Chinese mini thumb-size flash drives to 2TB

[hackmole]

On Ebay you can get dirt cheap mini thumb size flash drives up to 2tb from China. Are these for real because there is nothing anywhere in this country that size for such tiny flash drives.
If they are fake then why would Ebay post them?
If they are for real, and some companies here do have them at a very high price though they are never found at retail outlets, then is this a conspiracy not to give competition and put hard drives out of business with these smaller faster thumb nail sized drives?
It seems to me there is something fishy going on.

 

[corkyg]

I would seriously question their reliability over time.

 

[daveybrat]

No they aren't real. I've seen many customer's bring in large cheap chinese flash drives bragging how cheap they got them off Ebay. I tried filling them with that amount of data and it wouldn't even take. They are just garbage or falsely advertised.

 

[mxnerd]

Of course it's fake. eBay has no way to check.

 

[Azathoth_LCA]

I work at a major memory company. A few years ago, some of our engineers from the US were over in China at one of our facilities there, and they saw 2TB thumb drives being sold by street vendors. They were curious, so they bought one and brought it back to their lab. They took it apart it up to see what was really inside, and IIRC, there was a single 128Gb (16GB) flash chip inside, with some custom firmware to make it just loop back over itself. You could write to it all day long, but your data would be constantly overwritten.

Not speaking for my employer, who will remain nameless.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I can believe that. I would say that 95-99% of flash memory being sold on ebay, not from Antonline, BestBuy, Newegg, or other "known" outlets, is completely fake.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Amazon third-party sellers offer these "2 TB" flash drive scams too, they are 100% fake. I've reported a few to Amazon but the tide is endless.

 

[Elixer]

If they are fake then why would Ebay post them?
If they are for real, and some companies here do have them at a very high price though they are never found at retail outlets, then is this a conspiracy not to give competition and put hard drives out of business with these smaller faster thumb nail sized drives?
It seems to me there is something fishy going on.

There are tens of thousands if not more listed that are 100% fake, and they have no way of knowing if the seller is legit or not, until they get enough complaints.
This is why what they should do is hold the funds in a escrow, and only release the funds in 35 days. Tell people they have a max of 25 days to file a complaint.

Though, some might even say that Fleabay (or amazon, or...) doesn't really care, all they care about is their share of the cut.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I can believe that. I would say that 95-99% of flash memory being sold on ebay, not from Antonline, BestBuy, Newegg, or other "known" outlets, is completely fake.

That. And it's not just ebay, it's most 3rd party vendors on Amazon and Newegg too. If you buy flash drives, SD, Micro SD, pretty much any flash memory from any source, even a trusted vendor, the first thing you should do is try to fill it and then try to recover the data on it. It's so easy to fake flash memory and there's so much counterfeit junk out there that even good vendors can wind up unknowingly selling bogus memory.

BTW, you view Antonline as a reliable source? They're one of the worst companies I've ever personally dealt with and are universally reviled as complete scumbags.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

BTW, you view Antonline as a reliable source? They're one of the worst companies I've ever personally dealt with and are universally reviled as complete scumbags.

They have never had a good enough deal (when searching) for me to give them a go. But, thanks for the warning.

 

[Mike64]

Of course it's fake. eBay has no way to check.

And more to the point, as long as it's doesn't get them into legal trouble (i.e., like allowing the listing/sale of illegal drugs, or firearms in jurisdictions where they're illegal) and it's not hurting their bottom line, "Ebay" couldn't give half a dead rat's ass what people list and what people buy...