A service provider in Shenzhen was detained, and a large number of Amazon sellers were deceived

In the process of "Made in China" and "Chinese brands" going to overseas markets, cross-border e-commerce sellers seem to be the main promoters, but there are a large number of service-oriented companies working around them, and this group is also called service providers. There are four main categories: logistics service providers, payment service providers, marketing service providers, software service providers, and other small service providers such as store registration, trademark registration, and follow-up sales.

"If you have any problem, go to the service provider" has become a consensus among sellers, especially when dealing with some thorny issues, sellers are more dependent on service providers. In the eyes of many sellers, service providers are almost omnipotent. Some lawless elements take advantage of this and use the name of service providers to cheat and make a lot of money.

Recently, Yien.com received a tip that a service provider in Shenzhen used the bait of "helping sellers get back their blocked Amazon accounts and frozen funds" to defraud a large amount of money. Currently, there are hundreds of known victimized sellers, and many of them have already reported the case.

A large number of sellers were cheated by "forced opening" and lost tens of millions of yuan

When an Amazon seller's account is blocked and funds are frozen, it is like having their throats strangled. Generally speaking, in such cases, you can appeal through the platform, but there is one exception, that is, the account has made some illegal operations, such as manipulating reviews, etc. At this time, the seller will find a service provider to "force the account to open".

In fact, this is a gray market service, but what is unexpected is that some people would use this service to commit fraud.

In July last year , Zhao Meng (pseudonym), a seller on Amazon in Shenzhen, had his account blocked for double-swiping and his account funds frozen. Unwilling to give up his account and funds, he found a service provider in Shenzhen, but he did not expect that this was the beginning of his rights protection.

The other party told Zhao Meng that they could appeal against his closed Amazon account within three months. After paying 200,000 yuan, he began to wait patiently, thinking that the matter would be resolved. However, when the three months were up, that is, in October, the matter was not resolved. According to the agreement, the other party needed to refund the money in full, but when Zhao Meng asked them to refund the money, he encountered obstacles. "They delayed with various excuses, and did not answer the phone or reply to WeChat messages."

According to incomplete statistics, more than 100 Amazon sellers have been defrauded, most of whom are in Shenzhen, but a considerable number of sellers are in Foshan, Shanghai and other places. Among these victims, there are many well-known big sellers. The largest amount of money defrauded is about 4 million yuan, and there are dozens of people who have been defrauded of more than 100,000 yuan, with a total amount of more than 10 million yuan.

“Now when I go to report a case, almost all the victims have already reported it. Even the police officers who receive the cases are familiar with it. When it comes to those who have been cheated on Amazon while doing cross-border e-commerce, they basically know what the situation is. ” said Zhang Yuan (pseudonym), a victimized seller in Shenzhen.

According to Yien.com, 80% of these sellers were found through advertisements posted by this so-called "service provider" in the cross-border circle. In these advertisements, they boasted that they had the ability to retrieve accounts closed by Amazon and funds withheld, and they showed off some success stories from time to time. Sellers with needs were easily attracted.

In the agreement, they usually require sellers to pay an advance payment of 10-20% of the funds withheld by Amazon , with an agreed period of three months. In order to convince the sellers, they even make a bet. Many sellers believed this and put their money where their mouth is, with the attitude of "give it a try, no loss if it doesn't work".

But in fact, the victimized sellers found that their Amazon accounts had never been logged in during the period, and the funds in the accounts had not been operated. The funds that the other party said had been remitted to the so-called "Amazon insiders" abroad were also taken out by several masterminds and then divided up. When the three-month period expired and the sellers came to ask for a refund, they made excuses.

This is obviously not a simple contract dispute, but a contract fraud for three reasons: first, the so-called "service provider" is a fictitious business and does not have the ability to handle related business. The ultimate goal is to defraud advance payment; second, the "service provider" does not actually operate the business projects related to the contract; third, this is an organized and planned large-scale scam with hundreds of victims, and it is not a single contract dispute.

When the sellers found out they were cheated, they quickly took legal action, but the road was fraught with difficulties. According to feedback, many victimized sellers have reported the case, but it is difficult to file a case because of the signed contract, jurisdiction, isolated cases and other issues. The sellers who successfully filed the case encountered new difficulties after submitting the case to the procuratorate. " The procuratorate said that they needed Amazon's seal to confirm this fraud gang, and they could not determine the nature of the case without the ability to handle the case. " Zhang Yuan said helplessly.

In addition, some sellers have also solved the problem through litigation, and some have already gone to court. However, this approach is not satisfactory because the other party has long been listed as a dishonest debtor (deadbeat), and many of their debts have not been paid, the earliest of which can even be traced back to 2018. Therefore, even if the seller wins the case, he will not get the money.

