How to Not Get Scammed on Alibaba or from other Online wholesalers.
Posted in: Business, Online scams
Actually you are missing a whole lot. It is the world’s largest business to business marketplace and it is an opportunity you cannot miss.
And whether you believe it or not most of the eBay profitable businesses are depending on alibaba on their supply needs. This is the main reason why eBay power sellers are able to provide you goods for unbelievable prices.
As with anything of this nature, alibaba has become a scammer’s paradise recently.
But when you use alibaba with caution, nothing else can beat the opportunities available for you to make money in this huge market place. Are you satisfied with your $300 a month online income?
The least amount of profit I made through a single deal through alibaba is $800. And the highest profit I made in a single deal so far is recorded at $5500. True, you will not make deals everyday. In my case the last deal I made was in July 6th 2008. Only working 3 days a week is not helping my cause and as much as I love this blog I cannot repair the damage it is doing to my bank account these days. (20% drop in my sales figures both online and offline) Oh, and before going any further I must tell you that all my deals with alibaba is in drop shipping nature. Google the term if you do not know what drop shipping is?
If you want to take a real advantage of this, you must eliminate all the risks of you getting scammed. As I said earlier, with its shot to fame, alibaba has become a real scammer’s paradise. I don’t think this blog is the place to teach you a-z in international trade. There are enough resources available online for your reference. What I can do is giving you few guidelines on the usage of alibaba compiled through my own experience. Here we go,
Top 10 things you should know when using alibaba. The list is in a random order.
The $300 Nokia E90 they are selling is a cheap knock off. And the $20 ipod they are selling is nothing more than a cheap mp3 player. In most countries the consignment will not even pass the custom clearing due to copy right infringement laws. Not only you will lose your money, but there is a high chance of you have to spend few years proving your innocence in courts.
Most of the alibaba suppliers will ask you to send money through western union. What ever the reason they give, you never do that. Once you send money through western union you have no control over it. It is very easy to scam people using western union. Early days I have been a victim of a $2000 fraud through western union. I do not want you to lose your hard earned money. When you see western union as the only payment method listed, do your self a favor and run away from that supplier.
The scam sellers in alibaba will send you images of stock to prove that they have the goods in hand.
For example if you are looking to buy a nokia N95 they will send you images of 100’s of Finland made Nokia N95’s.
But I have experienced,same images are circulated through dozen different suppliers. Either they all are a part of one scam ring or they all have obtained the image from the same source.
When you ask for a sample image always ask to write your name in a piece a paper and take the snaps with it. Just like I have done here.
The image with my partner’s name on it is a fake N95.
The sample images can reveal you a big story. but Don’t trust the supplier just from looking at the sample image. He may have few quality collections of stocks. But that does not mean he will send it your way.
Most of the suppliers in alibaba tent to do shipments through EMS. They will send you a tracking number saying that they have done their part of the deal. It is very easy to create a fake EMS tracking number. So be alert until you receive the goods to your hand.
Most of the sellers will ask you to send money to their “Bank of china accounts”. When they send you the bank details look for the bank name. If it is a personnel name avoid sending a cent. If they are a established entity they must be using a business account and should use them in their business transactions. If this is not the case you might be sending money to a Chinese who is scanning you in his pygamas.
Be rational when making a decision. There is no way that a supplier can offer you a $700 worth product at $200. You will be surprised how many suppliers have these types of prices. True, alibaba is a very good place to find products at filthy cheap prices. But their products do not come out of magic. So do your due diligence when the supplier sends you the quotation.
The supplier may have sent you a real sample. (Paid / Free). That does not mean you can trust him with a $10,000 deal. There are suppliers who send you real samples for quality products. But when you place the big order you will either get scammed or will receive a big consignment of crap. So if the supplier cannot meat other credentials, do not trust him just because he sent you a sample.
