I want to purchase something from alibaba.com using western union, is it safe?

Question

I am interested in purchasing wholesale items from alibaba.com.  They will not accept paypal, only western union.  I have never used WU before.  I am nervous because they claim to be shipping from michigan but have a UK western union address.  How well can I trust this?  Their english isn't very great either.  Should I take a risk or may I be out $160? Advice?

Buffy Staffordshire · Accepted Answer

100% scam.rnrnThat is a fake website pretending to sell cheap merchandise and NO, they are not "shipping from Michigan", if they even ship anything at all, it will come from China.rnrnAny 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.rnrnThe 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.rnrnThe payment options say it all, Western Union and moneygram. The credit card icons are just there for show, that site does not accept credit cards, only anonymous cash payments.rnrnWestern 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.rnrnIn 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?rnrnThe 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. If they really were shipping from the state of Michigan in the United States they would ship with UPS not the Chinese post office.rnrnYou 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. rnrnFree email addresses are easy to open and close completely anonymously.rnrnIf you google "fake alibaba shipping scam", "western union shipping fraud" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts of victims and near victims of this type of scam.

Nyteslayer · Answer

No! Absolutely Not. It will not be a risk but a straight forward giving your $160.00 to a thief. Western Union is a legitimate company but it is a well known fact that most Disreputable Vendors, Scam and Con artists are known to prefer Western Union because the victims have NO WAY to recover the money or even verify who received payment.

Read the excerpt below:

"The Western Union Scam
t

This scam is becoming one of the most common scams used by scammers and very closely resembles the Romanian Laptop Scam already found on this site.

Essentially, a Western Union scam is any scam that takes place using the Western Union method of payment.

Most commonly, there is a situation where a buyer pays for something via Western Union, and then never receives what was paid for; or the buyer pays for an item via Western Union, and then receives an item of a value far lower than what was actually paid for..."

As for alibaba Dot Com: another excerpt:

"Alibaba.com
Posted: 2011-06-02 by tt select69us t
t
SCAM AND FAKE COMPANY
Complaint Rating: 0 % with 0 votes
Company information:
Mitsumi Electronics (BP) Sdn Bhd
Malaysia
alibaba.com

URGENT PLEASE READ Big time scam FRAUD from two companies, one company from alibaba.com based in Malaysia, Mitsumi Electronics (BP) Sdn Bhd and second the shipping company they used based in UK. EMS shipping company. .."

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/alibabacom-c461627.html

Better yet take a look at the search page results...

Whatever it is you want to buy--You can probably find it on Amazon or Ebay not to mention a thousand other online sellers who will not cheat or steal from you.

Good Luck.

2011-06-09 19:36:06

pisklo · Answer

Alibaba Western Union

Kittysue · Answer

Not safe at all - it's the unsafest way to pay for anything. Even Western Union warns you to never use WU to pay for any online purchases. WU should ONLY be used to send money to friends and family living overseas. Period

This is a Nigerian scam - they are not in the UK or Michigan. They are usually Nigerian scammers who set up fake companies on Alibaba pretending to be elsewhere and just want to steal your $1600 with NO way to ever get it back. NONE. Once you send that money it's gone forever - no refunds. The police can't help because the scammer is overseas, out of US law enforcement jurisdiction

The Western Union address means nothing - anyone with the MTCN number can pick up that money anywhere in the world. You might think you are sending to John Smith in London, UK but Adewale Eko in Lagos Nigeria or Jose Sanchez in Lima Peru or Ivana Pivorarova in Moscow can pick up that money if they have the MTCN number. The address you put is irrelevant

Alibaba is just a listing site, there is no verification of who is legit or not unless people report a company as a scam. And if you saw the news a few months ago, executives at Alibaba were actually forced to resign as employees complicit in allowing fake companies to post
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12521833

2011-06-10 03:13:23

I want to purchase something from alibaba.com using western union, is it safe?

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