Response from Alibaba themselves::

Thanks for your email.

We do not offer this service yet. If you want to know if any complaint against members on our site,
you could email to us. We will check its record and reply you with the result.

For more online safe trading tips, please visit:
http://www.alibaba.com/trade/servlet/page/static/safetrade/index.

If you have any further question, please feel free to contact us.


Sincerely Yours,
Alibaba service team
Email: alibaba@alibaba-inc.com

No there is nothing like that. But you can "Search Resources" to the upper right, select "All Discussion Boards" so see if a company has been mentioned here before.

Replying to [FraudWatchersDotOrg]:

I don't understand why they don't create one. I feel Alibaba is as much as responsible for allowing such a platform for scammers to roam. This place is infested with scammers!!!

That is true for most B2B sites. Scammers are a problem everywhere.

Replying to [FraudWatchersDotOrg]:

Why do Alibaba not make it easier to report scams or potential scams..
like having a button to report as a potential scam... as there are buttons to reply to a message or report as spam in the message center..

There should be easier methods to report companies as well, I think someone else in this forum suggested a feedback link as in other online trading sites.

I'm sure it is hard to control, but what proactive steps does Alibaba really take to minimise scams on the site??

Feedback link, do you mean this?

http://www.alibaba.com/trade/servlet/page/static/help/contact_us_answer

It's possible to report companies through there as well.

Replying to [FraudWatchersDotOrg]:

No, I meant something on the company page whereby you could leave feedback about their performance, then people in the future could look at the kind of feedback given by others who have delt with them in the past or who are long standing happy buyers.

Lets face it Alibaba does not go out of its way to prevent or help reduce scam or fraud.

I'm sorry but filling in forms and giving feedback to Alibaba keeps it out of the eye of most of those using Alibaba - I mean only those who go searching for the information are going to be aware if there is a problem, and usually it will be too late.

It needs to be easier for someone who has a bad experience that they can tag the individual company page as a warning to others to be careful.

I know of one such company on Alibaba at present who will just as likely request samples from other suppliers and when it is time to buy the will cease communication. The supplier will not know anything unitl that time.
Not everyone is aware you should email alibaba@alibaba-inc.com and ask if there have been any complaints made about a particular company - and if you fill in the feedback form how is the next guy any the wiser???

There proably is no answer except to do your homework on every company you deal with, no matter where they are from - and demand all payments upfront unitl there is an established relationship - even for samples - as for waiting for good being shipped to see if they arrive or are what you actually ordered, get them inspected by a trusted source before making payment.
its not buyer beware - its everyone beware - sad really.

I think also that there should be a list of all registred alibaba companies and their custumer ratings and maybe a list of FedEx or UPS tracking number for companies that actually shipped or have received something. That would mean that buyer and seller are legit. What do you all think of that ?

Replying to [watchdog]: I think that the Alibaba web page is excellent and you can find a very good prospects for a good business, unfortunatelly you are going to find all the time people who want to take advantage of someone that is new in this business, and I can promise that they have because they are still doing it. And I think that for the people in Alibaba is very difficult to find out if the company is legal or not. We need to take care of this people who is taking advantage of us and may be Alibaba can put a section where the people (us) can put the people who is a fraud and we can check this page and dont waste time with this kind of companies.

Replying to [Renato]:

Interesting point.. if your company is serious then no doubt you will have a DHL or TNT or UPS or Fedex account number..

but how could you use information such as that below - all that tells you is we sent something to China -

59XXXXXX35 Barcelona - Spain Tianjin - China, People's Republic Signed for by: XXX XXX
Shipment delivered August 31, 2006 16:31

The more we deal with people around the world the more I think the buyer paying the shipping cost is fair enough, this shows you are serious - but then again if you don't send a sample you have little chance of a sale... tough one... For us the shipping cost is usuall 5 to 10 ten the value of the samples themselves..

Its up to you to cover your bases and decide if the person at the other end can be trusted. But being able to tell others who can be trusted and who can't be trusted is something that would be very useful in my mind - share information - I'm sure serious companies would not have a problem with this..