New tricks of scam — A Story





Here we want to share you a real story ---- a story of a buyer who called James from Spain.

James wanted to buy a Sony PS3, he registered as a free member on Alibaba.com, the biggest B2B platform in the world. To get a best price for the goods, he sent a lot of inquiries out to different suppliers and finally got a reply from a supplier which claimed from Shenzhen Amazei Technology Co., Ltd. The supplier claimed that they could offer a very low price. Noticing Amazei is a 6-year gold supplier on Alibaba, James was very happy with the low price and quickly paid via Western Union according to the supplier’s request, and waited for the items he wanted.



The seller sent him a tracking number several days later. However, James couldn't open that link, he contacted the supplier for clarify, but no reply. James then realized he’s probably been scammed and filed a complaint against Shenzhen Amazei Technology Co., Ltd. to Alibaba.com. However, they don’t know James at all. It is someone else who scammed him.



How to find out the truth?



James sent inquiries to many different suppliers for quotation of the goods he wanted at Alibaba.com. Shanghai Goldencrown Trading Co., Ltd. received his inquiry, and they were pretending to be from Shenzhen Amazei Technology Co., Ltd. And they also sent Amazei’s Alibaba webpage to him. James didn’t realize that he never sent an inquiry to Amazei at all.



After investigation, Alibaba.com Online Security Dept. found out it is Shanghai Goldencrown Trading Co., Ltd. who behind the fraud case. After that, Alibaba.com pushed Goldencrown to refund to the buyer and terminated Goldencrown’s account at Alibaba.com for his fraud behavior.



Who are the targets of scammers?



Some small buyers are easily lured by unreasonable low price, e.g. they are too excited to believe they can buy an Apple Ipad for only half of the market price. They were told to pay all the money before receiving the goods, usually through Western Union to personal account. Unfortunately they did this obediently.

Sometimes they totally believe Gold Suppliers on Alibaba.com, and never do telephone or online inspections before payment. Actually, Gold Suppliers are premium members on Alibaba.com. Their basic company information has been authenticated and verified by a third party to ensure the legitimacy of their organization(s). However, the verification does not include a reputation check.



How to avoid being scammed?



For how to avoid that happen, please take the following steps to verify if it’s a true supplier you are contacting:

a) Pay attention to those companies who relied you that you didn’t send inquiry to.



b) Usually, a true supplier contacts a buyer via his company’s mail address. Please be precautious if you get a reply via a private mail address and ask for an official one. You can find this on their official webpage on Alibaba.



c) Check whether the company’s name is consistent with the name they provided to you, then made a phone call to them according to that page’s phone no and verify if the payment receiver account is ok, this way will have a great assurance to avoid the falsely case. Please don’t remit your money via Western Union or to a private account, unless you know well each other.



d) Check the buyer’s website for the products you want. If the item you want is not there, be cautious. If you see there are many products of different brands like Apple, Sony, Dell and etc, you should think about the feasibility. Which company can handle so many products? More or less, they are luxury. You need pay hundreds of US dollars for one single item. Big brands usually have their direct legal distributors all over the world.



e) Compare the offer sent from the supplier with the market level. A fraudulent company usually attracts the buyer with unreasonably low price. Please don’t be greedy and keep your brain conscious before a conclusion. Everyone loves bargain, and that’s why people never be stopped cheated.