Dream of ＂cross-border e-commerce＂ Who cheated me of my half-life savings？

Every reporter Du Wei Wen Menghua every editor Dong Xingsheng

Looking for an overseas website to open a shop and sell China goods is attracting more and more businesses and capital.

According to enterprise survey data, in the first half of 2022, more than 20,000 cross-border e-commerce related enterprises were added nationwide. The Data Report of Cross-border E-commerce Market in China in 2022 (I) predicts that the cross-border e-commerce market is expected to reach 15.7 trillion yuan in 2022.

15.7 trillion, the market is very big, and the temptation is also great. "You don’t need to know English, the net profit of a single order exceeds 40%", "You can do it without purchasing channels and goods" and "The guaranteed turnover is 40,000 yuan a month". It is these tempting marketing terms of "cross-border e-commerce" that make dozens of people from all over the country, such as Li Yun from Guizhou, Zhong Yong from Hebei and Yu Wei from Inner Mongolia, fall into the trap of new tricks in just a few days, and some families even fall into it.

What is even more embarrassing is that these businesses don’t even know who they have been cheated by.

"This is a new situation." Li Chengdong, the founder of e-commerce of Dolphin Think Tank, pointed out in an interview with national business daily. Chen Zixing, a lawyer of Beijing Anbo (Chengdu) Law Firm, also told reporters that it was the first time that the seller suffered a "chain scam" case. "The cross-border e-commerce store and the website where the goods were purchased in the case were all fake."

Taking advantage of the information gap at home and abroad, the new deception that lures merchants to enter has cast a shadow over the rising cross-border e-commerce. After more than two months of follow-up investigation, the reporter personally experienced how Li Yun and others were tempted to open stores step by step, trying to break through the tightly woven network of chain scams; And talk to industry authorities, lawyers, etc., restore the reasons behind the new scam, and explore the problems and opportunities of cross-border e-commerce industry.

One ring and one ring: nearly 750,000 yuan was cheated in half a month.

In October 2022, Li Yun, who opened a physical clothing store, was attracted by the "gimmicks" such as cross-border e-commerce to open stores for free and without supply, thinking that he had encountered a "precious" entrepreneurial opportunity. Unexpectedly, she fell into a huge trap.

Under the guidance of the online "teacher", Li Yun opened a shop in Lelong shop that day, and purchased it through "Youhuo.com" and sent it to overseas buyers. Initially, Li Yun quickly received the payment on Lelong shop.

"I checked Lelong, which was established in 1998 and is very famous abroad." According to Liu Yun, in the next few days, more and more orders were placed, and the amount was getting bigger and bigger. "I have more than 100,000 yuan in each order."

Not without doubt. When she invested 4000 yuan, Li Yun called the relevant authorities, but at that time it was not clear whether it was fraud, so she didn’t care. After that, Li Yun opened two more stores in the name of his parents.

From the initial free shop opening, to the payment of several hundred yuan, and then to tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of yuan, as the order is getting bigger and bigger, like "snowballing", in order to get the payment back, Li Yun has also spent more and more money. In order not to let the previous money go to waste, she can only continue to invest more money. After being unable to pay for the purchase of new orders, all three stores of Li Yun were frozen by the website. The "teacher" told her that she needed to pay a deposit of $50,000 to unblock the store. Until then, Li Yuncai realized that he had fallen into a scam and called the police.

The reporter logged into the backstage of Li Yun’s frozen women’s clothing store and saw that at present, Li Yun’s pending settlement amount exceeds 60,000 US dollars, and the settled amount exceeds 30,000 US dollars (the settlement failed to be withdrawn after the store was closed). "I have already delivered the unsettled and settled goods. I invested more than 600,000 yuan in this store alone." Liu Yun said that in just 15 days, his three stores were frozen successively, and more than 700,000 yuan was invested in Shui Piao. Among them, on the day of the alarm on October 24, 2022, I hit another 100,000 yuan.

For Liu Yun, this more than 700,000 yuan not only spent his savings, but also caught up with his parents’ savings for half a lifetime. What happened to Liu Yun is not a case. The reporter found that more than 30 sellers from all over the country had the same experience on the platform of "Lelong shop" alone. As of January 6, 2023, according to the reporter’s rough statistics, they have been cheated by more than 2 million yuan.

Yu Wei, who lives in Inner Mongolia, told reporters that she found that it was not the same collection account on the third day when she opened the store. She felt that it was not right, but after being induced by the "teacher" to check the backstage payment, she made another 8,000 yuan. "There were 50 orders of about 20,000 yuan that night. I asked the customer service to inform the customer to return the goods on the platform, but there was no response; Negotiating with the’ teacher’, the other party also said that there is no way to close the store and freeze the account if it is not delivered on time. "

Experience the deception of no supply: set big money with small money

"Open a shop without supply" and "Free of any deposit, tuition and consulting fees", and open the advertising links provided by the above sellers. The reporter saw that the advertising language on the poster was very attractive.

After the reporter clicked "consult now", he added the WeChat of "Customer Service of SiteGiant Co., Ltd." through a QR code. According to the other party, Lelong is the largest e-commerce platform in Malaysia, and now it is fully inviting investment from China merchants, with limited places.

