are all numbers easily readable? if you are 100% sure you entered it correctly then its a fake.
acekard stopped selling to resellers outside of china years ago. if real host stuff is ordering from a wholesaler then there is no way to be sure what they purchased are legit acekards or the 1:1 clone that uses the recycled anti-counterfeit code. i do know that they bought up 0shippingzone and created realhotstuff.hk, so it is entirely possible that their chinese site is buying directly from acekard.
you really can't go to war with their return policy unless you are 100% sure you can read each number clearly and that you entered it correctly. the sequence is the top left 5, the top right 5, the bottom left 5, the bottom right 5.
-another world