Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

mpxmaster

Sold me a 8GB MP4 player with corrupted memory that has only 1GB. The screen hasn't got 320x240 pixels as advised.

Refund from Rapdetrade.
 

I have just received a $15.00USD refund from Rapidetrade after escalating the dispute through pay pal. I feel the 1G MP4 player I ended up with instead of the 4Gb one was worth $16.00US. My initial purchase was $31.00USD. Don't accept the $6.00-$8.00US Rapidetrade tries to get you to agree to.

You can add RECORDBYLIFE to your list too.

sold me a fake 4gb wich was really 2gb according to mp3 disc tool, fuk ebay for doing nothing, fuk all china man for ruining all trade

another scammer

mkftiramisu

shaosan08 sold me a hacked '4GB' player that turned out to be 2GB.

I signed the petition as well.

Thanks everyone for sharing.

The good news is Google scans this post quite abit, so any updated sellers, if you do a Google search for them, it should pick up this post in the result.

Hopefully we can help potential buyers from being scammed.

Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

meilibao99

2gb player actually 1gb

M 2.0" 2GB MP3 MP4 Player FM USB Memory Card Slot (209)

M 2.0" 2GB MP3 MP4 Player FM USB Memory Card Slot (209)

So is this list actually going to be updated?

digital-e.hk

Have a look at this post here --> Hacked Rockchip player from digital-e.hk.

Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

As a brand new eBayer, I am being scammed by eBay seller johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, Room 1921, Heng Fung House, Heng On Estate, Shatin, Hongkong, according to the address stamp on the packaging. First problem I noticed was that the device couldn't even keep the correct time (gained something silly like 9 hours in 24!), so the voice recordings don't even get a valid timestamp. Tried following the instructions to update the firmware, but that required the mp3 utilities program to be installed before the device could search online for an update, but neither that nor a web address were to be found on the accompanying CD - no small wonder after I've become educated by this site - thanks u guys. So I write to the seller - am very detailed describing the problem, but he just sends me a download link for video conversion software like he's a fool or something. I tell him I need a firmware update so that the clock will work, but he talks flannel to me that I don't need to worry coz it's got the latest firmware! He comes across as genuinely helpful, though a little daft (yeah right!), so I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt. He offers a replacement, but points out that return shipping is down to me and possibly expensive (well yeah, when he advertised the goods as being located in the UK but actually shipped from Hong Kong), and he offers me a partial refund. All things considered, I thought I might as well just take that and order a different model, coz I figure it's probably just a software problem with the first model, and I can always give an 8GB mp3 as a Christmas stocking filler to someone who doesn't need the voice recorder. I go back on eBay, bid on, and won a slightly different model, and slightly cheaper too, so I have a short-lived sense of fairness. Then, johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, writes and tells me that he would like to make the partial refund at once, but could I kindly leave him positive feedback first. I had intended to give him positive feedback anyway, coz he seemed genuinely helpful, but I told him that I couldn't leave positive feedback until the transaction was complete. I didn't like being coerced like that. Next thing, he starts writing me direct to my e-mail and not through eBay, and he says his workmate made a mistake and that she doesn't know all the details, but he asks me to kindly check the last message that he sent me, and he just re-sent the same request for positive feedback before I get the refund. I wrote to eBay support, but although the reply initially seemed understanding and helpful, it just turned into the same kind of flannel, where they tried to fob me off saying that "situations such as these are considered by eBay as a member-to-member conflict, which users should resolve between themselves", and after posting a link to the 'user_agreement', they started referring to me as a seller saying "please keep in mind that whether or not you will issue a refund is entirely dependent upon whether or not you have a return policy in your listing, and whether you choose to honour that policy. eBay is not involved in transactions between buyers and sellers and therefore is not responsible for issuing refunds", and then told me how, as a seller, eBay could e-mail the contact details, including the personal telephone number, of the buyer (which would be me!), though they would at the same time send the seller's (which they thought was me!) details to the buyer as they “feel it maintains trust and fairness on eBay if members are made aware when other members request their contact information” (!!) I was astounded that I was being informed that eBay was actually going to disclose my personal telephone number at the request of a seller. I replied to this eBay support person and informed them of their blunder, told them that it most definitely was not equitable to trade a personal telephone number for a publicly available business number, and pointed out that the seller had actually breached the 'Feedback Extortion' clause of the very 'user_agreement' whose link had been included in the e-mail! I didn't get a reply to the corrective e-mail, but I was again astounded when I instead received a request for eBay support feedback! The problem was nowhere near resolved, they'd more or less washed their hands of it, and they wanted me to give feedback for their ‘support’. "Give until it hurts" is definitely a logo that eBay should attach to their banners.

