E-Commerce Scam Hall of Fame?

I am a baseball fan, but was not aware that there is a "Spam Hall of Fame," let alone one that includes someone named Sanford Wallace.  Fraud is fraud is fraud.

Online Scam King Sanford Wallace

As I have mentioned before, like other items, scams happen.  Sure, they suck when they happen to you, but get this from the August 4 IT World article:

In its indictment, the FBI accuses Wallace of having gained illegal access to more than 500,000 user accounts using phishing messages that sent victims to sites that copied their user data and then spoofed their accounts as the supposed source of more than 27 million spam emails sent to Facebook members.

The lesson for me? If you are on Facebook, eBay, Aliexpress or Alibaba, there are millions of users of each.  Odds are, unfortunately, that if even a micro-fraction percentage of users are scammers, it could result in thousands of victims.


I've written before about Alibaba's Safety and Security Center, there are concrete steps that you can take to avoid getting taken.   And taken.  And scammed, especially by dirtbags like this guy Sanford Wallace.

And if you are Alibaba user, it's worth a read.

Fan Boy

P.S. - Also worth a read is "Will the real spam king please stand up?"

On Alizila: Sharks or Scammers: Who's the Top Predator?

Hey guys,

Fraud Sharks or Scammers?

In an act of shameless self-promotion, here's a cross-post from my other site, Alibaba Fair Fund Facts. 

If you have read this blog at all, you know that I am a total Alibaba Fan Boy.  So I was surprised to find out that they have a news site that is different from their newsroom:  a site called "Alizila" that says that it is news and commentary about and from Alibaba.  Interesting concept.
So again, seeking forgiveness before permission, I've included a timely post below about fraud and scams. Its' called 'Sharks or Scammers: Who's the Top Predator?"  I have posted highlights below, but it's sort of interesting to see how little (as a percentage) scams, rip-offs or fraud represents as part of transactions.  Not that the Alibaba Fair Play Fund is perfect, but it's still an interesting study.

As we suspected, online shoppers in China are far more likely to be victimized by scams than they are to be eaten by sharks. We now know this because the China Internet Network Information Center just released a report containing the following statistical nugget: during the first six months of the year, 8 percent of China's online shoppers—38.8 million people—said they had indeed lost their lunch money to fraud.

Ergo, one out of every 12.5 e-shoppers gets skinned over a six-month period. The global odds of being killed by a shark in any given year are one in 252 million, give or take. Oh, and the odds that you live in China and are reading this blog: approximately one in 2.2 million, based on our latest Google Analytics traffic data. Congratulations on being a rare and discriminating individual.

While we are downloading random e-commerce stats, iResearch says that the transaction volume of online payments in China reached RMB 456.6 billion ($71 million) in the second quarter. We mention this because the year-over-year increase, at nearly 118 percent, is striking. We also mention this because iResearch found that Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, still holds almost 50 percent of the market, leagues ahead of No. 2 online-payments provider Tenpay with a 21 percent share.

The overall high transaction growth rate was due to the continuing rapid spread of e-commerce in China, particularly in online hotel and airline ticket booking, as well as the emergence of online financial and logistics services, iResearch says. Alipay in the quarter made rapid progress following the introduction of its Quick Pay service; the company also made inroads with major airlines. Tenpay has been a leading payment solutions provider in China’s group-shopping market.

Have you ever been a victim of scam emails for Alibaba.com?

Have you ever been a victim of scam emails? Is it difficult for you to tell scam emails and genuine emails apart?

Scam emails want to get your private information (i.e. Alibaba.com passwords, credit card numbers, or registration information). After you reply or click on a link contained in scam emails, your computer may become infected with viruses or Trojans designed to steal your private information. Your private information may be used to apply for credit cards or for other illegal activity that might harm your reputation.

