Scam? The seller issued an urgent statement

Data from the General Administration of Customs showed that in the first quarter of this year, the total value of China's import and export of goods was 10.17 trillion yuan. Among them, according to preliminary estimates, cross-border e-commerce imports and exports were 577.6 billion yuan, an increase of 9.6%, and exports accounted for 448 billion yuan.

Obviously, even though everyone is complaining about the decrease in the number of cross-border e-commerce orders, this huge market still has many opportunities and new entrants continue to emerge. Precisely because of this, criminals are still making a lot of dirty money, and even use the name of big sellers to lure newcomers.

Tongtuo was used to commit fraud again

On April 9, the popular online store Tongtuo released a statement on its official account, saying that some criminals had used the name of Tongtuo to conduct so-called full store management.

Tongtuo said that this was a fraud. Specifically, Tongtuo has never promoted the "store hosting" business through the Douyin platform , and the company does not have this business, so it will not charge any individual the so-called "store deposit"; in addition, it has never authorized any individual or company to engage in the above behavior .

Therefore, any business conducted in the name of Tongtuo is illegal and suspected of fraud.

In fact, various social platforms have always been filled with scams about cross-border e-commerce, among which the most common scams are about "no source of goods".

" Zero threshold ", " No need to stock up ", " Super high returns " and other slogans that almost put wealth into pockets have made many novices excited. Even if there is still a trace of doubt in their hearts, their greed without putting it into practice still makes them willing to be deceived.

Relevant departments in our country have repeatedly issued warnings about this type of scam, but victims continue to emerge.

The "store hosting" business mentioned by Tongtuo above is the common "agent operation" scam. "Leave the store to me, don't worry about it, professional operation will increase the store sales exponentially..."

In this pit, many novices signed agency operation contracts worth tens of thousands of yuan , but in the end they could not find anyone , or even worse, they could not get the store back .

Tongtuo's name was used impersonatorly this time, and the criminals committed fraud by claiming that " you only need to pay a store deposit and you don't need to stock up on goods to get full trusteeship and operation of the store . "

There are also copycat platforms and fake platforms that imitate mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay, and are extremely similar in name, web pages, URLs, etc. There are also specially created " official " cross-border e-commerce platforms.

The latter is more difficult to distinguish, but the former can still be distinguished by comparing the URL domain name.

Tongtuo also encountered the situation of its official mall being counterfeited, so it stated in a statement: the company's official website is https://www.tomtop.cn/, the export mall address is https://www.tomtop.com/, the import mall address is: https://www.tomtop.com.cn/ , and any other website claiming to be Tongtuo Mall is counterfeit .

Regarding the above-mentioned behavior, Tongtuo stated that it will reserve the right to pursue relevant legal responsibilities , and also reminded customers and consumers not to transfer money easily. They can call for consultation first, and report to the public security organs in time if they suffer losses .

Operation training fraud? Tongtuo: Will report the case according to law

In fact, this is not the first time that Tongtuo has been defrauded by someone using its name.

As early as January this year, Tongtuo also issued a statement about a fraud in which criminals used its name to forge its company seal to conduct training operations.

It is reported that some criminals used the name and official seal of Tongtuo, claiming that they could provide training services such as store opening and operation for cross-border stores, but in fact, the criminals made fake seals and privately printed contracts .

In response, Tongtuo had to issue a statement through its official channels stating that it had not conducted any external training or enrollment under the name of "Tongtuo Cross-border College", nor had it authorized any third party or individual to conduct related business; any training activities claiming to be conducted on behalf of Tongtuo by any individual or third-party organization were illegal .

As for the acts of criminals who use false names to commit fraud, Tongtuo will report the case to the public security organs in accordance with the law and hold the relevant personnel accountable for their legal responsibilities.

Using the name of a well-known brand to commit fraud is not uncommon in the entire illegal business circle, and there are many such examples in the cross-border circle. Because big brands are easier to gain trust, they are often targeted, which is the same reason as pirates making counterfeit products.

By impersonating brands and big company names, pushing large amounts of traffic on various social media platforms, and taking advantage of human weaknesses, they use slogans such as "0 foundation, 0 threshold, quick financial freedom" and "Do a side job at home, making 10,000 yuan a day is not a dream" to attract a group of "leeks", then quickly harvest them and disappear.

Tongtuo is not the first cross-border retailer to suffer, nor will it be the last.

There are also some, such as the fake platform mentioned in the first part above. The criminals claim that they can quickly settle in the mainstream cross-border e-commerce platforms in the current market through their platform, and they will also receive official traffic support through the platform. However, in the end, the novices are deceived again and again. They have remitted multiple payments and watched the "cross-border e-commerce business slowly gain momentum". In the end, the more they invested, the more difficult it became to withdraw cash. It was not until they discovered that the criminals had absconded with the money that they realized they had to report the case.

Cross-border e-commerce scams are old-fashioned, but victims continue to emerge

In fact, the fraud routines of cross-border e-commerce are quite old-fashioned, basically focusing on "no source of goods", "agent operation", "fake platform", and "platform phishing emails".

It’s just that with the passage of time and the development of technology, the fraudulent methods may have some technical upgrades.

“ Earn money from foreigners while doing nothing ”, “ No deposit required ”, “ A product worth 1 yuan can be sold for 10 US dollars ”, “ 0 cost, high return ”... In fact, these are all full of scams, but the temptation is so strong that many newbies still want to take a gamble, “what if?” But there are not so many “what if” opportunities to make a fortune in the world.

Through the Black Cat complaint query, there are 6753 complaints with the keyword "no source of goods" and 8967 complaints with "agent operation" . If the keyword "cross-border e-commerce" is searched, there are 7788 complaints , many of which are about agent operation services involving many platforms; and even more are about fraudulent training courses.

For example, there were complaints that a certain company promised high returns and high profits, simple operation, and guaranteed quick orders, ensuring that one could become a profitable Amazon seller. However, after payment, there were only online classes, and there was no so-called starting monthly income of US$3,000 or steadily increasing sales .

In addition, it is not just novice sellers who are easily deceived, but mature and experienced sellers are also easily fooled by phishing emails.

It is reported that a few years ago, many Amazon sellers received phishing emails in PDF format. The scammers pretended to be official staff and sent " tax invoices " . Sellers had to log in to their accounts to view the invoice details. However, when the sellers entered their account and password, their accounts were stolen at the same time .

Until last year, this type of fraudulent emails made a comeback, and some sellers lost hundreds of thousands of dollars overnight due to negligence .

Even though cross-border business is criticized for being increasingly difficult, it is still a piece of fat meat, so criminals will not stop there, and sellers must remember to be cautious.

Big Sell

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