After more time-consuming correspondence, johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, eventually makes the partial refund, but then the device shows up again in my activity record as ‘unpaid’!! More time-consuming correspondence with both johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, (who continues to ignore me) and eBay support to whom I inform his maladministration which I now find hard to ascertain as unintentional, and suspect is a contrived attempt to discredit me and perhaps launch an unpaid item case should I leave him the deserved negative feedback. The best that eBay support could offer so far was to assure me “in the event that the seller files a dispute and escalates this into a strike, kindly email us again and we'd be happy to remove the strike for you”, as though eBay should even allow it to escalate into a dispute from the seller’s side and leave a stain on my profile!! It had already become an absolutely ludicrous transaction, but then whilst reading johnnymagasin’s negative feedback posts, I discover the possibility that it’s also a hacked memory device, and upon trial discover it a reality. It’s not the 8GBs it’s supposed to be, but a measly 1GB! And even after reformatting it, it is so slow to transfer files! The other device that I ordered as a replacement for the first is also sitting in my activity list waiting to be paid for, but I wrote and told johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, that I’ve had no intention of paying for it until he removed the false claim that I haven’t paid for the first one, so he prevented that payment himself, and since I have now also discovered that the devices are just hacked, there is no way that I’m going to pay for another piece of junk. It would possibly be a good thing for him to call me on it, and then everything would have to become a matter of record. And if it went onto national television news, then all those people who left him positive feedback might just check their players and bombard parliament with complaints and then eBay and PayPal would be held responsible for criminal negligence and all sorts of other offences… well… I can dream can’t I?

So please, please blacklist this sleazy conman johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, as black as is possible. What a pity eBay can’t simply be shut down for their blatant pandering to villains like him who line both their own and the internet barons’ pockets with their ill-gotten gains from our hard-earned dosh.

has anyone bought from tinydealdirect? they're a pretty big ebay seller ... reason I ask is that they have a few models I'm looking at. Maybe they've changed their ways?

With that being said, I've only see a few sellers on ebay that state the memory is not hacked. So, maybe I will go with those ... I have no problem disputing any issues with paypal/cc. :-)

Hey pandy,

I would recommend if you want to buy is to regular check the FEEDBACK on the seller you are wanting to buy from. Track the feedback for a few weeks or look back in their history of feedback and see what others are saying, espeically the negative ones.

Also, try doing a search for the seller's name on the internet as well. WE have good Google presence so if the seller's name has been mentioned here, it should come up in a Google search.

Can you post questions on an auction in eBay? Sorry, I haven't really used eBay as we don't have a local one here in New Zealand.

Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

I bought an 8GB player with only 1GB memory from the same seller.

Interestingly enough, you will find that johnnymagasin has no current auctions. I would gather that eBay shut Lei down or he as cut and run.

When I entered a dispute in eBay, and was referred to PayPal, an interesting page came up stating "Your seller is currently unable to respond to this dispute." and offering the opportunity to escalate the claim immediately, perhaps another indication Lei has been shut down.

Could eBay be finally responding to the multitude of consumer complaints?

I'll keep the board apprised of my progress on this case.

Meanwhile, I await the arrival of the other player and a memory stick I bought from other sellers. Anyone want to place odds on me getting scr00d again?

Johnnymagasin refunded my money immediately and responded that the manufacturer had made fools of him. I don't know about the voracity of his statement, but I'll let it slide for the moment. He asked that I send back the player. In my refund request I specified he would have to pay return shipping if he wanted the item back. No further word on the shipping of the item, but at least I received a refund.

