Please help me, tell me if this company is a scam

[nathan_nielson12]

So i've been on DHGATE.com and found a seller with pretty good feedback, he has over 300. I didnt want to buy a big order of shirts right away without checking quality. So i asked him for a sample price and after a bit of talking back and forth through emails he said that he would send me a sample for free.
Do you think this guy is actually legit, or u think hes just going to send me a free sample of a good shirt then take my money when i make a big order?

Thanks alot
Nathan Nielson

[Nyla]

Some more information would be a big help. We really can't comment on a seller identified only as "this guy on dhgate.com". It's doubtful we can really answer your question any better than the feedback in any case. We have absolutely no way of predicting if someone is planning on scamming you. Your best bet would be to read the feedback carefully, make sure you understand the rules and structure of dhgate.com and don't deal outside the system, and to search on the seller's username to see if there are complaints off the dhgate.com site about scams.

[nathan_nielson1289]

Ok sorry, heresd the link to the seller
http://www.dhgate.com/productlistsearchtypesidpages_all_402880840e5b573f010e5c3e9f 394649_true_0.html

Thats all i can find about him.

[Nyla]

The seller most likely has to be at least a counterfeiter or selling copycat goods.

Why? Lacoste plainly states on its own website (see their FAQ) that they only sell their goods in authorized boutiques. They don't authorize sales online. If you're lucky, you might get decent quality counterfeits (which can be seized by customs and possibly land you in legal trouble, depending on your local laws, particularly if you plan to resell them) or decent "copycat" merchandise that almost looks like the real thing. If not, you'll get nothing or goods that are really terrible quality.

The positive feedback plus the location of Fujian, something of a counterfeit capital of China, would indicate counterfeit goods as well.

[dhgate]

Hi Nathan and Nyla,
Thank you for your interesting in DHgate.com.
I am Publish Relationship Coordinator from DHgate.com (http://www.dhgate.com/index_m.html?a=775001?a=001). My name is Gump Kan.
DHgate is the leading China export wholesale marketplace. We provide escrow service for our every buyer.
For the counterfeit issue, we have recently successful assistant with Vaudra Ltd to protect the North Face band. We also set up a category managers to manager the listing. As a China Export wholesale marketplace, “Made In China� Product, OEM product, Private Label Product are our start products.

For protect our buyer, DHgate has executed e zero tolerance policy for sellers who want to make a deal outside of system. We also terminated 300 seller accounts that referred to scam or cheat.

We are trying our best to reach a better performance. Please keep your eyes with us.

Though the content has been post on another thread by you, I would like to post again to show the info for you.

[Frazzle]

Hi DHGate, and welcome to Fraudwatchers.

I interpret "DHgate has executed e zero tolerance policy for sellers who want to make a deal outside of system." as protecting DHGate and their business model, rather than protecting the buyer.

I looked at your site. I couldn't find anything there about an escrow service.

I would be interested to hear what DHGate does to check out a company *before* they are allowed to list.

I also find it ironic that yours terms & conditions are very strong on protecting the intellectual property of your web site, but you're only too happy to allow the site to be used to steal other people's intellectual property (e.g. Lascoste shirts).

[dhgate]

To Frazzle
Thank you for your post.
For buyer protection
We terminate their accounts because such behaviors imply a tendency to scam the buyers. Zero tolerance policy for sellers who want to make a deal outside of system is just part of buyer protection. The aim of our business model is to make transaction saver, which means buyer protection take the first priority.

For escrow service
For more info about DHgate`s escrow service, please visit this page (http://www.dhgate.com/html/helpfile_en/help-1.htm?a=775008) or click help on the home page.

For verification process
If you can read Chinese, you can try to register in our platform and experience our strict verification processes, which includes company registration verification, bank account verification. Further more, the majorities of the company seller in DHgate were developed by our domestic sale, who would visit the company to introduce our business model.
Dhgate also recruit some individual, who would also experienced strict verification.
In my personal point of view, seller trust score would be the longest torture for our sellers, though it was not part of the verification.

For intellectual property
For the counterfeit issue, we have recently successful assistant with Vaudra Ltd (http://www.vaudra.com/)to protect the North Face band. We are planting more aggress an effective way to handle this.
For this issue, I would give an example.
If you search “wow account� in Ebay, you will find some item with infringing Blizzard.inc. The situation was more horrible 2 years ago. Ebay took actions with these item and banned the relate transaction in 2007 Jan. It took almost 2 years. (The above recommendation has no means to debase Ebay.)

DHgate are aggressive in protecting intellectual property. However, like ebay, we do not have enough resources to handle the ever large product listing.
Our stand and determination will not move. Please keep your eyes on us.

[FW Admin]

Thank you for clarifying those points, dhgate, and welcome to Fraudwatchers. I am indeed pleased to note the efforts that you are making to avoid scammers from using your services, and I appreciate how difficult a task this can be.

