Loan 5 million from Amazon without paying it back? Beware of scams!

If someone tells you that they are recruiting agents for a cross-border e-commerce platform, and they want to use your information to register a store and borrow 5 million yuan, and they will be fully responsible for the operation of the store, you can take more than 3 million yuan from the loan, and the remaining 1.5 million yuan will be given to them as agency operating fees and payment for goods, you do not have to repay the loan, but it will be deducted from the store's profits. If the profits are not enough, they will pay the rest, what would you think?

Many people’s first reaction is definitely that there is no such thing as a free lunch and this is a scam, but I believe that there are also many people who will be tempted and dive into it regardless of the consequences.

In recent years, the cross-border e-commerce industry has developed rapidly, and many people who have taken advantage of this favorable trend have made a fortune. In recent years, the country has also continuously increased its support for this industry. Many outsiders who do not know the inside story think that they can make money here, which gives some criminals an opportunity to take advantage.

As a leading cross-border e-commerce website, Amazon has attracted many sellers in recent years. Therefore, it has also been used by criminals as a tool to defraud others of their money in some "leek-cutting incidents" and "fraud cases".

The incident at the beginning of the article is a new scam that Yien.com recently learned about. At present, people have fallen into the trap in Linyi, Shandong, Dongguan, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Anhui, and Zhejiang. Among them are mothers who take care of their children at home, as well as white-collar workers working in companies, and people of all identities and professions.

Now some people have paid for business licenses, but more than half a year has passed and they have not received any feedback .

In response to this, Yien.com also verified with Amazon, and Amazon said that they did not authorize any third party to attract investment. To put it bluntly, the official statement is that this is a naked scam.

Borrowing money from Amazon without having to pay it back, is this a free lunch?

Recently, an industry insider revealed to Yien.com that some people are using Amazon loans to commit fraud.

According to feedback from the whistleblower, some people said that they were acting as agents for Amazon to attract store investors and had initiated loan applications from Amazon. The stores registered using other people's information would be fully managed and operated by a company called "Amazon Third Branch". The operating fees and payments would be deducted from the loan money, so sellers could make money without spending any money.

Through the exposed agreement, Yien.com discovered that this matter is not simple. This is a three-party agreement: Party A is the seller, Party B is Amazon (Shanghai) International Trading Co., Ltd., and Party C is Amazon's third branch.

In the agreement, regarding the entrusted service content, it is shown that Party A authorizes Party B and Party C to operate the store on behalf of Party A. Party B provides goods at the supply price agreed upon by Party A and Party C, and promises to deliver the goods on time and correctly according to the address provided by Party A and Party C. The ownership and control of the store belong to Party B.

Parties B and C are responsible for the store's daily operations, including decoration, promotion, sales, and customer service, and shall bear the related marketing and promotion expenses incurred thereby. The marketing expenses shall be borne by both parties B and C (excluding the deposit prepaid to Amazon or a third-party platform, service fees, and warranty fees for large-scale events ).

One of the contents regarding the rights and obligations of Parties A, B and C shows that Party B authorizes Party C to operate the Amazon store for Party A , and Party C guarantees to operate Party A's store normally in accordance with Party B's requirements. If the monthly operation of Party A's store cannot normally repay Party A's monthly installment repayment amount on Amazon Home Loan, Party B will advance the payment free of charge and the accumulated amount will be deducted in the next month.

Amazon's third branch, Party C in the above agreement, claimed that they were officially authorized by Amazon. On a plaque named Amazon (China) Promotion and Operation Center, Yien.com saw that its authorization number was clearly stated as: YMX000003. However, when searching for "Amazon's third branch" through Qichacha , no trace of this company was found , and the only two results were not related to Amazon.

This non-existent "Amazon Third Branch" may have expected that someone would raise this question, so both the agreement and the information learned from the whistleblower show that Amazon's Third Branch is mainly promoted under the banner of Amazon (Shanghai) International Trading Co., Ltd.