Sharks shamming victimhood "eBay traders... hacked play
 

It seems that the frontman is very interested in retrieving the 'physical evidence' of the scam and at the same time creating an impression of being himself a victim of the scam (creating the empathic 'fellow victim' illusion) by a larger predator, and appearing reasonable and offering people their money back in spite of his own loss. Is that violins I hear in the background?

I wrote to him and informed him that as I had ordered and paid for an 8GB player, and he had accepted payment on that basis, then he owed me 7GB worth of player which I expected to receive. He just sent the same autoreply addressing me as 'Dear Friend' claiming to be sorry for the inconvenience and asking me to ship the item back. I'm not 100% sure but I think, because he didn't provide that which he advertised, that the clause about the buyer being responsible for return shipment costs is null and void, and a court of law could force him to provide that which he advertised to all of his customers at his own cost. As you said in your first post gjtreat, he appears to be 'shut down' and no longer has items for sale under that name, though it is more than likely he's going to be operating under another pseudonym. I believe that as eBay have received a percentage of his ill-gotten gain, that they can't keep neglecting their responsibility and claiming neutrality. Don't we have any 'legal eagles' out there who could advise? :? :?:

Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

I bought last week a nano clone from Hong Kong ebay seller Be2princess advertised as 8GB. It was hacked and actually is only 4GB capacity. No usb wall charger supplied and a cd-rom containing viruses. Otherwise as expected. I think if you pay for a certain amount of capacity then expect half that. The item was advertised to the USA market so I expected at least an incompatible power adapter. USB cable was supplied and of course the cheap headphones. It works well although its a cheap build. For $20 USD which is around £15 sterling then I am happy to keep it. Supplier has okay feedback with the exception of these mp3 players which is dreadful, which I was aware of. Price was competative for the UK market.

Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

If the trader had advertised with an honest description i.e. all of the flaws that you described, would you still have bought it? "Supplier has okay feedback"?? Perhaps this "okay feedback" was left by people who don't know that they've been duped or who refuse to admit when they have. The acceptance of this kind of scam as 'expected' means that cynicism has definitely become the norm, and fishing for an easy mark has become even easier for the conmen, when the fish appear to be only too eager to jump on the hook!

If the trader had advertised it with the correct specifications then I would of still bought it for the price I did as this was the primary factor; and even taking into account the true specification is still the most competative. Given the size of this thread one cannot be surprised by potential buyers cynicism of foreign auction sellers. I take each description (in pidgen english sic) with a pinch of salt - if the description is correct then wow what a bargain - if not then I have an idea of what I can reasonably expect (from experience) with these products / markets. Auctions are a gamble and yes you only get what you pay for and yes you could say I perputrated this scam by jumping on the bargain hook. The buyer had good feedback for many transactions regarding other products (giving assurance of actual delivery), the only negative feedback was for MP4 player hacks, nevertheless this was either lazy or deceptive Quality Assurance.

Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

New to the site, stumbled across while awaiting delivery of my shiny new nano 3g clones...

One arrived yesterday, which was exactly as stated, a full 4GB in pink for the Mrs

Mine arrived today, a black "8GB"... followed steps posted on the site to check for true size, found to be a 2GB

Seller of hacked unit was GANGLIN08.

This guy is selling hundreds of these things and the majority of buyers seem completely unaware of the situation, which is reflected in his feedback unfortunately.

Ive contacted him with my findings, asking for a full refund or delivery of an actual 8GB player... dont expect to get either but what teh hell, wanna give him some sh*t for it, will report back any further developments.

Also, just wanna say, great job your doing here guys, best resource ive been able to find to press!

Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

yijiang_nan advertised as 16gb - turned out to be 8gb and a crap player.

Re: 146 eBay traders reported as selling hacked players.
 

tinydealdirect?
everyone here says they are fine.

Here's a list of the sellers I've had first hand encounters with for both Hacked memory & in most cases charging extra for OPTIONAL insurance. If you get a good deal at auction the OPTIONAL insurance becomes REQUIRED..

