I've only been a member here a couple of weeks, but it feels like years already.I've had every tom,****, and god knows who trying to sell me their ipods, digital cameras, psp's etc... with of course the wonderful "western union" being the preferred payment method. No thank you.

I estimate that I could have lost over $50,000 to scammers in 2 weeks, if I had it to lose.That brings me to point 2..the genuine seller. I've found a few of those to, much to my ever increasing surprise. But, can I spend my money with them....no!! All the companies i've found so far selling the latest fads come from 1 of2 angles....

1) I'll sell my ipod nano to big business for $150, to you it's $240, add on delivery and V.A.T and you might make $5 profit as a reseller ,if you're lucky.

2) Go away little man, your 5 grand a month isn't worth my time. Why shouldI take time proving to you i'm real, I shift a zillion units a month, I don't need you.

Cons and business for the small guy!! Am I missing something, or can a guy with a starting bank of only £5,000 per month to start off with, just not make any profit selling ipods, psps and the like? H-E-L-P I need advice.

Aliababa needs to do a much better job with policing all these scam supplier from China.  Its becoming a waste of time using Alibaba.  I will stick to going to trade show and doing business the old fashion way.  Meet the seller in person and see their product and factory. 

For start up, its better to source from your local supplier and build your business slowly but surely.  Rome wasn't build in one day.  Building a business takes time.  Alibaba should adopt Ebay's feedback section. 

Hi
1 Mostly these emails will be in capitals letters.

2 he will never specify or talk about a product.

3 he will only talk about investing some 10 to 30% of his money for you.

4 he will directly seek your all the telephone, cell # , address etc

5 he will make a request to call him on his phone.

6 he must be enjoying a big posision in the some bank or tender awarding commetie.

7 mostly he will be from some affrican country.

8 Normally these mails will be borring and lengthy.
and you can find many other clues

best regards
Rakesh Semwal

Quoting from [Donna]:

Thanks For your information.

If anyone who has experience to distinguish those fake traders, please share your tips here.

However, if we obtain any evidence showing that the company is in question or is involved in any fraudulent activities on Alibaba.com, we will deactivate the account immediately.

If you suspect any other fraudulent activity on Alibaba.com, please notify us immediately at alibaba@alibaba-inc.com

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

Please also note that most scammers don't know how to spell either.

Will also have conflicting statements. Such as were to send or there own address and sometimes even there names. LOL!

The safest way , except the obvious lack of expertise in communication is to check the previous transactions with reliable companies. Altough it takes time and is sometimes disappointing , it can save you your cash.

this is going to be a two parter:

PART 1
I know that sounds too unrealistic, but it seems that's what it is going to have to come down to so that problem can be greatly reduced. A blacklist is only good for that particular name. A person can come in here under 100's of different ID's over and over and over again.

But, until then the safest way of dealing with sellers is to ask a lot of questions and do a check of their background.

Everyday i recieve tons of emails from "nigerian based companies" offering products that are either available no where else due to shortages or products at prices too good to be true. Ask the right questions and they will go away mad.

ask for references
ask for their address their business credentials and check them out(if they even give you any of that, they'll usually stumble up and give a stupid explanation as to why they can't)
ask them to accept an alternate payment solution (paypal, escrow, etc.) again they will back away or give every reason why not too.

Sellers, let's be frank. when they send us emails wanting to buy stuff you know they basically all say the same thing, lol here are some examples of emails i get on a daily basis.:


Dear Seller,

I am Jennifer Richie from USA, i will like to purchase this item which i will be shipping to nigeria where it is needed by my collegue so i will send the payment via INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDER so i want you to send me your full name and address and your phone number so that i can send the MONEY ORDER so get back to me with the cost of the item and the shipping cost so get back to me asap.

Thanks.


________________________________________________________

hello,
i just saw your item on yahoo and i want to purchase it for my client in africa for christmas gift and i will like to ask you some question(1)can this work in africa?(2)can you ship out via dhl or fedex?(3)how much do you which to sell it last including the shipping?if you can do this i will only pay you with my instant credit card via Postal Money Order and you will cash the funds today.if you agree get back to me @ my central office e-mail address winstoncarly2002@yahoo.com with your full name and address with the total cost of the item pluz shipment to africa,so i can proceed with the payment right away...Thanks...Best Regards..