I am certainly aware that it is impossible to manually check every single item under your management, and your zero-tolerance policy does sound good in its concept.

I sincerely hope you have much success with it, and also your enterprise, and I hope that you find the information on this website useful for you.

Please do not hesitate to post any queries or concerns you have in these forums, or alternatively you may use our Contact Us form.

Once again, welcome to Fraudwatchers.

[estacionsur]

someone using the escrow service offered by DHgate? other site with similar option? thanks. FW rules!

[ShadowKnyght]

A warning about DHgate - I went there looking for something very specific - a Canon 400D (Rebel XTi) twin lens DSLR kit.

My tragic story can be seen here:
http://www.cyber-mag.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1424

Do a search and you will find numerous people offering items like this - the problem you will note is that 95% of the sellers on DHgate have only joined in the last month or two.

And very, very few of them have any rating at all and those that do may have a 1 or a 2... What makes this so suspicious is that these same new unrated sellers tend to be offering up to and over 600+ items in their stores... and yet they have sold nothing??

So when I found a seller that had a rating of 30 (very unusual) and spoke directly to one of DHgate's support staff and had her confirm via skype that the seller was trustworthy and that he/she did have stock of the chosen kit and that the kit did contain all listed items I thought - no probs I will trust in DHgate's escrow and in PayPal and in my credit card company and go ahead and buy the kit (see above link).

Problem was the seller ripped me off with a single lens camera that was not even the camera I ordered. Even with the sellers obvious fraudulent behaviour I went without a refund for almost 2 months - I followed all the systems - messaged the seller over and over, when that got nowhere I raised it to a claim - that still got no where so I raised it to a dispute.

This all takes huge amounts of time... 20 days for the first stage - 15 for the next and then an undefined amount of time for DHgates "specialised dispute team" to handle your case.

To me this all appeared to be a system designed to delay you long enough so that you would not be able to take other avenues - like a PayPal claim or a credit card charge back. And to bad if you actually needed the item or your money back to buy the item in the mean time!!

Anyway long story short:
PayPal was useless
DHgate system was getting nowhere and taking to much time to do so.
Having my money in escrow really did me no good because at the end of the day - it did not matter who had my money - seller or DHgate, the fact that remained was that I did not have it!!

So to cover my growing lack of trust I also had started a Credit card charge back. In the end - a couple of months down the track - it was the charge back that worked not DHgates system and definitely not PayPals pathetic excuse for a buyer protection policy.

Only problem is that the charge back came with a warning that if some how the merchant was able to supply enough information (would need to be fraudulent) then they claim the option of being able to reverse their decision - which really does not sit well with stress levels - as for now all looks fixed but at any moment it could fall apart again if the seller, via DHgate, via PayPal, lies enough to Master Card to get them to change their minds!

My recommendation is - if you can't find a seller with a huge feedback score, and on top of that if you can't afford to go without the items or your money for at least 2 months if something goes wrong then don't buy through DHgates system.

That said - bad sellers could be found on any site - eBay included. And in DHgates defence (not that it worked at all for me) at least they still have customer service that will pretend to help you out when things go wrong - eBay is so big now that they, like PayPal will pretty much ignore your problems, no matter how obvious the fraud was. They make to much money to care about the little guys getting ripped off here and there.

[tsp]

Please help me, noone else has. I paid for order 0700276331 but it still shows as "AWAITING PAYMENT". PLEASE change as soon as possible!!!!!!! My card was charged but seller did not receive notification of payment. I need to receive my products as soon as possible. please fix.

[FW Admin]

tsp: if you have paid for goods using your credit card, and have not received the goods within a reasonable time frame (or within the stipulated time, if any) then you may apply for a "charge-back" through your credit card company.

[Curious Nelly]

http://www.usfreeads.com/884917-cls.html

Caution article on internet

[ThaTruth]

Read their policy very closely. It protects the seller. The only way they DHgate gets paid is if the transaction is approved. I was recently scammed through them. We agreed on one product for a particular price. But what i recieved was a completely different item. At first i was loled into this false since of security that DHgate would protect me. But what you have to watch is the wording on the dispute policy. First they want you to try and work it out with the seller. But your time is limited and if no agreement is reached they will release your money to the seller and the scam is complete. The seller can simply sit back and not respond to you and wait the time out and they get their money. Keep in mind DHgate does not get paid if they have to refund your money. Trying to communicate my concerns with them was a nightmare because they take forever to return your emails. The responce i got sounded cookie cutter. I wondered if the responce was really for me. If this representitive that has been posting is really legitamite, then i challenge him/her to look into my case and do the right thing and give me my money back. If not once they complete their scam i will cut and paste the whole thing here for you all to see how the mighty DHgate really operates. Run Forest Run!!!!