I would suggest that 99% of the sellers from China are selling hacked devices..so there's no real way around it if you plan to buy cheap from China.. if you do the best seller out of all the ones on my list is intertrade-connection service is good & if it's 16GB expect 4-8GB if it's 8GB expect 2-4GB All of the other sellers advertise 8GB and send you 2GB or less actual memory capacity.

i.traders.168168 ( Dreaded 9.5.54 firmware)
etrade4world2008
intertrade-connection
worldbase889
phonebase113
andybin88
prettyezone
fantasticbid008
freebid99
lovehuimp3mp4
skypemen
magicdragonno.1
novelfanet
best-phone-sell
safe2star

The one who sold me mine was dan.fff
http://myworld.ebay.ca/dan.fff/

I bought a Rizone/Itchee media player "New 32GB 2.6" TFT LCD MP3 MP4 OGG RMVB Radio Player" from Ebay seller kinhome88.

It is NOT 32Gb - it is only 4Gb of FrankenFlash memory as tested by H2testw v1.4. Filed a claim with Paypal...

Here are the test results:

Warning: Only 31317 of 31319 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
3.6 GByte OK (7711712 sectors)
26.9 GByte DATA LOST (56425504 sectors)
Details:26.0 GByte overwritten (54662208 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
860.9 MByte corrupted (1763296 sectors)
31.5 KByte aliased memory (63 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000000eb57c000
Expected: 0x00000000eb57c000
Found: 0x00000000eb574000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 15.1 MByte/s
Reading speed: 12.9 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

I don't understand why so many people leave a good feedback for this guy before they check out their purchase. By the time they find out they've been ripped off, it's too late...

Please add kinhome88 to the bad sellers list.

I have the exact same player with the exact same results from checkmeout88

How did you check this out? I have the same unit form the same seller and my Vista Laptop says that this drive is 30 plus GB. Are we getting inconsistent results or are we misinterpreting information? Mine would not get it to work until I reformated the drive, during which time I saved the files that came with it on my HD and later restored them. Since then I have loaded some music by drag and drop ( Not 30 GB worth) and am listening to it now. It actually sounds pretty good, and for $33.00 I think it may be a bargain. However I find the controls very confusing. Have you had any success figuring them out?

Not sellers' fault
 

I would argue the sellers are not at fault. They have been given incorrect descriptions by manafacturers in china, who have deliberately loaded the players with hacked software (or corrupted the file allocation table/disk description data or partition table) Unfortunately the sellers cant do much about this, they can either not sell them or open each up and reformat. It seems most sellers dont know that the players are hacked, many do not test the products - many just act as a middleman between china manafacturer and consumer.... they do not actually test or check products.
The sellers have not hacked the players, THE MANAFACTURERS HAVE!

We should send emails to them explaining how to fix these players and giving them links to the software. If they dont listen, we then add to a new list of sellers who wont fix or stop selling. (Or noting on ebay page that capacity stated by OS is incorrect)

We could also provide a service on this site selling reformatted, updated software MP4s.... waddya say? If we did it for free, (buy, update, sell at same price), ebayers might love us!

kinhome88 needs to be added aswell, 32gb player but its only a 4gb i think, stopped working, just says HELLO and nothing else.

I've signed and added k-boxz to the list, he's passing off 2gb as 8gb players.

Whilst I can SEE where you are coming from, as an Ebay trader myself with 100% fb - I would have to say no.

If a customer of mine has a problem, I do my best to resolve it with as LITTLE expense to the customer as possible.

The chap I bought the dodgey player off k-boxz, has done nothing but offer excuses and pretty much demanded that I do a return if I want my Money back - unfortunately PayPal is saying the same (what great buyer protection huh).

k-boxz INSISTS upon Insurance before shipping, after stating that Insurance is optional - and then cries when the customer has issues. These are not the actions of an honest and responsible trader.

IF you check the FB left for the greater majority of these Chipod sellers, it all follows the same pattern - I wish I had checked tbh before bidding.

If they were honest sellers, there would be little (or none at all) Negative FB - because they would have sorted out their customers problems to their satisfaction.

