As I am going through and documented some of the things I did for this project, I felt obligated to post this one first, since it is DANGEROUS and MISLEADING for the average hobbyists. The VAST majority of cheap "Protected" 18650 cells available on eBay and other sites are not protected, even if they are labelled as protected on the wrapping. 

As part of this project, 3 different brands of 18650s "Protected" Cells from ebay were bought and tested, and two of them were found not to contain any kind of protection whatsoever. (Note: This testing was done spring of 2017)

The worst offender was these cells, which are still listed as protected online, but after the university raised hell the "Protected Cell" label on the cell wrapper itself seems to have been removed.  

They are not protected and definitely are not rated to 6000mAh. We did a discharge test and got 50 mAh out of the cells. Its obvious if you look at the bottom of the cell and notice there is not the bulge of a protection PCB and there is not a strip under the wrapper running up the side to the top of the cell.  

The other big offender was any of the Skywolfeye brand cells. Again after the University intervened, the "Protected" seems to have been removed from the cell wrapper but they still can be found listed as protected online. 

Once again they are not 5800 mAh. After testing we got a maximum capacity of 600 mAh. 

Now the good news is all of the Ultrafire cells we tested were protected, and after disassembly they all used the same cheap IC used in the 18650 TP4056 usb chargers with built in battery protection. What that means is the cut off current is surprisingly low, and any current draw over about 1 amp results in the oven circuit protection tripping. (Which is good ,as I doubt theses cells are safe for much over .5C)

Basically the rule of thumb is if the battery capacity is over 3400 mAh or costs less than $5 a cell, it's not a reliable cell. In addition, if you do not see a ribbon under the wrapper or a disk on the bottom of the cell, it's not protected. 

Here is a protected cell with a clear wrapper so you can see what I am talking about

The cheapest cells we've found were from liionwholesale.com, and they are shipped according the US law. 

Hopefully someone finds this helpful, and stay safe hacking!