Entrenched in the cross-border circle for five years, using various names to commit fraud

According to reports, the company that signed the contract with the victimized seller is Shenzhen Shanghaojia Network Technology Co. , Ltd. Qichacha shows that as of July 19, it is facing a total of eight legal proceedings. Among the four newly added court opening notices, one of the plaintiffs is an e-commerce company from Putian and the other is a trading company from Shanghai. Both cases were caused by service contract disputes.

The victimized sellers claimed that Shanghaojia's legal representative Li Weilong , actual controller /supervisor Li Shaotao, and seven people including Chen **, Peng *peng, Chen *dong, Chen *bin, and Chen *ji jointly planned and implemented the scam. The entire fraud gang had a clear division of labor: Chen * * was responsible for attracting traffic, using all kinds of exaggerated propaganda and promises of gambling to lure Amazon sellers into the trap; Peng *peng was responsible for receiving payments; Li Weilong and Li Shaotao were responsible for signing the agreement. Chen *dong, Chen *bin, and Chen *ji were behind the scenes, so most of the victimized sellers did not have direct contact with them.

"At the end of last year, the public security organs had detained all the suspects except Peng * Peng, and Li Weilong was detained again recently. " Zhao Meng said that this was not the first time that the gang had committed a crime. Since 2018, they have been active in the cross-border e-commerce circle, defrauding a large amount of money under the guise of reselling European local accounts, VC accounts, and second-instance accounts, as well as providing "forced opening" services. "In the past, the amount of money defrauded by sellers was not large, so many people chose to keep quiet."

However, the sellers' concessions made them even more unscrupulous, and they planned a large-scale "forced opening" service scam in 2022. According to incomplete statistics, the amount involved was no less than 15 million yuan. According to statistics from victimized sellers, the gang has defrauded at least 30 million yuan over the years.

Among them, from 2018 to 2020, the amount of fraud involving the resale of fake Amazon Irish accounts was no less than 5 million yuan. A seller in Putian, Fujian alone was defrauded of 1.4 million yuan, and dozens of companies fall into the trap every year. From 2020 to 2021, the amount of fraud involving fake Amazon whitelist accounts was no less than 1 million yuan. At the same time, the false registration of US trademarks during this period also defrauded no less than 5 million yuan. From 2021 to 2022, the amount of fraud involving fake second-instance emails and credit card postcard authentication account emails was no less than 3 million yuan each year. In addition, there is the 15 million yuan of this "forced opening" service fraud.

It can be said that they are the initiators of many fraud cases in the cross-border e-commerce circle. The large-scale rights protection of Amazon sellers this time also brought out some victims who had been defrauded by this gang. Some of them have been trying to get back the money they were cheated of in various ways. Those who chose to keep quiet before have now joined the rights protection team.

According to the public court case information, from 2017 to 2022, Chen * Dong and Chen * Bin were repeatedly listed as dishonest debtors, and they have not fulfilled all the more than 2 million yuan of execution money sentenced by the court . Therefore, if the gang cannot be completely eliminated this time, it will be a potential danger to the sellers in the entire cross-border circle. On the one hand, they will continue to commit fraud in the circle, and on the other hand, the victimized sellers will defend their rights through litigation channels. Even if they win, it will be difficult to get the money back. After all, previous cases have shown that these people are not afraid of becoming "deadbeats". When they want to commit fraud, they just find someone to set up a company and serve as the legal person.

In recent years, the cross-border e-commerce industry has developed at a very fast pace. According to previous data, it has grown tenfold in five years. Not long ago, the General Administration of Customs also disclosed that there are more than 100,000 cross-border e-commerce entities in China. However, the prosperous cross-border e-commerce industry has also spawned some "hidden corners" whose purpose is not to "make money" but to "cheat money".

The sellers work overtime and stay up late to get orders, and they work hard, while the scammers don’t spend a penny and can easily win.

Cross-border e-commerce scams emerge in endlessly, and only sellers get hurt in the world

In recent years, it is not uncommon to see cases of people swindling money under the guise of service providers. They even commit crimes to make money quickly, and the cross-border e-commerce sellers are always the ones who get hurt in the end. The following are several types of cross-border e-commerce scams summarized by Ennet:

1. Pretend to be a logistics business and run away with money

Logistics is an indispensable service for cross-border e-commerce sellers when conquering overseas markets, but it also has the most scandals. One type is particularly hateful, which is pretending to be a freight forwarder to pick up goods and then running away with the money.

Their usual tactic is to buy goods at low prices. They make extremely low offers, frantically buy goods in a short period of time, and then run away with the money.

Such an incident has been exposed in the industry before : a "freight forwarder" scammer solicited goods from the shipper at a freight rate far below the market price. At the same time, he negotiated the payment period with another freight forwarder, and sent the freight forwarder's contact information to the shipper for booking. The goods were loaded on the ship, the bill was issued, the freight was collected from the shipper, and then the scammer ran away.

