The overseas popular platform was raided! Some employees have been detained

At the end of last year, Nike sued a sneaker blogger on YouTube with more than 50,000 followers because he taught his fans how to buy shoes on PandaBuy, a Chinese cross-border shopping platform, in his videos.

About a month ago, two more hackers stated on the dark web forum that they exploited a vulnerability in the PandaBuy API to steal various sensitive information including IDs, names, phone numbers, home addresses, etc. of more than 1.3 million users on the platform.

Just as the heat of these two incidents has passed, PandaBuy was recently exposed to have its domestic warehouse and Hangzhou company raided by the police. Millions of packages in the warehouse were seized and dozens of company employees were detained.

It is reported that in November last year, the British police began to cooperate with several intellectual property protection companies and launched a joint investigation with domestic and international trade law firms and domestic police. It is reported that there are hundreds of thousands of pairs of counterfeit brand-name sports shoes of different styles in the packages seized this time.

This platform may not be well-known in China, but it has accumulated a large number of users abroad. Its popularity can be seen from the amount of user information stolen by hackers. The data disclosed by the platform itself shows that it has more than 200,000 users.

According to online information, PandaBuy was founded in 2015 and is an overseas purchasing platform that provides overseas users with comprehensive services such as purchasing Chinese products, freight consolidation, customs clearance and tax declaration. It is very popular among young European and American users. Although it only serves as a bridge between buyers and sellers, in the eyes of many people, it has become a well-known source of cheap and counterfeit brand-name goods.

Screenshot of PandaBuy official website

The popularity of PandaBuy is inseparable from the recommendations of foreign Internet celebrities. In addition to the sneaker blogger mentioned at the beginning, there is also a British blogger on TikTok who posted a "Huge Pandabuy Haul" unboxing video on the platform, showing his fans the "Nike" shoes he bought on PandaBuy. This video received more than 120,000 likes in 2 and a half minutes.

However, when searching for "PandaBuy" as a keyword on TikTok, no relevant content can be found. On YouTube, when searching for "PandaBuy" as a keyword, most of the content that appears is also related to the investigation of its warehouse.

A YouTuber who promotes PandaBuy said in his latest video that he also thought the platform would be fine at first, but he has changed his mind now. On the one hand, the continuous news reports have confirmed the authenticity of the incident, and on the other hand, the management of the platform has not communicated the latest developments with him yet.

YouTube video screenshot

Many foreign netizens hold similar views to him. Under a video on TikTok that answers various questions about PandaBuy, a netizen commented: All the goods ordered by buyers will no longer exist. Although PandaBuy will refund, it will never come back. However, a netizen under this comment believes that they (PandaBuy) will not withdraw because if they come back, they will still make a lot of money.

TikTok comment screenshot

Of course, more foreign netizens are still worried about the status of their parcels. Some said that their express delivery showed "sent by the airline" and asked if it was reliable; some said that their parcels were on the way, but there was no logistics information. For this, the blogger who posted the above video said that these parcels may have been shelved before the investigation was completed.

Many consumers also said that they paid with credit cards and asked how to get a refund now. From the blogger's reply, it can be seen that if users pay with credit cards or PayPal, they can now apply for a refund. In addition, one user said that he bought 24 items on the platform and added a crying expression.

However, according to the latest news, some orders have already been shipped, and judging from the email replies automatically generated by the platform, the company is still operating within a certain range. In my opinion, this is a bloody case caused by "infringement", so everyone must keep the red lines of "compliance" and "copyright" firmly in mind during the operation.

PandaBuy

Infringement

Warehouse inspected