___________________________________________________

bola akeem wrote:
Hello Seller

I just place a look on your item and i am intrested in immediate
purch of this item,but before i proceed on this transaction i will like
to ask some question as follow.
1. Do you accept a (bidpay / paypal ) as a mode of
payment?
2. What is the final asking prize you can go at last? 4 Will
3.name an you full detils like you full name:
adress:
state:
country:
phone number:

END OF PART 1

PART 2



__________________________________________

I am a gary duglas i am located in london in UK my client is interested in immediate purchase of your item.After several consideration over the advert placed on the website,my client has really shown interest in it and would really want to issue the payment in form of us postal money orderand cashier check.Will you be accepting a money order or cashier check?ok Please contact me asap via email with your full name and addrress phone number and total price for the items including shipping cost,for futher questions as regards this transaction if you really show willingness in selling this item asap.Thank You and I am expecting your response asap








It's pretty obvious when you receive these it's just a bunch of bull....

Just pay attention to the obvious and you shouldn't have any problems. when they do contact you or if you know they are shady/scammers report them to alibaba. I do it everyday and alibaba is very good at removing them.

matter of fact here is a perfect example of a chat with a company on here trying to sell me phones all i wanted was to be able to verify references with them:


this one is on alibaba under the name peters godwin , he was selling nokia phones at very very unbelievable prices.:

Peters Godwin: hello
Adam Cooke: are you the person referred by march tech?
Peters Godwin: nope
Adam Cooke: oh ok
Peters Godwin: i am Godwin
Peters Godwin: and i deal in the sales of mobile phones
Adam Cooke: do you do business with anyone in the united states?
Peters Godwin: i dont seeme to understand you
Adam Cooke: do you sell in united states
Peters Godwin: yes
Adam Cooke: do you have customers in u.s.
Adam Cooke: do you have a price list of your phones?
Peters Godwin: we sole deal in the sales of nokia phones
Adam Cooke: ok
Adam Cooke: do you have a price list?
Peters Godwin: the price list depend on the phone you really want to buy
Peters Godwin: what actual nokia phone do you want to buy
Adam Cooke: nokia n90 n70 6230
Adam Cooke: what are your prices
Peters Godwin: Nokia N90 is $250
Peters Godwin: Nokia N70...$230
Peters Godwin: 6230....$90
Adam Cooke: those are good prices
Adam Cooke: can i speak to your customers in u.s.
Peters Godwin: ok
Peters Godwin: we dont normally do that
Peters Godwin: where are you located?
Adam Cooke: in the united states
Adam Cooke: i would like to speak to some references before i do business
Peters Godwin: thanks for your time but our company dont normally do that for the protection of our service and most customer dont really like it
Adam Cooke: okay goodbye
Peters Godwin: if you want to deal with us we can still build trust here
Adam Cooke: i am sorry i would need references from people saying they do business with you in the u.s. I'm sorry but trust has to be proven
Adam Cooke: have a good day


The more people ask you to trust them, the more you can't. remember that.

Has anybody here ever done any legitimate business with a west African company?

We have uncovered so many frauds and scams coming out of west Africa that we had to make a policy against doing any business with them. If the inquiry is from west Africa (Nigeria, Benin, Ivory Coast, Togo) or mentions Africa in any way, we are to ignore the message or reply that we do not do business with west Africa.

This is a very sad situation for legitimate African companies, if they exist.

Thus far, our experience with west African companies has been bad and this has also been the case with every other business I have spoken with.

How about you? Has anyone out there ever had a good business transaction with a west African business?

Replying to Donna:

you can do a better job screening people when they apply for membership. And monitor the flow of outbound email. If they are sending an unusually large amount of outbound email in the first 24 hours of membership check the message. A blind man can tell if they are a scamming or not.

Also, trust passess should be equal with gold suppliers. or a different rating system but equal.

Suppliers, trade companies and agents should be rated more equality and clearly identified.

thats a good idea to expose these cons i have tons of emails from companies most of the Chinese and when i ask for some personal pictures for proof of stock and company info they get upset "if you dont trust me ****" alibaba has to do something about these frauds i will post some emails to expose some of these companies