If you have a Yahoo! Email account, Alibaba.com will help to protect you from scam emails. Whenever you open your Yahoo! mailbox to receive emails from Alibaba.com, you will see an Alibaba logo before the subject of each email or a key logo when you are browsing the email details. When using Yahoo!, any email without these logos is a scam and should be reported to our service team. See the following examples:

 

Alibaba.com will be working to cooperate with other email service providers to provide our members with an easier and safer way to avoid scam emails.

E-Commerce Fraud and Scams Study - and Alibaba's Advice

Alibaba.com fraud preventio

Cross-posted from Alibaba Fair Play Fund Facts:

Found an interesting survey today in Financial Fraud Law blog about e-commerce fraud and scams.  The bad news is that it is going up.  They make four main points as to why it is on the increase:

1. "Stolen Data" – one of the recent major data breaches included credit card numbers, and the fraudsters are using the data compromised email accounts is being used by the criminals to target consumers with really good phishing emails, referred to as spear phishing. The fraudster knows the consumer conducts business with a specific company. 
2. The "Spear Phishing" – a major recent data breach that fraudster creates a targeted email from the company who conducts business with the consumer, and is able to collect enough information to compromise the consumer.
3. "Malware" – malware has spread and become more vicious. While the malware is more vicious, an impact on eCommerce has yet to be determined; although it may come in the future. Additionally, according to data on the APWG's website, malware for the past 12 months in the U.S. was 35.85 percent, and in the past 90 days was reported to be 25.48 percent. Based on these numbers, malware attacks are actually down according to the website.
4. "Fake eCommerce Donation Sites" – After researching this theory, it is believed the increase in fraud attacks is tied to fake donation sites that took advantage of the earthquakes and Tsunami in Japan. This belief is supported because the fraudsters have the exact information on the data elements for making purchases, and the accuracy rate is very good. Therefore, it is most likely the data is being collected from fraudulent sites that took donations from the devastating earthquakes and Tsunami in Japan. It is believed the fraudsters used social networks to promote the donation sites to expand their reach farther and faster than has been viewed in previous years.

What do these have in common with the topic of this site, Alibaba.com's attempts to help customers avoid fraud?  A lot.
Prevention is the key to making sure that you can avoid becoming the victim of an online scam.  Alibaba.com has posted a series of tips to help avoid being ripped off and Tip #7 on the Fraud Case Studies page is "Fraud Case Study 7 - Remain Vigilant!"

1. It is an advanced fraud trick; the fraudster will use the psychology of the supplier to conduct fraud activities. He will place small orders first and transfer payment quickly to convince the supplier he is a good partner. Then he will place a large order and set a trap for supplier. Based on the good cooperation of previous business, the supplier will fall into the trap easily.
2. Always follow normal foreign trade processes when doing business with your partner.

Hope this helps.  Stay vigilant!

Fraud Case Study from Alibaba: How to Avoid Scams and Rip-Offs

Avoid Fraud on Alibaba.com!

It seems like a firm grasp of the obvious, but there are something like 56 million people who use Alibaba.com.  Even if one tenth of one percent of those people (which would be better than the general population, BTW) are dishonest and want to scam you, preventing the fraud is the best way to go.

I spend a lot of time on Alibaba.com, trolling the site, and found one of their case studies on how to avoid the trap of getting ripped off.  Info is below.

Fraud Case Study 1 - Gold Supplier Identity Theft

Case Description:

One of our buyers sent an email to Alibaba service team. It said: "I have received a quotation in my email; the sender said his company was a Gold Supplier. I knew Gold Supplier members are verified, so it gave me confidence in this transaction and I paid 30% deposit to buy the Ipods he provided. But after the payment, I didn't receive my Ipods, nor get any response from them. Their contact person, Tony Yang just seemed to ignore my emails.  Please help me contact this company to either get a refund of my payment or send the items I paid for."
After checking with the Gold Supplier member mentioned by this buyer, the Tony Yang in this case wasn't an employee of this company at all. The so-called "Tony Yang"  was a fraudster posing as a verified company’s representative to de-fraud innocent people on our website.