In the publicity in the name of Amazon's third branch, they said that they would show a video of their head signing a contract with the legal person of Amazon (Shanghai) International Trading Co., Ltd. They also emphasized that the person who signed the agreement with the seller (Party A) was the legal person, and the signature was Amazon (Shanghai) International Trading Co., Ltd. In addition, the seller's store is operated by Amazon's internal operation team, who have resources, master the data of hot-selling products, and are experienced, and can ensure the store's continued profitability.

I believe everyone has noticed the "Amazon seller loan" mentioned in the rights and obligations of the three parties A, B and C above . This is also the second bait thrown by the fraud gang under the banner of investment agency.

The leaked loan application process shows that sellers (age requirement 18-60 years old) only need to provide their identity, ID card, and company business license that meets the requirements. The investment agent can use this information to help the seller apply for registration of Amazon North America online store and apply for loan. In the early stage, Amazon's third branch will advance 100,000 yuan for goods and transport the goods from China to the US cloud warehouse by sea for evaluation, listing, operation, and then valuation and loan amount. The amount that individuals can apply for is 2 million yuan, and if the investment agent applies, the amount is 5 million yuan. During this period, the seller needs to cooperate with video authentication. The loan money can be directly transferred to the seller's personal account, or directly withdraw cash from the company. However, this money needs to be deducted from the 100,000 yuan payment paid in advance by Amazon's third branch , and the remaining part will be deducted from 30% of the store hosting operation expenses, and then 70% of the seller can take it for personal use.

Assuming the loan amount is 5 million yuan, including the payment for goods and the store hosting and operating expenses, Amazon's third branch took away 1.57 million yuan, and the seller received 3.43 million yuan.

These loans will be repaid in 36 installments using store profits. If the profits are not enough to repay the loan, the fraud gang claims that Amazon (Shanghai) International Trade Co., Ltd. will make advance payments. If the profits exceed the repayment amount, the sellers can pocket the excess. In addition, regarding how to share the profits with the sellers, Amazon's third branch stipulates that the first three years will be 30% and the next three years will be 50% and 50%. If the seller doesn't want to do it after three years, he can also withdraw 100,000 yuan and then take the money and leave. Sellers can go to the nearest hosting center to settle their earnings by face recognition on the 20th to 30th of each month.

After looking at it all, the point that this third branch of Amazon wants to express is just one: Amazon gives you money, Amazon helps you run your store, and Amazon helps you back up. At this point, many people will say, "Is this pie in the sky? This is too unreliable!"

They have already predicted your prediction and have prepared their lines: "If it was a small company, it would definitely be a routine, but this is one of the largest companies in the world, and the founder has been listed as the world's richest man many times. If it wasn't such a big company, would we have a chance?"

Finally, he added: "This is for the international market, which has different returns from the domestic market. One million is just the credit card limit for an ordinary American. It's not much."

The fraud gangs, under the banner of investment agency, told sellers that Amazon simply combined the agency business with its own business, and many people believed it.

However, laymen do not understand this, they only see millions of dollars beckoning ahead, and they can have it without paying any price. Therefore, mothers, office workers, etc. rush to jump into the pit dug by these people.

The mother who got into the pit: I got a few dozen yuan in two months, and the store was closed

Zhao Hui (pseudonym) from Linyi, Shandong is one of them. "Here's a suggestion for you: don't do it, especially if you need to pay money first." She advised when she heard Yi Enjun asking about this.

Zhao Hui handed over her information to an agent (investment agent) to register an Amazon store in mid-November last year . At that time, they said that the payment could be made within three months. However, half a year has passed, and there has been no news at all. Every time she asked the other party, the answer she got was that she needed to wait and not to worry.

"It's all over now. The store is not closed, the information has been returned, but the money for the business license agency has not been refunded to me, and I still haven't received the business license." When talking about the latest situation, Zhao Hui told Yien.com.

She said that many people around her gave their information to agents to register Amazon stores, but no one succeeded. "I know 20 or 30 people, including asking other people on social platforms, but no one got a store."

