On December 26, 2012 I asked for prices for several laptops on Alibaba.com. I only contacted Gold Suppliers. That day I received several answers and one of them was from the "lady" called Amanda (Liu Hui). She said she wanted to do business and offered laptops and also told me that she has some Apple product that are authentic. What was wierd was that Kaishidun was not a company that I can recall contacting on alibaba. Later on when I asked she said that her boss handles the account and she doesnt know what company. So if I put the picture together then there must be a company or possibly companies that are Gold Certified suppliers who hand out leads. Basically fake accounts masked as credible suppliers. (Beware, only do escrow on alibaba)
I asked for the prices and she told me that an iPhone 5 64GB cost 282 USD. This price seemed to be above the manufacturing price but seemed very low. So I told them that if they are authentic then we can do business, but she needs to provide a serial number so I can check authenticity. If it turns out authentic then I told Amanda and she agreed that I will wire 50% of the proforma invoice and when that arrived then she will send the product to me to test. She provided a serial number and I checked it on the apple website and also on an independent serial number checking website. The serial number checked out, I asked for a second serial number and that checked out as well.
So at this point it seemed to be fine so I wired 50%. This is when it started getting rediculous. The money arrived and Amanda told me that she will not send the package unless I send the other 50%. I asked her why she told me that 50% upfront and 50% when it arrived at my location after authentication. She didnt tell me an answer, only the same old line of: "I just want to do business with you".
I already felt that she was running her little scam since she gave an offer, invoiced me (she put the serial number on invoice as well), and then she changed everything. I decided to send the other 50% to find out wether Amanda the sales agent for Kaishidun will send the product (if any). So the money was sent to the companies bank account at HSBC in Hong Kong. This was the account information:
HSBC: Bank account information:
Beneficiary Name:KAISHIDUN ELECTRONICS LIMITED
Beneficiary Bank: HSBC HongKong
A/C number: 015-781842-838
SWIFT CODE: HSBCHKHHHKH
BANK CODE: 004
ADD of bank: 1 Queen's Road
Central,Hong Kong
The money arrived again and I asked Amanda if I could send DHL. This time she confirmed the money, then came the sucker punch. She wrote me an email that she is sorry and she doesnt know how to tell me, but the price of the iphone 5 64 GB is 564 USD. So she told me I should send her more money. This is where I cut my losses, I told her I will give her 5 hours before she makes a decision on sending the product or wiring the money back. She just kept telling me she wants to do business.
So I made a report to the Hong Kong police, and I filed a report with HSBC in Hong Kong. And here I am writing about the case. So beware of alibaba, use escrow. And never ever trust this company. Thieves and Liars.