When the reporter checked the enterprise information of SiteGiant Co., Ltd., he found that the number was "filled in by individuals" and no relevant information was submitted to verify the authenticity of the main information.

"There is no charge for supporting you to open a shop." The other party repeatedly stressed to reporters. Subsequently, it guided reporters to download ICQ software, and then pulled the group to introduce the operation of "teachers" to guide the opening of stores and selling goods. The reporter’s experience is exactly the same as that of Yang Liang, who works in Germany.

Yang Liang introduced that the "teacher" helped him with how to classify the product map and how to design the logo. At first, the other party was particularly enthusiastic. "Every day, I will help me pay attention to the store dynamics, teach me by hand, and ask me questions." When the store was placed by an overseas buyer, the teacher taught him to go to Youhuo.com to search for the goods the buyer wanted, and then he called the private account provided by Youhuo.com, "Tell me that I don’t pay taxes for my personal business, and I will believe it".

When "Youhuowang" delivers the goods for him, he can fill in the order number back to Lelong shop, which is regarded as the completion of the order. "They said that when the buyer receives the goods, I can go to the store to withdraw money." Yang Liang said, according to the "teacher", "every order will have a net profit of at least 40%. However, the delivery must be completed within 24 hours of the buyer’s order, otherwise it will be regarded as a violation and the store will be frozen. "

Everything went smoothly at first, but with the increasing amount of orders, Yang Liang’s investment in payment became more and more difficult, and the funds began to turn around. He once told the "teacher" not to push the flow and not to take orders first, but the orders were still one after another.

In just one week, Yang Liang’s shop was closed twice for failing to deliver the goods on time. After he scraped together a deposit of $1,000, the "teacher" also blamed him: "Don’t you even have one or two bosom friends?"

Yang Liang tried to contact overseas buyers and negotiate to cancel the order, but found that the other party was empty. When he questioned the "teacher" and asked questions, "The customer has placed an order of 100,000 yuan, and I have no money to purchase it. Can’t I not do this order?" However, it was accused by the "teacher" as an "unscrupulous merchant". "How can you make a phone call without an area code? How much money you prepare, just say in advance, you don’t say … you can’t solve it in violation of the regulations, just say that you have been cheated. "

At this point, Yang Liang just woke up, he is met "kill pig plate". Therefore, I immediately entrusted my domestic friends to call the police.

The public security bureau ran back and forth several times, but I still don’t know who cheated.

Is the Lelong shop where more than 30 sellers have settled in Malaysia?

The reporter called Lelong many times, but as of press time, he did not get a reply. "Lelong is a relatively old e-commerce platform in our country." Su Yanlu, Acting President of China Silk Road Entrepreneurs Association, told reporters that although the company address displayed on the website page of Lelong shop is the same as Lelong’s, there is no registration number required by the local government, and the logo of the two websites are different.

"I cried and begged my mother to trust me and lend me money to do cross-border e-commerce. As a result, I was cheated by nearly 750,000 yuan." After running back and forth several times in the Public Security Bureau, Liu Yun still doesn’t even know who he was cheated by. Another seller, Luo Qian, also smiled bitterly at the reporter: "When I went to the police station to report the case, I was asked the name of the fraudster or company."

No one knows the company information behind Lelong shop, and dozens of sellers also make personal calls to Youhuo. com, and the account number is different every time.

During the interview, almost all sellers mentioned to reporters that online stores sometimes can’t be opened, so they can only contact the "teacher" and use the re-sent website to enter. In this regard, the reporter asked the IT staff, and analyzed the Lelong shop and Youhuo.com mentioned by the seller by technical means, and found that the IP addresses of these two websites would "move" from time to time, but only in Tokyo and Hong Kong, China. "From the analysis results, the high probability is that the same company is operating, and the production price of such websites is low, and one can be made for several hundred yuan."

"The’ teacher’ said that our website is a sub-website of Lelong, which is aimed at China sellers and the company is in Hongkong." The seller, Li Lu, provided several videos to the reporter. After the store was frozen, she found a friend in Hong Kong and asked him to help to ask about the situation at the scene. According to the video recorded by his friend, there is no company related to Lelong shop in the office building where the address is located.

As a result, when the above-mentioned dozens of sellers realized that they were "cheated", they suddenly found out that no one even knew the "complaint" when they consulted a lawyer or reported the case to the police.

An e-commerce industry veteran told reporters that these dozens of sellers may encounter "chain scams", not only overseas stores are fake, but even the purchase website is fake, and there is no so-called overseas buyer at all.

According to the addresses and telephone numbers of overseas buyers provided by several sellers, the reporter called buyers in new york, London and other places for verification, but none of them could be connected, most of which were empty or wrong.

Wearing a cross-border e-commerce coat, online fraud

Before the "reverse Haitao" became popular, many China merchants had been "panning for gold" on platforms such as Amazon and Shrimp Skin. Compared with the capital investment and process of opening stores on these large platforms, criminals are aiming at the psychology that businesses want to try simply.