Be cautious of this type of fraud.  

To avoid a similar situation, please adhere to the following advice:

1. Make your own investigation before dealing with your potential partner. Use the company name they provided to search Alibaba.com to find the company's website.
2. Compare the products listed on the company website. If they are in entirely different categories, for example; the company usually sells shoes but the offer you received is an Ipod, it might be a signal of fraud.
3. Contact the company on Alibaba directly and confirm with them whether the person contacting you is really from their company or not. 
4. Or you can send email to the Alibaba service team; they will help you verify the contact person. 

Alibaba Gold Supplier Scam? Get Smart!

Found this trolling Alibaba.com.  Again, if those of you who do import/export online or are interested in services like Alibaba or eBay, each service has a special level of seller.  But just like other forms of identity theft, there can be Alibaba Gold Supplier Identity Theft.

Here's what I found on their site.

Be Cautious of Gold Supplier Identity Theft

Case Description:

One of our buyers sent an email to Alibaba service team. It said: "I have received a quotation in my email; the sender said his company was a Gold Supplier. I knew Gold Supplier members are verified, so it gave me confidence in this transaction and I paid 30% deposit to buy the Ipods he provided. But after the payment, I didn't receive my Ipods, nor get any response from them. Their contact person, Tony Yang just seemed to ignore my emails.  Please help me contact this company to either get a refund of my payment or send the items I paid for."

After checking with the Gold Supplier member mentioned by this buyer, the Tony Yang in this case wasn't an employee of this company at all. The so-called "Tony Yang"  was a fraudster posing as a verified company’s representative to de-fraud innocent people on our website.

Be cautious of this type of fraud.  

To avoid a similar situation, please adhere to the following advice:

1. Make your own investigation before dealing with your potential partner. Use the company name they provided to search Alibaba.com to find the company's website.

2. Compare the products listed on the company website. If they are in entirely different categories, for example; the company usually sells shoes but the offer you received is an Ipod, it might be a signal of fraud.

3. Contact the company on Alibaba directly and confirm with them whether the person contacting you is really from their company or not. 

4. Or you can send email to the Alibaba service team; they will help you verify the contact person. 

Who Gets Blacklisted on Alibaba.com

There are scammers everywhere you buy and sell things online.  There is fraud everywhere, if you use eBay, Craig's List of Alibaba.com

Here's some interesting info on how members get blacklisted on Alibaba.com who don't meet their trust and security standards are banned from the marketplace.  I have taken excerpts from Our Blacklisting Policy: Members who don't meet our trust and security standards will be banned from our marketplace

Alibaba.com is committed to fighting unfair practices such as fraud and intellectual property infringement on our marketplace in order to provide a safe and reputable trading environment for our users. We take issues such as trust and safety very seriously, and have strict policies in place to deal with unfair trade practices.

In response to intellectual property infringement and fraudulent conduct complaints submitted in accordance with our take-down policy, we take down thousands of product listings each year. In addition, we blacklist suppliers that continue to be subject to substantiated take-down notices and fail to live up to the expectations of our member community. We remove all listings of blacklisted companies, terminate their memberships and ban them from our marketplace permanently.

Of the millions of suppliers on our website, only a tiny proportion has been involved in unfair trade practices. Please be assured that the vast majority of our suppliers' online storefronts are used by honest, hard-working entrepreneurs and small businesses to promote their products and services.

Who gets blacklisted?

Alibaba.com members that are the subject of substantiated complaints involving unfair or fraudulent trade practices are considered for the blacklist. We have a dedicated Trust and Security team that works with buyers and suppliers to review and handle these complaints. We blacklist companies based on various factors including the nature, severity, number and frequency of complaints.

Send us your feedback

We welcome reports on unfair or fraudulent trade practices from anyone, and if we become aware that a member is using Alibaba.com in an illegal manner or in a way which violates our Terms of Use, we take prompt action to ensure those activities are stopped. Please send any comments or complaints you may have to our Customer Service team.