A new pig-killing scam reappeared in the cross-border circle! Someone was defrauded of 750,000 yuan in half a month...

As an emerging industry, cross-border e-commerce has carried the dream of countless people to get rich since its birth. From the wild days when gold was everywhere, to the ups and downs of the epidemic bonus and the account blocking wave, to the current trend of compliance, some people have made a fortune, some have stuck to their original aspirations, and some have left sadly.

In the eyes of cross-border sellers, they all know that the threshold for starting a business in this industry is getting higher and higher, and they usually advise new entrants to be cautious. At the same time, some people with ulterior motives package cross-border e-commerce as a profitable business opportunity, harvesting leeks everywhere.

Recently, a new scam related to cross-border e-commerce was exposed, with victims all over the country, and some people were defrauded of their life savings...

Mining Southeast Asia at 0 cost?

Minimum monthly turnover of 100,000?

In recent years, Southeast Asian e-commerce has developed rapidly and has become a popular market for cross-border e-commerce. According to market research firm eMarketer, Southeast Asian e-commerce sales will increase by 20.6% in 2022, far higher than the 12.2% growth rate of global e-commerce in 2022, making it the fastest growing region in the world.

"Malaysia's largest e-commerce platform, with zero foundation, no store deposit, no need to stock up, one-on-one support from specialists throughout the process, and a guaranteed monthly turnover of 100,000. Limited places available." Faced with these tempting promotional copy, it is hard not to be tempted if you are an outsider of the cross-border circle, especially in the context of an economic downturn.

Source: Image provided by Zhihu netizens

To be cautious, some security-conscious netizens will check the background of Lelong. According to various sources, Lelong was founded in 1998 and is recognized as the king of local e-commerce in Malaysia.

Screenshot of Lelong official website

If the background check is correct, then give it a try. Little do you know that you have fallen into the trap carefully set by the other party. Then, as the investment specialist said, there will be a platform coach to teach you step by step to open a store. Finally, there will be an operations manager to recommend products for you to put on the shelves and how to purchase and ship them. The division of labor is clear and the service is dedicated. All of this seems flawless.

According to an eyewitness on Zhihu, the store had only been open for two hours when the official operations manager asked to help me apply for traffic, and soon I received three orders . You must be ecstatic at this time, but you don’t know that the sickle is already hanging on your neck. The operations manager will kindly congratulate you and send you another purchase website to teach you how to place an order.

Image provided by Zhihu netizens

In the following days, the orders increased, and the seller spent more and more money on purchasing goods as the store's "balance" continued to rise . Just as the seller was about to withdraw the money, an accident occurred.

The truth about the pig-killing scam: Li Kui and Li Gui in the cross-border circle

Some people's life savings were defrauded away...

The continuous "explosion of orders" makes the sellers keep investing money to purchase goods, until you are unable to pay for the purchase of new orders, or you realize that something is wrong and don't want to purchase new orders. At this time, the operation manager of Lelong shop will tell you, " If you don't ship on time, the store will be closed and the account will be frozen. "

Screenshot of Lelong shop website

According to a person involved in an interview with a reporter from China Business Network, "The unsettled and settled accounts are all for goods I have already shipped. I invested more than 600,000 yuan in this store alone. The manager told me that I needed to pay a deposit of 50,000 US dollars to unblock the store." It was only then that she realized she had fallen into a scam. In just 15 days, three stores were frozen one after another, and the more than 700,000 yuan invested was wasted . This more than 700,000 yuan not only consumed her own savings, but also her parents' half-life savings .

According to investigations, victims like the above are not isolated cases. On Zhihu, another victim warned: " lelongshop, http://lelongm.com and lelongw.shop are all fake . Their website addresses are constantly changing . They are under the guise of one of the largest e-commerce companies in Malaysia, but in fact they are all scams. I have been defrauded of 800,000 yuan . The scammers first use small amounts to attract large amounts, and then there are continuous orders, and the orders are getting bigger and bigger. If they don't ship the goods, they will close the store and freeze all the funds."

According to a rough estimate by a reporter from China Business Network, more than 30 sellers from all over the country had the same experience on the "Lelong shop" platform alone. As of January 6, 2023, they had been defrauded of more than 2 million yuan in total .

Even the most perfect scam has flaws

Be cautious when entering cross-border e-commerce platforms

Lelong shop is obviously not the Malaysian e-commerce platform Lelong, but one of the scammers' aliases. Careful netizens may have noticed that the two logos are also different. On the official website of the Malaysian platform Lelong.my, Brother Kan found detailed instructions and procedures for Chinese sellers to settle in.

Screenshot of Lelon g's official website

A senior person in the e-commerce industry said that these sellers may have encountered a "scam" in which not only the overseas stores are fake, but also the purchase websites are fake, and there are no so-called overseas buyers. A reporter checked the WeChat of "SiteGiant Co., Ltd. Customer Service" and found that SiteGiant Co., Ltd. was "unverified subject information " and had not submitted relevant materials to Tencent to verify the authenticity of the subject information.

Enterprise WeChat screenshot

No one knows the company information behind Lelong shop. When the victims went to the police station to report the case, they were speechless when asked about the name of the scammer or company. Since these scammers used overseas servers and virtual IP addresses to carry out illegal activities, it added a lot of obstacles to the investigation of law enforcement agencies, and the prospects of these victimized sellers to protect their rights became bleak.

In fact, in recent years, there have been many scams disguised as cross-border e-commerce, but actually online fraud. Temu, the recently popular Pinduoduo overseas platform, has also become a tool for scammers to commit fraud. Event review >> Temu investment promotion conference turned into a fraud conference? Exposing cross-border scams!

To this day, when Brother Kan opens a short video platform and enters the keyword "cross-border e-commerce", he will occasionally see various "brainwashing" videos, which package cross-border e-commerce as a golden opportunity to make money.

Screenshot of an APP

For many years, the cross-border e-commerce industry has always lacked a set of practical rules and mechanisms to prevent such scams from happening and to promote the healthy development of the industry.

Part of this article is compiled from Meijing Toutiao and Zhihu

Entering 2023, practitioners within the wall all know that if they want to achieve success in the cross-border e-commerce industry, the scope of knowledge involved is getting wider and wider, more and more resources are needed, and the requirements for people are getting higher and higher. You know, people cannot continue to earn income in areas they are not good at.

There are no shortcuts in any industry. Please keep your eyes open for anything you think you can make money from or anything that requires you to spend money.