Scammers know most people are intelligent enough to do a Google search about the company before doing any transaction with them. So some scammers use reputed company names to scam you. Most of mid level and small scale buyers do not go beyond the level of online contacts when making correspondence. Once we search about their company we will see only good things about them. That’s why we must always send money to business accounts. If the account name is different from the company name they are pretending, Red flag; Run away.
Alibaba is not consisting of only Chinese suppliers. Even I do have an active supplier’s account with them. But most of the supplier’s and the most profitable one’s are from china. If your order level value is over $5000 try to visit the supplier at least once. There are cheap trips available to china if you are bit tight on your budget. Once you verify the supplier you do not have to make repetitive visits.
Before selecting suppliers post your choice in the alibaba forum. There is a section dedicated to reveal scam and fraudulent suppliers. It is always better to do a double check in the forum before making that transaction. I have found many helpful members in the forum. One person eventually became one of my partners and we both together have pulled off so many deals in the past 2 years.
Can the scammers over weigh the importance of alibaba. Definetely NO. You cannot find a better market place if you are running a business. Unless you like selling/buying one item at a time on ebay. If you apply the knowledge you gather from this post and use your intelligence, You will be able to get the best out from alibaba b2b market place. If you are running a small online business I highly encourage you to start something off line too. You have a much better chance competing at your local area rather than competing against thousand of international marketers.
If you like this post, I invite you to subscribe to my RSS feed by using the button at the end of the post. This way ,You can get my latest writings as soon as I publish them.
I appreciate all the readers who Digg, Stumble, Reddit my articles. Only your efforts keep us motivated to run a blog like this. If you have any questions or have something to share please use the comments section. Thank you for your time.
Learn more about following !
drop shipping
alibaba
Do not forget to read,
 |
this is exactly what the doctor ordered for me.Thanks so much for the great article.
I have been scammed by an alibabab supplier. I ordered 3 iphones from a seller and paid money through western union. He blocked me from msn and not replying to my emails. Now I called the phone number but only a record going on.No one is answering. Please help me. Your assistance is highly appreciated.
@thariq
Dear thariq. I replied to your email.
To rest of the readers who are wondering whats going on..
I have one of Chinese friend ( A 63 year old lawyer)call that number. Apparently the place has been shut down by the police. They have got huge number of complains about this company.Since thariq has sent them money very recently there is a chance he can get his money back. My friend is working on that right now.
This information will save lot of people from being scammed. If thariq used due diligence as the author mention here, he wouldn’t have bought i phones from China. People try to buy Nokias from alibaba can be understood..But iphones???? Just a little Google search could have saved him from being scammed.
I wanted to start importing some food products from alibaba. My google search ended up in a site made by a fellow srilankan.I am glad I ended up here and thanks so much for the nice tips.Now I know what to do next time someone contacted me on alibaba trade manager.
for the past 2 months I have been trying to find a good supplier in alibaba to import Nokia phones. Guess it should end here. Even the forum suggested those cheap phones are knock offs. But I did not want to admit it as I badly wanted to believe I can get a N90 for $400 and sell it here for $750. Too good to be true deals are indeed too good to be true.
[...] How to Not Get Scammed on Alibaba or from other Online wholesalers. [...]
[...] many good whole sellers who are not new to drop shipping at alibaba and at worldwidebrands. Read this article to figure out how to not get scammed by whole [...]
i am going to buy a htc phone from Colins Rowland is he a scam
I also (kinda) got scammed. I was going for the new Blackberry Storm phones and already made a $500 western union payment, but after not giving the seller the MTCN code he refused sending the items. I didn’t risk giving him the code just went and got my money back though lost $50 for the Transaction fees at least not all of the $500. I found this article very helpful but what are the best payment methods? Please help. daniksty@yahoo.com
Thanks!
The easiest way to find real dropshippersand avoid scams is to use professional services to help you with your business. I’ve been using Wholesale Match to help me find dropshippers and I haven’t had another problem with scamming companies, ever. I recommend that anyone who wants to find real dropshippers takes my advice and enlists the help of professionals.
@ candy,
Yes, If you can bear the extra cost , it is always advisable to hire assistance from professionals.