Zhao Hui said that she was introduced to this matter by a friend. Since they were all acquaintances, she did not think much about it, and even handed over the information and money without knowing the specific name of the other party's company. "At that time, my friend told me that the chance of successfully getting the loan was 80%."

"I think it's a scam. They haven't given us an explanation yet, nor told us why it failed." Now Zhao Hui has come to her senses.

Now Zhao Hui is glad that she only paid 500 yuan to the agent to help her apply for a business license, but her friend was not so lucky. "He did this later than me, and paid the agent 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, including the registration fee and store fees. The agent told him that the store had been approved, but he had never seen it."

She said that there is no uniform standard for agency fees. Some people spent hundreds, some spent thousands, and some even spent tens of thousands. Some people spent money, but some did not, so everyone's losses were different.

According to Zhao Hui's feedback, many people in Linyi gave their information to intermediaries to register Amazon stores and then took out loans. Even many people from Shenzhen, Dongguan and other places came to Linyi for inspection and returned to devote themselves to this matter without hesitation.

"I didn't have to pay the money back, so I went for it just for that reason." Zhao Hui replied when asked why she and others believed such an outrageous thing.

There is a mother who is also one of them, but she may be in a slightly better situation than Zhao Hui and her friends. She got her store and operated it for 2 months. Uncle Xie, a cross-border e-commerce blogger and independent website seller, once mentioned such an incident in his cross-border e-commerce diary: One night when she was live streaming, a mother came to the live streaming room and told her that she had signed a contract with a company to cooperate with Amazon. The company used her information to register a store, and then the company helped her operate it and gave her money every month. She only needed to pay the company an annual service fee of 39,800 yuan, but now I have only received 2 months' money, a few dozen yuan per month, because they put some illegal products on the shelves and the store was closed, and the money in the store was also frozen. The service fee cannot be recovered, and the money cannot be distributed.

If you type "Amazon loan" into the search bar of a certain audio app , you can see the following: "Amazon loan scam", "Amazon loan not repaid", "Is Amazon loan real or fake", "Isn't Amazon loan real?" This proves that many people have come into contact with this scam and tried to understand its authenticity through other channels.

There was a similar question on a certain page: Is it true that someone asked me to apply for a business license and open an Amazon account loan ? Many people in the comment section below the post said that they had encountered the same thing. Some of them had already handed in their information, some were waiting and watching, and some were preparing to participate in the video verification the next day.

A simple summary of this scam is: someone helps to apply for a business license, and then he takes the information and business license to open a store on Amazon and apply for a loan. After the loan is approved, the person who provided the information and business license can get 70% of the money, and the company that operates the store takes 30%. All loans are repaid in 36 installments (3 years), but the person who provided the information does not need to pay for it himself.

This scam not only tempted those who wanted to get a huge loan, but also those who wanted to get the agency rights. Someone revealed that his mother spent 20,000 yuan to get an agency.

According to an agent, they currently have hundreds of agents across the country. These agents are conducting a large number of so-called investment promotion. In fact, Yien.com has seen many agents from various provinces, cities, districts, and even counties in a WeChat group called "Amazon Agents" with more than 100 members, such as agents in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, agents in Pingshan District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, agents in Fengyang County, Anhui Province, and agents in Yuhua District, Changsha City, Hunan Province.

At the same time, Yien.com also found their advertisement on the short video platform Douyin, and the content of the promotion is almost the same as the one mentioned above. The video said: "Amazon, the world's largest cross-border e-commerce company, plans to recruit 100,000 merchants (sellers) in China and provide each store with 300,000 to 450,000 US dollars (about 2 million RMB) in support funds (seller loans), of which 30% (about 600,000 RMB) will be used for store operations and loan repayments, and 70% (about 1.4 million) will be transferred to personal accounts and can be freely used by sellers without repayment."

In the comment section of the video, some people showed great interest, while others directly pointed out that this was a scam. However, these people also raised their own doubts. If this was fake, how could Amazon allow such a thing to exist? Why didn't they take measures to stop such things? Aren't they afraid that their brand image will be affected?

