可以到ebay AU 看看full thread. 对国人买家也许有帮助。
http://forums.ebay.com.au/topic/Powersellers/Alibaba-Gold-Suppliers/500131834#1281517520872
sorry in advance for the scroller but its worth the read.
i have just got back to the office after day 7 in the hunt for this girl lily ...
there is a lesson for all of us in many ways and specifically in some critical area's in relation to the information we get from a company and what we can do with it in the event of a problem. the only real information Sue was given was a 126.com email address, a pre paid mobile number and the girls name Lily Li.
Sue was given the link to a reputable manufacturer in china for the product she was looking for including full signature block in the email. Sue was also supplied with a Pro Forma Invoice in the companies name for the goods and a bank account number with chinese Pin Yin which would be difficult to know if it was or was not the right bank account and or a company or individual bank account.
when Sue told Mike and I she had a problem the funds had only just been transferred so we thought there was a real chance we could get a stop on them. however, when we went to the bank and the police we soon found out the hard way its just not that simple.
the main issues we faced were we had no contact information for the individual, no idea who or where they were and no ability to prove any law had been broken. the bank account was located in Shenzhen but the person who owned it and was responsible for the theft could have been anywhere in China to pull off the scam and access the funds.
when i got back to the office from the bank and police i went to work using all the experience i have gained from 5 years of PayPal fraud detection and investigation, knew that would come in handy one day ...
fortunately, the web can be a very powerful tool if you know how to use it correctly.
the challenge was to locate a girl (or a man) who was using the same name as no less than 25,000,000 other chinese individuals then locate contact details for them and prove that they were the individual who stole Sues money. simply put we had a 1 in a 1.5 billion chance of catching her. using the information we did have only drew blanks.
we contacted the company where the goods were surposed to be coming from only find they had no order, no employee and no knowledge of the transaction. that is outside the call and emails from Sue alerting them to the fraud.
we called the 7 different phone numbers on the documentation sent to Sue only to be abused or told no Lily lives or works here. we found a company logo on one of the photos Sue had been sent and contacted that company to find they had no order, no knowledge and no Lily.
on Saturday night after using literally hundreds of combinations of the name, contact details and phone numbers i was able to finally get a cross match on the mobile phone number (now inactive) used to another website similar to Alibaba which had a photo and company information for Lily.
one of the key things i found that assisted me to narrow the search down were two links on the websites contact us page. one for an MSN chat and one for Skype. when clicking the MSN link it lead straight to the email/msn account given to Sue in all the communication with Lily.
on Monday i contacted the company and after 20 or so hung up phone calls decided this might be the right place. i used their web form to make an enquiry which led to some staff coming to my office to show us samples yesterday. very devious as they were under then impression i wanted to buy there products when i was only on a fishing expedition.
they came around 12pm and i sent them away because their sample was rubbish ... in fact why i did was i wanted time to plot my next move and how to get the information we needed without endangering my staff or myself it they were actually a gang. I told them if they were serious to come back in the afternoon with a better one which they did.
when they returned we worked out they were not the ones responsible so we asked them general questions about their company, the company structure and then staff. i showed them a photo of Lily and asked if they knew her. one of them said that the photo was a girl name Jessie who was Lily's sister in law. i then told them that they had cheated us out of $10,000USD (about 4 years salary for them) and i need help to find her.
they did not believe me at first but when i walked them through all the evidence i had amassed they said they would help me to find Jessie but she was not the right person as she is a sweet little girl who would never cheat anyone.
we spent 6 hours with them trying to get information about Lily and now Jessie but apart from the phone number which we called and did speak with them we were no closer to catching them.
today we contacted the owner of the company and i said it was imperative he assist us to get to the bottom of this as his company is the dead end at this stage and the fraud points to his company which is not a good look ... he agreed to meet me and this afternoon i when to his office at 2pm. not knowing whether he was or was not involved in the scam i made sure to have a tracking device in my pocket as a good safety back up.
to my surprise, he was more than helpful and as i also got the owner of the company that was used to cheat Sue to come with us it was quite a little get together of the cheated and deceived. it became very obvious that the girl Lily was the same girl we were looking for and Jessie was a partner in the crime.
whilst it was no surprise, i was shocked that the company record on her was limited but as she had only been employed for 1 month before she was fired they had very limited detail on her. they were also reluctant to give me too much information because she had been fired for stealing from the company and a serious breach of trust. this involved the setting up of a company in HK using all the documentation and money provided by the company. after the company was set up she then changed herself to be the sole director.
this put the company in a very serious prediciment as without her signing the company back to them there is little they can do. because of this all the cheating and theft from foreigners has been left un reported.
what this information gave me was an opportunity to gain the trust of the owner of the company by getting him upto date information about the company and details on her he did not have. using the Hong Kong company register online to search engine i was able to access the full information on the company, her as the director and then get her full name, her home address, her home town address, her china passport number, her ID number and her real phone number. i was also able to obtain a copy of her signature from the document register.
in the morning i have an appointment with the police to see if they will now accept a complaint in respect to Sue's stolen funds as i have all the information we were lacking 7 days ago. if this fails i will be employing 6 - 10 very strong chinese men to come with (protection) to the address to resolve the missing money. i am now also responsible for getting the factory owner his company back ... but a small price to pay for the information i found after meeting with him.
at this stage we still do not have the money but we do have the girl and hopefully the money will follow. to lay out the trail of the funds which where transferred, they are in an account owned by Lily's hu*****and who is Jessies brother ...
i will update you all as more information comes to hand.
word of caution ... china is a great place, there are many opportunities, great products and the ability for us all to reap the benefit from an association and or business partnership with this country. it is however a mine field for failure if you choose the wrong trading partner, get taken by a clever and or deceitful individual or individuals which are out there and doing this day in day out.
Lily is not a first timer, she is experienced and has done this multiple times she is part of a professional gang. the theft of the hong kong company was not by accident. this will be used to cheat more foreigners if they are not stopped. from the conversation i had with her last night it was clear to me she had been around the block more than once and bordered on an attempt to intimidate or scare me into thinking i was in mortal danger. she also made it clear i would never find her and that she was smarter than me ... big mistake ...
people like this know and take advantage of the fact the people they are cheating are a long way away. the amount they are stealing is not big enough for them to take a trip to china to chase and even if they did they have no information or real way to find the person responsible.
ali baba and sites like this are a breeding ground for thieves ... never send money to anyone you have not first met and or established they are the company. if you are dealing with a trading company ... contact the manufacturer and confirm this person is authorized to sell their goods and they know who they are.
what has happened here could easily happen to anyone of us as it was done with cunning, smoke and mirrors and a well established ability to defraud and cheat others.