Good day cousin,
I really can not count how many times people have reported to me that they have been scammed on Alibaba, some have gone on to claim that alibaba is scam. Now while i will like to make it totally clear that Alibaba it self is in no way scam, there are indeed elements of scam of the platform and if one is not to vigilant. You will scammed right before you very eyes.

So here we will be looking at the common types of scam that occurs on alibaba and how to escape them.


1. Ordering FAKE branded goods!
Clearly with no question the most common type of scam that people fall into on alibaba, it is done so discreetly that it is not very easy to uncover especially if you are not so acquainted with the real / original brand.

What occurs in this scam system is that either the seller sells out products which are just look-alikes of the real branded products (i:e there are just copies made to look exactly like that of the original and are therefore lower in quality than the original) or the worst case scenario is that the supplier does not even deliver anything at all.

Now when I say branded products, I mean products from popular western brands like Nike, Adidas, Apple, Samsung, Shure, Sony, Pioneer, Gucci among many others.

How to escape this scam
The best way to avoid this type of scam is to simply avoid ordering for branded products from chinese suppliers and stores as a whole. In truth most of these branded products are actually manufactured in china but then it eventually turns out that they are even more expensive in china than in abroad; you can click here to can read this post to understand why it is so.

Exception to the rule:
The only exception is when you are actually sourcing for a chinese brand, that is a brand that it’s products are fully produced, manufactured and distributed in china, only then can you go ahead to source for this products from Alibaba or other chinese stores.
Still yet make sure that you are careful and very vigilant, that it is a Chinese brand does not mean that scammers cannot take advantage and make look-alikes of the products. In this case do your due research to make sure that you are dealing with an authenticated dealer.


2. Supplier with product variety
You need to understand that basically suppliers on Alibaba are expected to either to be manufacturers or genuine wholesalers; anything short of this is more likely scam.

Now if you ever encounter a supplier that has a store and deals in various merchandise, then that is clear sign that you have definitely encountered a scammer. That is you find a supplier that is dealing in various products say something like phones, handbags, shoes, TVs and various other products.

The supplier might even go ahead and list branded products like IPhones, Nike foot wears , Samsung TV, Macbooks among others most times the products will be listed at prices that are just too good to be true, the truth is they are not real just you know that you are dealing with a scammer,.

This is because a genuine wholesaler will stick to one specific range of product type, i:e a genuine wholesaler dealing in foot wears will have various ranges of foot wears but will not also deal in IPhones.

How to escape this scam
So a simply way to avoid this scam is to avoid the supplier by all means and not engage in any sort of deal with them in whatsoever way

Exception to the rule
There is no exception to this rule, simply stay off any of such supplier.


3. Suppliers with unverified Alibaba profile
Chinese scammers wanting to make a quick gain from unsuspecting buyers will create a free Alibaba account sometimes using the details of a legitimate US/UK/EU based company or even China Company and pretend to be the legit company in order to sell branded products.

Since these free accounts are not verified, that is a clear sign that you are not dealing with the authentic company, an authentic company will make sure that they painstakingly verify their account on Alibaba.

How to escape this scam
The best way to avoid falling prey to this type of scam is to make sure that you never deal with an unverified supplier. A safe way to escape this is to make sure that you are only dealing with Gold suppliers as this are sellers that has been duly verified by Alibaba, I personally will advise that you look out for Gold suppliers that are 3 years and above.

Now the fact that you are dealing with gold suppliers does not necessarily mean that you are totally free from scam at one point or the other there have been cases whereby gold suppliers have collected money from buyers and yet did not send the required product or did not send any product at all.

That is to say that while gold suppliers still remain the safest circle of suppliers on Alibaba to source from, they are not all saints.

Exception to the rule
There is no exception to this rule, simply stay off any of supplier that is not verified, only deal with gold suppliers and make sure that you do you research properly.


4. Sending Money To The Boss Account
What happens in this scam system is that when it is time to pay, for some reason the supplier will send a message that they are having issues with their bank account and can therefore not take payment at the period. They will then go on to request that you send the payment to a personal account which they can most times claim belong to the boss.

When you send money to such an account, you are tied as you have almost no control over what happens with your money.

How to escape this scam
The best way to avoid falling prey to this scam is to simply avoid paying into any personal account for any reason, while it might indeed happen with a legitimate supplier, still do not indulge in it because it might just be an employee of the company trying to play a fast one on you.

Even if you are going to be paying into a company’s account make sure that the account name carries the company name. In a case that the supplier’s company is an affiliate of another company, it is possible that it will not carry the suppliers company name but the parent company name. I.E if the supplier company is XYZ and it is listed under ABC, then the account must carry either ABC or XYZ

Exception to the rule
There is no exception to this rule, simply stay away from paying into a personal account for any reason, even if you are presented this option by a legitimate company strictly turn it down because the possibility of being scammed is far more higher than that of it being real.


5. Not dealing in free samples
Requesting for a sample is what should be paramount when dealing with a new supplier on Alibaba, since Alibaba unlike aliexpress deals basically with large and bulky orders, you want to test beforehand if the supplier meets your requirement in terms of quality, customer service among others, generally it is for you to be comfortably sure that the supplier is capable of delivering the exact product that you want.

The way this scam system works out is that when you want to order from a supplier they will say that they do no deal in samples but bulky products and they will now begin to tell you some cock and bull stories which will make you to see them as being genuine and will compel you to the point where you actually go on to order from them, only for you to discover after you have made the order that you are not getting anything and you have been scammed.

How to escape this scam
So if for any reason a supplier refuses to send a sample product to you with the claims that they only deal with bulk products and do not engage in samples, then something fishy is up.

The best way to avoid falling prey is to stay away from any supplier that is not ready to offer samples, this is because a legitimate supplier will have no problems with giving samples. If it is a very cheap product, it is possible that the supplier will not charge for the product at all or will decide that you are to pay for the product but the charge will be deducted from your total order when you finally make a bulk order.

In the case of an expensive product, you will be asked to pay for both the product and the shipping fee, so whatever the case may be a supplier should be willing to give samples.

Exception to the rule
There is no exception to this as well, just make sure that you do not make an order from any supplier that does not offer to give samples before a bulky order but yet still never put so much faith on every supplier that is ready to give sample as being scam free because it is not uncommon to find scammers who will go the extra length to give very good samples only to abscond when you make a bulky order.


6. Payment by western union only
The way this scam system works is that when it is time to make payment, you will be asked to pay through western union, now this is a huge No No as there is no security with western union. So when things like this come up, this is a sign that shady is taking place.

How to escape this scam
Simply stay of any supplier that asks you to make payment through WU because in doing such, you are send the money to an individual and a corporate organization/company and like we have talked about in rule 4 sending money to an individual account is a no no.

When dealing with suppliers on Alibaba, the ideal payments systems that you should be looking at using are
Alibaba Escrow
PayPal
Bank Transfer/ Wire Transfer (To a company account and not a personal account)

Exception to the rule
The only time when you can actually use western union to pay a supplier is when you are making payments for samples, this you should only do when you have looked and done your research and they seem to be totally legitimate. The reason why some will go for western union is that it is quite cheaper and faster that bank transfer, but then more than the cost or speed, we are also concerned the security right?

Closing Thoughts:
There you have it, the common type of scam on alibaba and how to escape them. You need to be very vigilant when sourcing from Alibaba and follow the steps. You also have to make a very serious and concrete research on any supplier that you will be using


Wishing you the best with your importing deals
Committed to hear your success story,
Murphy Bolarinwa Browne
Signing Out....

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Source: http://blog.importationblueprint.com/2015/11/the-more-common-scams-on-alibaba.html