[tang772]

I have ordered several bags and a couple watches ,the only real problems I have had is with the chanel bags , I only ever recieved the correct one once. As for the LV I have ordered at least ten and they have all come in great shape. I have used different buyers and yes the higher the trust score the better. Always email the buyers first to make sure they have the product in stock ,sometimes they won't. Good Luck

[FW Admin]

To anonymous poster DHGate-Reality: we are reviewing your post and will make a decision on whether to allow them shortly. Thank you for your patience.

[SamuelItaly]

I'm purchasing from UK a ps3...I've found this offer on Hallolondon.co.uk,The offer was made by Mobile Express ltd,They gave me all the coords of the "shop",they were real,but the thing that concerns me is why a big industry like that has to make an ad on a "lillte" site like hallolondon?and how comes they offer a price 3 times lower than the normal price?if you guys can help me out i'll be really gratefull!I'm from italy,so pardon my rubbish english...

[Rob]

and how comes they offer a price 3 times lower than the normal price?.

Well, most likely because these are prices for nonexistant/fake/counterfeit/whatsoever products.

[SamuelItaly]

i've tryed to investigate further on the company he mentioned...and actually the company is a major mobile phone dealer in uk,and lus they have some kind of contract packages that permits you to receive a
"free" ps3 as you subscribe to one of those offers...still the fact that concerns me is that anyone could just copy and paste the company info(like vat n. postal code,address and so on...)...maybe if i ask to pay by COD,i'll reveal a bit more about the trustworthy of the "seller"...please help me out a bit...T_T

[Daneel]

UK scammers regularly impersonate legitimate companies. Does his phone number start with +4470?

why a big industry like that has to make an ad on a "lillte" site like hallolondon?
They wouldn't.

For more info on this type of fraud read here:
http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3871

[Rob]

The informations that you've provided are a bit limited. Maybe you can direct us to the offer that you found?

[SamuelItaly]

BRAND NEW GENUINE APPLE IPHONE 16GB (1.1.3 SOFTWARE) UNLOCKED WITH WARRANTY AND RECEIPT IN THE UK NOW READY TO BE DISPAT

BRAND NEW GENUINE APPLE IPHONE 16GB (1.1.3 software) UNLOCKED WITH WARRANTY AND RECEIPT IN THE UK NOW READY TO BE DISPATCHED INSIDE

WE A TRADER IN THE UK WE ARE NOW ABLE TO SUPPLY GENUINE BRAND NEW APPLE IPHONE 16GB (1.1.3 software) UNLOCKED,WITH WARRANTY AND ALL ACCESSORIES AT BOTH SINGLE AND WHOLESALE UNITS.

MINIMUM ORDER OF 1 - MAXIMUM ORDER OF 20



These are UK Spec !!!!!

Legitimate Deal Only!! I am not here to mess around or commit any sort of crime!! If your serious then so we are!!!
We are a UK Registed company and looking for a long term reliable and trustworthy business.
No messing around!!
Each Unit comes
Boxed, All Accessories,Warranty and Receipt.

PAYMENT METHODS -
CHAPS
BANK TRANSFER
WESTERN UNION

Delivery is made inside 48 Hours of Cleared Payment or Money Back.
THE POLICE CAN CATCH ANYONE COMMITING FRAUD WITH A SORTCODE AND ACCOUNT NUMBER SO SCAMMERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!


PRICE FOR ONE UNIT IS £200.00 ONO
PLEASE NO TIMEWASTERS / NO MESSING AROUND.



I TAKE BUSINESS SEROUSLY.!!!

CONTACT ME IF SERIOUS,.

SALES DEPARTMENT
JOHNSON MANI
07045711105
mobileexpress.uk@live.com

ALL ENQUIRIES ARE WELCOME!!!!!



THANKYOU !!!!!!
This is another ad from the same "scammer" and here is the url:http://www.hallolondon.co.uk/free_ads/for_sale/computing_&_phones_!48/BRAND_NEW_GENUINE_APPLE_IPHONE_16GB_113_software_UNLOCKED_WI TH_WARRANTY_AND_RECEIPT_IN_THE_UK_NOW_READY_TO_BE_DISPAT_~13 1126.html
in fact this guy continues to "sell" items connected to the company he mentions...still i have my doubts...hope i helped out finding a scammer!

[Daneel]

He has spammed his ads pretty much everywhere, under many different company and personal names:
http://www.google.se/search?q=07045711105+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:sv-SE:official&client=firefox-a

> mobileexpress.uk@live.com
Free email address that anyone could have signed up for.

And his English is not what you would expect from someone living in the UK. Yep, it's just another common scam.

[SamuelItaly]

eheh thanks foo your warning words...at least i'm not that dumb...:) plus that phone number is used by a hundred different persons...:)