[silkstone]

I've been reading several reports that there are loads of fake high-capacity USB stick drives being sold - especially on eBay from sellers in China and the Far East.

Typically these will claim to be 16GB or 32GB capacity, and sell for around £10-£20. You would expect to pay over £30 for a genuine 16GB drive, and over £70 for 32GB.

The fakes are hacked low-capacity drives, but they're doctored in such a way that the capacity shows as 16 or 32GB if you look at the drive properties. Also, if you try to save more than the actual (low) capacity, they will appear to do it, but if you then copy the files back again they will be reported as corrupted - understandably, as there wasn't any room for them!

There's plenty of information about this if you Google 'fake USB flash drive', but really the safest option seems to be to buy from a reputable source and give eBay a miss.

[Charlotte]

Thanks for the warning Silky

[j sotelo]

Good eye !

[silkstone]

Cheers.

The really nasty thing about these is that you may not realise they are fakes until you try to copy back from them after their actual capacity has been exceeded. Many of the people giving +ve feedback probably haven't yet discovered that they've been scammed.