In fact, the fraudulent tricks of fake freight forwarders are not very sophisticated. Their strength lies in taking advantage of the human weakness of "being greedy for cheapness". Nowadays, the price war in the freight forwarding industry is getting more and more intense, and even "receiving goods for 0 yuan" has emerged. However, when facing low-price sellers, you must remain vigilant and not be greedy for cheapness. Remember: the lower the price, the more likely you are to be cheated.

2. Using "cross-border e-commerce agency operation" as a disguise to defraud money

"By operating a cross-border e-commerce business, you can earn money from foreigners without doing anything." It sounds good, but there is a mystery behind it. This scam uses the guise of "operating a cross-border e-commerce business" to lure inexperienced or newly-entered cross-border e-commerce newcomers into the market, and then swallow up all their initial investment.

Their routine is roughly as follows: attract users with the gimmick of "low cost" or even "zero cost", and then recommend them to buy/rent online stores of different levels. The stores are managed by them, and users can get online store income every month, making money easily. However, the real situation is that after users buy the stores, they still have to pay for goods and traffic, but their so-called "income" from the stores cannot be credited to their accounts. Even if they do receive some small amount of money, it is to cheat more money. Finally, when users find out the trick and want to close the store, they swallow up all the other party's funds on the grounds of "breach of contract". Then they don't forget to throw the problem to the platform and foreign countries.

This year, the Zhejiang police uncovered such a scam. The criminal gang created two fake platforms, "Starday" and "Goshopping", and lured people to open or rent stores on them. Then, from the listing of goods to the generation of transaction orders, everything that could be presented to the victims was fake. In other words, these two so-called platforms did not conduct any transactions at all.

So if you encounter investment projects with low investment, short cycle, high returns, one-click custody without supply, etc., and require transfers for various reasons, you must be vigilant. Remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Will people tell you about projects that can make money without doing anything? Aren’t your relatives and friends closer to you than you are across the screen?

3. Fake training services to cheat customers

In recent years, training services are usually associated with the three words "cutting leeks". If there are really serious courses, it is actually a question of how much money it costs and whether it is worth it. However, some people paid the money, and the so-called training institution "disappeared".

Such institutions usually make a lot of promises in their promotional advertisements to attract people first, and then use models such as live free open classes to engage in hunger marketing, or create anxiety, such as limiting the number of discounted course registrations, or making an impassioned speech that as long as you spend money to buy this course, you can change your poor self.

They will "help" you solve all your worries . If you don't have a business license, they can apply for it. If you don't have a source of goods, they can drop ship. As long as you want to learn seriously, you can learn it. But when you buy the course and software, and pay the money, you can't contact the other party anymore.

In addition to some newcomers who have just entered the industry, some factories that are eager to transform are also very easy to be deceived by this kind of scam. Many factories have their online businesses blocked, and they are desperate to develop their online businesses, but they never expected that they have become the favorites of some people with bad intentions.

4. Selling fake accounts

In some industry exchange groups or social platforms, you can often see people selling their shops. The reason is usually that they quit due to poor management, or they switch to other careers. In the cross-border e-commerce industry, shop buying and selling is very common, but it is also easy to fall into traps.

In the group, you can often see sellers posting certain people's WeChat IDs or Alipay accounts, accusing the other party of being a scammer, how much money they were defrauded of when buying an account, and that the other party provided false registration information that led to the inability to log in or being blocked. When he went to the other party to solve the problem, the other party refused to admit it and even blocked the person. He thought he had picked up a great bargain, but in the end he found out that the clown was actually himself.

This type of case is very common in the cross-border circle, but it is impossible to eliminate it because the seller does not even know whether the person on the other side is a man or a woman, old or young, because of the screen. Therefore, once a WeChat account or Alipay account is exposed, they can quickly change their appearance and use a new account to continue to commit fraud.

5. Help unblock accounts

This is actually the "forced opening" service scam mentioned above . It is common for sellers doing business on cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon to have their accounts blocked, especially as the platforms are becoming more and more compliant. Among them, the most unforgettable for Amazon sellers is the account blocking wave in 2021. So far, many top sellers have not recovered their frozen funds.

Generally speaking, it is very difficult to get back accounts and frozen funds that have been blocked due to illegal operations. Therefore, some criminals seize this pain point of sellers and use the bait of helping to unblock accounts and get back frozen funds to induce sellers to pay. In order to increase their credibility, they usually package themselves in a series of ways, such as knowing internal employees of the platform and that some sellers have successfully got back their accounts and funds.

Sellers are easily convinced when they have no other options. In the above incident, Yien.com found that these scammers would also use acquaintances to introduce the victim sellers to their friends. Because they were introduced by friends, they would easily let down their guard, and once they transferred the money, they found that they had all been deceived.

The cross-border e-commerce industry is full of mixed bag of people, sellers must be extra cautious and careful when they are doing business, and do not take shortcuts for quick success. In fact, it is not difficult to find out from these scams that they are very good at taking advantage of human weaknesses, such as "being cheap", so to avoid falling into the trap, you must remember that there is no free lunch in the world, if there is, there must be a scam waiting for you to jump in.