyalpromo said:

If it is too good to be true it usually is.

This is what all frauded members on eBay say! It is a difficult lesson to learn.

In many cases as a result of searching for a bargain at unrealistic prices, people lose something far more important than money. They lose their data files, many forever. They did a “move” operation instead of a “copy” to the devices. Once the true capacity is exceeded on a flash memory chip that has been reprogrammed, only information about the file is copied, not the data. Sometimes even files that were copied to existing storage area are lost, it depends on how the flash memory was reprogrammed.

So how do you protect yourself?

1) Do not search for unrealistic prices.

2) Do your homework as to the cost of flash memory chips. blueloyalpromo pointed out that 80% of the cost of the item is the flash nand storage chip. Use the information from the articles to guide you.

3) Test any flash memory usb item you buy. Read the article: H2testw 1.4 – Gold Standard In Detecting USB Counterfeit Drives to learn about a free software for testing, how to use it and the download links to get the software.

H2testw is one of the best software to test and determine if your MP Player, memory card or usb flash drive is safe to use. H2testw has proven itself. Just see the poll in the article.

Best of all, H2testw is free! It is a stand alone programme and does not install all sorts of files. Buyers and sellers use it all the time.

If there is anything wrong the memory storage capacity reported to an operating system with your MP Player, memory card or usb flash drive, H2testw will tell you. It will also tell you about the quality of the memory chip. For example if you bought an item advertised as 4GB you should expect to have the program report 3.9 GB capacity (a result of the formatting overhead). If the program tells you that only 3.7GB is available or less, then you have an item with an inferior flash memory chip. You can expect the item to have a shorter life span.

blueloyalpromo says that:

“over a million fake usb flash drives are sold every month”.

This is no idle claim. The FrankenFlash Project believes that they are underestimating, it is probably much higher! Unfortunately both resellers and buyers are so ill informed, they dive to snatch up the cheapest priced products. The end result? Frauded buyers and sellers hounded by victims who lost both money and information.

This is not a subject that gets a lot of exposure. It is a horrible secret. If you want to buy an MP Player, memory card or usb flash drive on the internet, be careful!

If you bought an item on eBay and it turns out to be a fake, please report to SOSFakeFlash immediately using the Report A Fake Tab.

To avoid a fake, understanding the true costs of flash memory chips is key!

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! The FrankenFlash Project needs your input. If you are interested in keeping up on the latest news, subscribe to our sites. We welcome your assistence. Our main site is

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