Is this a scam alibaba.com and western union?

Question

I went on alibaba.com today to look for a bike and found a company called bike force in australia. The bike is a Trek Remedy 7 2011.MSRP is 3000. When i click to find the price it puts me in a chat with the guy who tells me the price is $1800 and $100 to ship. I have never used alibaba.com or western union before. So if someone with experience with either could help me, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Anthony

Buffy Staffordshire · Accepted Answer

100% scam.rnrnThat is a fake website pretending to sell cheap merchandise.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.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 "alibaba scam", "fake seller Western Union scam" or something similar, you will find hundreds of posts from victims of fake companies pretending to sell on alibaba.

InspectorBudget · Answer

Be very careful, they are asking you for payment through Western union which is a huge Danger Signal.

A legitimate company will happily accept a Credit Card, especially if they are selling such an expensive item.

Alibaba.com is a Chinese company, and is not subject to the regulations and rules of the US or Europe.

This has all the signs of a scam. I strongly advise you to move on.

Kittysue · Answer

A legitimate Australian company would NEVER ask for payment through Western Union for any reason, They would accept credit cards - period

If you want to lose $1900 to some scammer, go ahead

Here is the REAL Bike Force in Australia - they don't even sell Trek bikes if you look on their brands
http://www.bikeforce.com.au/
I just attempted to buy something on the site and went to the checkout page and they ONLY accept credit card payments on their secure https:// checkout page - no Western Union, no Paypal, no other payment methods
Here are their REAL contact details http://bikeforceaustralia.bikeit.com.au/site_pages/58-contact-us

Sorry but you found a scammer impersonating a legitimate business and need to report this ASAP to Alibaba to get their profile shut down

Anonymous · Answer

Yes, it's most likely a scam. Here's what happens: She sends you a check for $3000 and you get cash for it. You send the $3000 via Western Union to her. In the meantime, eventually your bank realizes the check is a FAKE and bounces back. They can then charge YOU $3000 that you will have to pay back to the bank. Then the supposed girl in Nigeria has $3000 cash and you owe your bank $3000! Absolutely do not do it.

Mr Poison · Answer

If you use Western Union you have no recourse to get your money back. It is the scammers method of choice to scam money from you.

Askjoshua · Answer

idk prob ive done it before it sucks

Is this a scam alibaba.com and western union?

Answers