Regarding this matter, Yien.com also verified it with Amazon.

Amazon: We do not authorize or certify third-party service providers to recruit merchants

Amazon said that at the beginning of this year, they had noticed that some companies were impersonating Amazon to open stores and register sellers, and falsely claimed that they could provide Amazon loan services. At that time, they also published an article titled "Beware of fake Amazon officials to prevent being deceived!" on the official WeChat public account of "Amazon Global Store".

Amazon said that they did not authorize any third party to do investment promotion. To interpret their words, any projects and services extended in the name of investment promotion are not real, but scams set up by criminals under the name of Amazon.

In the article, Amazon pointed out that if you need to open a store, you can go through the official channels of Amazon Global Store, including: official website (https://gs.amazon.cn/), and Amazon Global Store official WeChat (@AmazonGS), or learn and consult through the local official team of Amazon Global Store.

As we can see from the above, in order to increase credibility, criminals will use official banners. There are two main ways to determine whether the person contacting you is an Amazon official :

1. If the other party contacts you via email, check whether the email comes from these addresses : @amazon.com, @sell.amazon.com.au, @globalselling.amazon.cn, @amazon.sa, @amazon.co.uk, @sell.amazon.com, @amazon.de, @gs.amazon.cn, @amazon.es, @sell.amazon.ca, @amazon.fr, @vender.amazon.com.mx, @amazon.it, @venda.amazon.com.br, @amazon.lu, @sell.amazon.co.uk, @amazon.com.au, @sell.amazon.sg, @amazonsellerservices.com, @satis.amazon.com.tr, @amazon.ae, @amazon.com.tr

2. If the other party contacts you via WeChat, you need to determine whether he is using corporate WeChat and check his company name . Commonly used company names include: Amazon (Shanghai) International Trading Co., Ltd., Amazon Information Services (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch, and Beijing Century Excellence Express Service Co., Ltd.

As for loans, Amazon does have an official service called the "Amazon Lending Program" that aims to provide short-term business financing solutions to eligible sellers.

However, sellers cannot apply for this loan whenever they want. The "Amazon Loan Program" is an "invitation-based" program, which means that only sellers who meet the application requirements will see the "Amazon Lending" tool on the homepage of the Amazon Seller Center backend and can apply through this tool. It is not like what the so-called investment agents mentioned above claim: "As long as you register a store, you can apply."

What kind of sellers are eligible to apply? First, they must have a reliable sales growth record. Second, the seller account must have a good reputation and high consumer satisfaction.

The amount of loans that sellers can apply for through the "Amazon Loan Program" ranges from US$1,000 to US$750,000, with loan terms of 3, 6, 9, or 12 months. However, it is worth noting that receiving an invitation does not mean that Amazon will automatically approve the seller's loan application after submitting it. Amazon will review it within five working days and decide whether to approve the seller's application.

In short, there is no free lunch in the world, and there is no such thing as borrowing money without having to repay it, especially in a situation like the one in this article, where the seller borrowed money from Amazon and the Amazon Shanghai company had to repay it.

The reason why some people still believe in this scam is nothing more than due to the following reasons : First, you don’t have to repay the loan yourself, and you can get a share of the profits generated by the store; second, cross-border e-commerce is booming this year and is developing rapidly; third, people think that no one would dare to commit fraud in the name of a big company like Amazon; fourth, the country has encouraged the development of the cross-border e-commerce industry in recent years and has introduced a number of support policies.

It is reported that the company involved in this case, "Shandong Yiqu Pinpin Network Technology Co., Ltd.", has been sealed by the Linyi police in Shandong in February 2022, and the main culprit Zhang XX has also been taken criminal coercive measures by the police. In addition to providing free loan fraud, the gang is also suspected of impersonating Amazon's global store officials to develop regional agents in multiple provinces and cities by charging fees and carrying out fraudulent activities. Therefore, whether you are a layman or a seller who has already laid out the cross-border e-commerce industry, don't easily believe in such things as pie in the sky, and beware of being deceived.