This month I have been scammed out of $1100 on www.alibaba.com by a Gold Member. I have dealt and still deal with 2 genuine Alibaba sellers, so I do know that there are decent guys out there in China.


The details of the name of the scam person I sent money to was Deyou Chen in Putian City, Fujian, China. The fradulent company was Xiamen Zhongpin Technology and they are no longer registered on Alibaba, but I am sure that they are still on there using some other name.


Anyway, I have greatly analysed myself to see the signs that I could have picked up to indicate that I was dealing with a scammer/fraudster.
I have prepared a list below of all the current Gold Member sellers on Alibaba who I believe are scammers. There are a few clues:


1. These sellers list many items in many different product categories, normally the highly desirable items such as Laptops, Ipods, top or the range mobile phones, PDAs, GPS Navigation systems, Nike trainers/sneakers, bikinis, jewellery, watches, handbags... This is a big clue that they are out to scam you. Also, some of them state that they are a clothing company yet they are listing products for electrical goods...


2. They are all from Putian City, Fujian Province, China. I have since discovered that this place is rife with fraud.


3. They all request payment via Western Union or T/T (Telegraphic Transfer), where they have bank transfer details it is in the name of a person not a company name. (Please note that I do send money via Western Union to a company that I have been dealing with for 2 years in China, so sending money via Western Union does not necessarily mean that someone is scamming.)


4. They claim to have been trading since before 2007 yet they have only been registered on www.Alibaba.com since 2007. This is another sign of a scam.


5. You will frequently find them available to chat to on Alibaba's TradeManager, Yahoo Messenger or MSN at unsociable hours in China. (i.e when most people and legitimate businesses are sleeping in China they are up trying to ensnare you and get you to wire them money. They will give you excuses like they work hard - yes this is correct because they work hard to try to scam you!)


Some of these companies will send you a non-existent tracking no. after you have made payment. The sad thing is that alot of them have been reported to www.Alibaba.com for not sending anything and Alibaba has done absolutely nothing to remove these gold member scammers from their site. I feel like someone with more resources should take some legal action against Alibaba and www.yahoo.com for aiding and abetting rampant fraud. (Yahoo, www.Yahoo.com, owns part of www.Alibaba.com and they get a fee everytime someone registers as a gold member) The way I see it, Alibaba should require extra verification and proof of stock from people applying for Gold membership in Fujian Province, China.

So, I hope I will help prevent others from being scammed too by providing more information on the internet - information which I myself did not have before I sent my money to the female scammer.

The list in my next post contains some of the scammers I have identified. If you are lucky to get your order delivered it will be a fake, like a fake iPhone or a fake Nokia N95. I have read so many instances where people who ordered mobile phones, such as the Nokia N95 have received only what can be described as a toy phone.