What about the trustpass or paid members of alibaba. Are they verified by alibaba. Can we trust the paid members??
i can only thank u for your input every little helps keep up the great work
Thank you very much for good information. You have mentioned NOT to send money thru western union. What ways of payment would you recommend?
[...] http://www.antharjalaya.com/how-to-not-get-scammed-on-alibaba-or-from-other-online-wholesalers/ [...]
Hello,
I run a very small ebay business and just began using alibaba. I can not for the life of me believe that I fell for this petty scam but unfortunately I did. It was for Nokia N95s and an Apple Iphone in the UK. I figured perhaps only deal with U.S. suppliers and U.K. and I would be safe. I did some research and everything. There was a little tweek in the scam. This scammers name is Mr. Carlos Alex from the UK and he told me to send it via western union on a fake name and once I recieve the goods I could change the name to the company accountant. I asked if western union can issue the money with only the mtcn number and she said no. Therefore, I figured it was legite. This just happened to me, if anybody has any suggesstions please let me know asap. Thank You
@ Tamer,
I am not going to say what you could have done as the worst has already happened. Go to your western union agent and tell them the whole incident. The supplier name must have been real as lot of country agents require the receivers to provide identification.
And this person will do the same to other buyers in future. If You can alert the WU network they can catch this scammer. ( I do not know whether WU care about these incidents or not.)
And if the purchase amount is over $1000 you can make a complain to your local police too. I hope you will get your money back.
At least now you know how to be safe in the future.
good post..so now i know what to do and not to do when i start my venture to sell on Alibaba. This site keep giving me more and more information…thanks and keep it up
This information will really help us to avid scamming in online sales…In my own thoughts if you are buying online be sure that you know the site..like look for the feedback about the site and research anything about the seller where your are buying an item..
Great Article!!!!! Frequent Alibaba user myself. Have made mistakes using Alibaba, but have also made very good profits.
NEVER USE WESTERN UNION!!!!! You will not get your money back. Always use paypal where you have some form of assistance and proof in retrieving your money. There are some great suppliers out there, do your research and you will be fine.
Hi Antharjalaya,
You mentioned in the beginning that do not trade in mobile phones and electronics. But thee are the only two things or you can say the industry I am aware of. Then what else should I sell or buy or trade. What other product has potential of selling?
I am from New York.
Harprit Singh
This is Jason from China supplier .
buyers want to buy good quality goods with lower price.but the problem is how to do it!!!
that is very good! but i must replenish something.
Chinese people want to know what do you think of? however you want to know what do chinese people think of. Like that there is no trust in each other.
aaa.. some people may think 3-part supplier,they have not own factory to produce goods,in fact they find factory in china.they join many many shows. you can saw them face to face.Like this, they show you a big company. But in fact they earn you and real supplier money. you can’t save money.
so you can get more information from professional guild who know much real information.but the problems is how to do it!
3-part supplier is not ok
visit directly supplier factory is not okey! there is a suitation that the supplier will show you ohter people factory.
Please contact with me if have any questions, i will discuss with you.
Best Regards,
Jason
daolilai@gmail.com
Good article, people like you help to make real business!
I’d like to know what kind of products you sell or buy?
Greetings,
LM.
Done so much googleing over the past week I am surprised to only find this site now.. Great stuff. Any take on buying video games on Alibaba. These can’t be copied I don’t think except maybe XBOX. I saw a vendor that says in large print that his XBOX games are cracked. That was honest. So I figur not all are scammers. Thing is you always see people talking about the bad experiences but never the good. Makes it real hard to shake the fear factor. Have also read that people get scammed even with Paypal. Vendor emties the account before Paypal can retrieve it for you. Just have be willing to place small orders to test a vendor. If it works out, great. If not, at least it was not a huge loss. Not sure what to do. Do know, as mentioned above, that Ebay power sellers are doing it. Would like to know how they found trustworthy vendors. Any advice is welcome.
[...] How to Not Get Scammed on Alibaba [...]
Post a Comment