I purchased a Rizone 32Gb Mp3 player from mykay168. I got the player, had issues with it, checked around for solutions and stumbled across this forum. Since then I have checked my memory of my player, found it to be a hacked 3.7Gb. This is the stats that H2testw gave me:

Warning: Only 32755 of 32756 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
3.7 GByte OK (7802752 sectors)
28.2 GByte DATA LOST (59279488 sectors)
Details:28.0 GByte overwritten (58816367 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
226.1 MByte corrupted (463121 sectors)
63.5 KByte aliased memory (127 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000000ee1f0000
Expected: 0x00000000ee1f0000
Found: 0x0000000000000000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 15.3 MByte/s
Reading speed: 16.0 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

This is the player I bought.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1.../f883_1_bo.jpg

I have signed the petition and would like mykay168 to be added to the blacklist please. She has other negative feedback for selling hacked flash. Thank you.

Wintersleeps,

I also bought the exact same player...mine was listed as 16GB. Running the H2testw now..it gave me a lot of problems and I think it's also actually 4GB.
Curious to know which seller you bought it from on ebay? I bought mine from intertrade-connection. Working with him to get my refund...

I bought mine from mykay168. I've tried repeatedly contacting her in regards to it, and have had no response back whatsoever. Let me know how your test goes. I've tried adding mp3 files to it (music) and they won't play at all. But I can play music videos with mine. The ebook function doesn't work either. Hopefully I will hear something back from the seller soon.

Winter

Mine works fine, just that the test revealed it only had 1.7GB of actual space available..big difference from 16GB. Aside from that and the sucky touchscreen it plays everything I've tried: mp3, m4a, avi, flv, mpg, txt, pdf, etc. But I opened a dispute with paypal and am also getting to the buyer. My plan is to be as persistent as hell until I get my money back :) :)

After reformatting mine and scrubbing the partition, mine works fine. I can only load 3.7 gigs max on it, anything more and it doesn't wanna work. But everything I have added to it after the format plays with no problems...I recalibrated the touch screen for a pointer (gotta love cheap crochet needles they work wonders). So far no issues with it. I haven't tried the pdf files yet...thats my next project lol. I've opened up a dispute with paypal also, and reported the gal to ebay for excessive shipping (49 bucks when hong kong PO says its only 8.75 usd to send it boxed & insured!) I don't plan on giving up with paypal either. I thought I was getting a namebrand 32GB mp3 (even if it was a chinapod) but instead got a 4 gigger. Oh well...Next time I will know better what to look for.

Winter

YES YES YES! I opened a strongly worded dispute with Paypal last night at 7PM, and received a 100% refund early this morning! I can't believe it. $35 right back in my account. So I got a 2GB touchscreen player completely free!

I don't care that it's crap..it was free. Would you tell me how you did the scrub so that it came up as it's true size? I've got linux so I have the partitioning tools on hand.

Open a strong dispute in paypal. Threaten negative feedback, cases with ebay, and publicity to other ebayers. It seems to get the message across well enough. Good luck!

Congrats on the payback. I'm still waiting to hear from mine. 5 more days and she defaults and paypal awards me anyway. As for scrubbing the partition, I did a dos format, I run windows vista, and it kept giving my explorer issues, so instead of formatting it the easy way (with tools or windows disk manager) I went in dos, scanned the player, found the partition, copied it off so it was safe, then I repartitioned it, gave it the correct format size of 4 gigs and then added back the hidden partition files which now makes it a 3.7gb player. Last night I added pdf ebooks to the player, they show up in explorer button, but won't open. The player now plays all my audio, even flac files (although they are large for the player and can take up the room of 5 normal sized songs). The videos I have added have all been AVM's, their the smallest, and specifically made for handhelds. One movie is approximately 250 MB (180-350MB range) so you can imagine how many full length movies I can get in 4 gigs lmao! Currently I've added 150 songs, and 12 movies and 3 music video's. I can live without the ebook function. Although it does display .txt format files with no problems. The battery lasts about 4 hours when fully charged. Nice thing is that my cell phone charger & car charger are the exact same voltage & plug type. So I am able to not only charge it on my computer, but at any outlet, in the car etc. I was reading a post about a guy that bought a quick charger on ebay for under 10 bucks, and he ran his mp3 off of that giving him a longer playing time. I might look into it and see about extending the battery when I am away from my laptop or a power source.

best2all8888 sells hacked "NEW 32GB 2.8" LCD Touch Screen MP3 MP4 32G VIDEO PLAYER" too.