old story:

Ali Baba and the forty thieves

New story:

Alibaba.com and the forty thousand thieves.

 

alibaba.com is as guilty as the scammers..

by not demanding proof of identification from account holders,

by allowing scammers to sign up with free email addresses,

and by not blocking telegraphic transfer or western union as acceptable payment methods.

come on alibaba, you have a good site here, but it needs a good hard scrubbing to clean out the dirty traders (scammers)

You think this is a good site? I am not the judge of that to tell you I've never trade on here.
Did you pay to join this site? And if we all pay to join, you think Alibaba would screen their suppliers to make us trade safer. I think alibaba makes their money with the wrong side.

good site,? maybe.. the idea is good, getting manufacturers and wholesale distributors together in the same place for trade..

did I pay to join? no.
but... I didnt pay to join ebay either.... and I've only been ripped off AU$8.50 once there, and that was years ago. once. in over a thousand transactions.
I am a BUYER, not a seller.

If I were a 'real' manufacturer, or 'real' distributor, seller, (not a scammer) I would pay to have my stuff listed here.. the exposure to many thousand of business buyers is quite good.

I'm still trying to work out where Alibaba actually makes money, apart from charging for a 'gold membership'
If they're making money from placing the ads, then its probably making them more money by allowing the scammers on here, kicking them off, then letting them back on. but if they're allowing free member accounts to list their products for free, then where are they making the money?
its got to be from somewhere....

the first step to 'cleaning up their act' would have to be allowing ONLY emails from top-level domains to list products, and barring free email addresses (eg hotmail, yahoo gmail etc)
that's not perfect, but its a start.

next would be promoting Escrow services and barring T/T and Western Union transfers.
again, not perfect, but would at least cripple some scammers' tactics.

demanding some form of identification from seller acount holders would help too, again, not perfect, but each of these steps go some of the way to cleaning up this site.

but, simply saying 'buyer beware' doesnt help. many times Ive looked in this forum for info on a supplier.. and there's been no indication that they're a scam, and then find out a day or a week later that they are.

I wish you good luck in your trades, I'm going back to Ebay!
Richard in sydney

agreed

well..
I found two more scammers, sent their contact details thru to alibaba, and received a very nice 'we're not going to do anything about it' email in return.

Date: Fri Mar 27 15:30:00 PDT 2009
Subject: Re: Spam, Fraud and Complaints



I have two more frauds for? you...

http://www.alibaba.com/member/id105500722/contactinfo.html
http://www.alibaba.com/member/id105514163/contactinfo.html

note: same phone number, two different addresses.

both are scammers.

Richard in sydney

and the reply:

alibaba@alibaba-inc.com wrote:
>
> Dear Richard XXXXX,
>
> Thanks for your email.
>
> We have made a record of these two companies in our database. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to verify that they have engaged in fraudulent activities on Alibaba.com.
>
> However, if we obtain any evidence that the companies in question are involved in any fraudulent activities, we will de-activate the accounts. If you suspect any other fraudulent activity on Alibaba.com, please notify us immediately.
>
> Thanks again for your information.
>
> For more safe online trading tips, please visit: http://resources.alibaba.com/trade_safe/home.htm.
>
> If you have any further questions, please visit our Help Center at http://www.alibaba.com/trade/help/helpcenter or contact us at anytime.
>
> Sincerely,
> Alibaba.com Service Team
> Email: alibaba@alibaba-inc.com
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Chat With Trade Partners Live for FREE!
> http://trademanager.alibaba.com


Alibaba.com and the forty thousand thieves!!!!!!

One possible Idea, might be for Alibaba to

ask an insurance,deposit,from all gold members,

of like 500,1000,dollars, guarantee against

fraudulant activity, whereby if the said

trusted company defrauds a member, and the

member has all the said proofs, of this deed.

then,the deposit of trust, shall we call it,

which would be held by alibaba can be used

to pay back the said party, alibaba could

then maybe act as big brother, to ensure safe

trading, and bring back much trust and confi

dence in buying here, also alibaba could

reduce,payback this fund to gold member,

and pay back, say 25% to gold member each

year of increased membership,and of course

if the buisness,folds or ends,without any

issues, return the deposit.just a thought.

totally agree!!! I've already suggested a security deposit to them, but I had suggested returning it in full in only six months. a bona-fide trader would agree to that.

got a reply from them today:

Dear Richard XXXX,

Thanks for your email.

Firstly, please kindly note Alibaba as a service provider will not get involved in members' transactions. And those two companies are free members on our website. As for our free members, they do not und-ergo an Authentication and Verification check. Therefore, we cannot confirm their legitimacy or the accuracy of the information they have provided.

Only based on the phone number, we can not verify that they have engaged in fraudulent activities on Alibaba.com. If you have extra proof about these two companies, please provide them to us for checking purpose.

Alibaba endeavors to bring a safe trading platform for our members. And we will surely get rid of the fraud companies once they are proven guilty. But before we take action, we need to collect proof firstly. It is unfair to close the members' accounts without any proof.

Your understanding on this matter will be highly appreciated.

If you have any further questions, please visit our Help Center at http://www.alibaba.com/trade/help/helpcenter or contact us at anytime.

Sincerely,
Alibaba.com Service Team
Email: alibaba@alibaba-inc.com

bottom line:someone has to lose their hard earned $ before alibaba will act.

I had to put a hyphen in 'und-ergo' because their filter blocked that word....pity they cannot block the frauds!!
as Alibaba has been alerted to these 'traders', any fraud is now the fault of Alibaba.com.

there are a lot scammers in alibaba. i totally agree .really .. Because i have been cheated by one man from iran since we meet each other in alibaba. He makes me nearly bankrup . terrible thing . i'm now still returning the money to other people for him . my God .

Alibaba continues to harbor criminals and they know this. Although it is harder and harder to catch and filter criminals, Alibaba nees to adapt to that too and give the Buyers better resources to make decisions. An example would be Ebay, they have a points system to help the Buyer decide if they should buy from a Seller. On Ebay, if a Seller does not have any past feedback from Buyers then Buyers will be cautious. Sellers on Ebay must work hard to get positive feedback. A simple system like this cannot even be implemented by Alibaba? This clearly states that Alibaba enjoys the benefits of collecting membership fees and then refers to their "no hands dirty policy" when the consumer gets scammed. Anyway, enough of this. There is so much more i can say.

Alibaba can give the Buyers simple resources to make decisions and they can also assist in the fraud report process but they don't. Why?

It is impossible to buy New original Brandname items from China Mainland with cheap unreasonable price, BEWARE!!!