After a great number of enquiries to China based Companies I am convinced that most if not 95 % of the companies listed on Alababa are frauds. Here are my findings in my email communications with these so called companies
1. Most all do not have their own Website and use Alababa to avoid whois lookup, to be honest however there are are a few exceptions
2. Most have been in business for only a year or less (no transaction history)
3. You will most likely get a rediculously low quotation for good like $50USD for a $300 Brand Name Camera. Believe it or not I have (Big Red Flag)
4. Most use Hotmail or Gmail
5. When asked, none that I found will provide a Government Export Liscense Number and some will be so bold as to indicate the reason being they are avoiding Taxes (another Big Red Flag, Imagine an American Company stating that? How long wouldthey be in business)
6. I always insist on obtaining a sample of their merchandise for authentication purposes. Most will not provide a single sample but require a MOQ of 10 to 20 pcs I wonder why?
7. Those precious few that do say they will provide a sample usually ask an exorbitant fee. The reason being I believe is when they skip with your funds its worth their efforts
8. If you pressure them into providing additional information such as: physical Business location for on site verification, North American transaction history, satisfied customer look up, etc, they will usually not respond
These are are only a few warning signs but they are enough to make me avoid dealing with any of these frauds. To clarify though I do not by any means paint all Alibaba merchants with the same brush. The truth is I have utilized a number of Chinese Musical Instruments Factories listed on this site with good results and all have been quite honest in their dealings. It seems the Electronics field is especially rampant with scam artists