"This incident is a cross-border e-commerce cloak and online fraud." A veteran of the cross-border e-commerce industry analyzed that Lelong shop and websites with goods are located overseas or are fraudulent, which may make it difficult to implement supervision in China.

"Using overseas servers and virtual IP addresses to carry out illegal activities is a relatively high incidence in recent years, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty and cost of victims’ rights protection, and also increases obstacles and challenges for police investigation." Chen Zixing, a lawyer of Beijing Anbo (Chengdu) Law Firm, said in an interview that although he had been exposed to many cross-border e-commerce disputes, he encountered a case of "chain scam" for the first time.

Chen Zixing believes: "The incident has been suspected of a criminal offence, but it is difficult for the deceived seller to find out and confirm the subject identity and contact address of Lenglong shop by personal strength."

The reporter learned that in desperation, most sellers have used the search platform when searching for "cross-border e-commerce" as the defendant’s main body to report the case to the police.

"If the search platform pushes the relevant links and platforms of lenglong shop as advertisements, it may be recognized as an advertisement publisher. According to the relevant provisions of the Advertising Law, if false advertisements are published to deceive and mislead consumers and damage the legitimate rights and interests of consumers who purchase goods or receive services, advertisers shall bear civil liability according to law. " At the same time, Chen Zixing stressed that if an advertising agent or publisher cannot provide the real name, address and effective contact information of the advertiser, consumers can ask the advertising agent or publisher to pay compensation in advance.

In Chen Zixing’s view, the main problems faced by cross-border e-commerce victims in taking civil judicial channels are: First, it is difficult to determine the identity information of the defendant; Second, it is difficult to deliver judicial documents, and most cross-border e-commerce perpetrators are not in China; Third, it is difficult to implement and collect money. Even if the judgment is successful, there may be no property available for execution.

According to Chen Zixing, there are two main ways to relieve victims’ rights. First, the seller provides the information of the co-payee to the police and reports the case, and the police investigate and recover the money; The second is to take the payee as the defendant and bring a civil lawsuit to the court with jurisdiction to demand the payee to return the money.

Reporter’s Note: The space for cross-border e-commerce to create wealth is far beyond imagination, but it also has many traps.

As a factory in the world, cross-border sellers in China are the targets of major e-commerce platforms.

Relevant data show that in the past five years, the scale of cross-border e-commerce in China has increased nearly 10 times. In 2021, the import and export scale of cross-border e-commerce in China reached 1.92 trillion yuan. The report "Digital Platform Helps SMEs Participate in Global Supply Chain Competition" predicts that by 2025, the B2B market of cross-border e-commerce in China will reach 13.9 trillion yuan.

"As a new Nugget track, cross-border e-commerce has far more room for wealth creation and development than we imagined, but what we see is often only the winners. After people outside the industry actively or passively heard these success stories, they began to understand cross-border e-commerce, but they did not form a complete cognitive system and discrimination ability for cross-border e-commerce." Yao Zhengyi, secretary general of Chengdu cross-border electronic commerce Association, said in an interview.

"When the cross-border sea became a big market, it was also targeted by scammers." Li Chengdong, the founder of Dolphin Think Tank E-commerce, pointed out to the reporter that "doing cross-border e-commerce needs special caution. Sellers are lucky enough to believe that nothing needs to be invested, as long as they open a store, they can make money. "

The reporter learned through a large number of interviews that among dozens of deceived sellers, some people were attracted by gimmicks such as the operation of the marketing number of the "cross-border e-commerce" course on the short video platform. However, after entering, I encountered a fancy scam, and all the shops I opened ended in being frozen.

The seller Liu Li brushed a short video of cross-border e-commerce and came up with the idea of opening a store. After investing tens of thousands of yuan, the particles were not collected; Tian Honghua in Beijing paid nearly 30,000 yuan to find someone to operate on his behalf, and the other party ignored the "freezing" of his store after receiving the money …

There are no quick channels and rules for making money in any industry. Yao Zhengyi suggested that businesses that want to set foot in the cross-border e-commerce industry need to learn through formal channels to avoid falling into traps such as zero supply and fake shops.

As a consumer, the reporter learned from a number of cross-border e-commerce agency companies in the market that the "cooperation package" ranged from several thousand yuan to nearly 50,000 yuan, and promised tens of thousands of dollars a month to the agency stores.

"Last year, many colleagues disappeared." Xiao Le, who has been doing cross-border e-commerce operations for nearly three years, told reporters that the situation is very good, but the market is chaotic. "Those who are irresponsible and play routines will lose trust, and few can persist."

"China enterprises now need to go global. However, the real industry and brand going out to sea require enterprises to establish their own core teams, constantly explore and link resources from all parties to form a complete industry knowledge system. " Yao Zhengyi appealed that in order to make the cross-border e-commerce industry develop more orderly and efficiently, lawyers, scholars and other professionals who have studied the cross-border e-commerce industry can discuss the formation of some rules and mechanisms to avoid new online fraud incidents under the guise of cross-border e-commerce.

(In the article, sellers such as Li Yun, Yang Liang, Yu Wei, Luo Qian, Tian Hong, Li Lu, Liu Li and cross-border e-commerce practitioner Xiao Le are pseudonyms).