Buying from Alibaba.com...?

Question

Hi, I am considering buying from a supplier from China from Alibaba.com. However, their only payment methods are Western Union and telegraphic transfer. I have heard that both of these payment methods can be (and often are) used to scam buyers. But, the supplier is listed as one of Alibaba's "Gold Supplier"s which supposedly means they are "trustworthy"... What should I do??

Buffy Staffordshire · Accepted Answer

Nope, sorry, being a Gold Supplier means nothing.

You should find another supplier.

That is a fake website pretending to sell cheap merchandise.

Any site that advertises merchandise cheaper than the official manufacture's website is a fake site shipping gosh awful crappy knock-offs or simply collecting cash and not even bothering to ship fakes.

The pictures on the site look like the real merchandise because those pictures ARE of the official merchandise. Those pictures were stolen from the official manufacture's website. If you receive anything at all, which is doubtful, it will not resemble those pretty pictures at all.

The payment options say it all, Western Union and bank transfer, only anonymous cash payments.

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.

Your bank can only get your money back if there is money left in the scammer's bank account. Scammers know this and will immediately withdrawal the money you transferred. No money in the account means absolutely no possibility of you getting your hard-earned cash back.

In all seriousness, when something goes wrong, what will you do? Send an email that is ignored and blocked? Send chat requests until you are ip banned? Call internationally and speak fluent Chinese?

The UPS, TNT and DHL icons are there only to take up space, that site only ships with EMS, the Chinese post office, good luck getting the "tracking number" they give you to work on the EMS website. You will need even more luck trying to contact EMS when your tracking stops and your "package" is lost somewhere.

You could then be really lucky, your "package" is discovered, seized by "customs" and all you need to do is pay even more money via Western Union or moneygram to the "custom's official" who uses a free email address just like that site has a free email address as its contact information.

Free email addresses are easy to open and close completely anonymously.

If you google "alibaba scam", "fraud Western Union seller" or something similar, you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.

2011-08-22 23:00:27

Kittysue · Answer

A Gold Supplier does not always mean a supplier is 100% legit -- Alibaba executives resigned and staff were fired. Because there were so many fraudulent Gold Suppliers on the site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12521833
"Alibaba's chairman and founder, Jack Ma, said the company had picked up a spike in the number of fraudulent transactions conducted on its site by so-called China Gold Suppliers members.

These members undergo more rigorous checks on their reliability and are supposed to be the most trustworthy on its site.

Alibaba said some supervisors and sales managers had either intentionally or negligently allowed fraudulent online "storefronts" to be created, which had let 2,326 suppliers trade without authentication and verification measures.

The company said 100 of its sales representatives, out of a sales workforce of 5,000, had been fired for alleged involvement in the scam."

There is NO way I would buy from any supplier that only accepts Western Union or telegraphic transfer - two payment methods that are non-refundable. And the only way you would ever have a hope of getting your money back would be to fly to China and spend almost a year there pursuing this through the courts system. The scammers know there is no chance of this happening - you'd be spending a few hundred thousand on legal fees, translators, private investigators to find the scammers in the first place, travel arrangements, living arrangements, court costs

Micahel Easter · Answer

Robertthedude,rnrnIf you're considering buying from a supplier that's listed on Alibaba you should steer clear and run as fast as you can from any supplier there who only excepts Western Union or TT.  They are SCAMMERS big time.  And it doesn't matter if they are listed as "Gold Suppliers" because I know of a couple of people who were scammed because the supplier was listed as a gold supplier but only accepted WU & TT.  Guess what?  They paid their hard earned money for smart phones and never got them.rnrnIf you're seriously considering buying from suppliers from China I would make sure the methods of payment include Visa or MasterCard or PayPal or Escrow.  At Alibaba's sister site AliExpress you can get the same type of merchandise and be assured you will receive the item(s) you pay for because they offer the methods of payment I just mentioned above.  Using Escrow is the probably the best because after you pay for an item, the money is placed into escrow (hold) and they are not released until you have confirmed that you have received the item. Also with PayPal you can always file a claim/dispute to get your money back if you don't get your item and the same with a credit card.rnrnWestern Union and TT offer absolutely no protection for you, so don't pay any attention to the gold supplier thing.  Just make sure if you're going to purchase an item, you have a way to get your money back if the item is not delivered.

Anonymous · Answer

Alibaba is a legitimate b2b platform website, and there are plenty of legitimate sellers on there. The problem is that since it's a huge platform, there are also scammers. If you're worried about using Western Union or money transfers, PayPal is a much safer way to go, but since PayPal terminated its contract with Aliexpress this June, that's no longer an option on the site.

You should ask your seller if he also has an account on dhgate.com. It's very similar to AliExpress but accepts PayPal. Trade2cn.com also accepts PayPal. Both are recommended by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Another way to avoid scams is to talk with your seller and keep a record of all your conversations. For example, you should make sure to ask if the goods you're buying are counterfeit. If he says they're not, you should ask, well, if I receive goods different from the picture will you pay for shipping to ship them back to China? In case he tries to cheat you later, you can offer documents of your conversation up as evidence to the dispute resolution team at whichever site you wind up using.

As long as you don't run into a scamming buyer, the sites are perfectly fine.

Anonymous · Answer

The gold membership is not awarded because the supplier is trustworthy. One needs only a business license and RMB29800 (used to be 19800) to earn it.

I suggest you buy from a supplier accepting Paypal.

PS: Most vendors in alibaba.com or similar sites are WHOLESALERS, not retailers.

Anonymous · Answer

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ALOK S · Answer

Very useful suggestions.rnNice explanation.rnThank you to share all ideas and experience.

radish · Answer

If you have friends in China, you can ask them to investigate the supplier for you.

Buying from Alibaba.com...?

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