B. Non-personal, general greetings

Most fraud emails start with a general greeting such as "Dear Alibaba Member" or "Dear Alibaba User" etc, while emails from Alibaba.com generally start with your First name and Last name.

C. Stress urgency and threaten your Alibaba account status

Most fraud emails:

C-1 • Claim your account was suspended or that you need to verify your account by inputting information about your member ID and password or credit card without any explanation of the reasons;

C-2 • Try and scare you into "urgent action" by threatening that your account will be suspended or closed if you do not follow their instructions and submit sensitive personal information as soon as possible.

C-3 • Include incorrect English, unprofessional expressions

C-4 • Make reference to a User Agreement in order to seem more legitimate

D. Fake links or URL address

Most fraud emails have links included for you to update or submit information-remember that these links can be forged too. Remember if Alibaba requests information from you, we will always direct you back to the Alibaba site. Please do not click the links or URL in any emails to update or submit information.

E. Fake feedback forms

Many fraud emails ask you to submit sensitive information such as member ID and password, credit card details etc by clicking a link or completing a form which is very similar with those at Alibaba.com. Through this ploy, the perpetrators attempted to hijack private and confidential information from Alibaba members.

F. Fake Alibaba signatures

As many fraudsters have received or have access to Alibaba's emails it is easy for them to copy our signatures to their fraud emails in order to seem more legitimate.

If you think you may have been a victim of email fraud, contact our service team by email at alibaba@alibaba-inc.com and sign in to My Alibaba to change your password immediately.