I know many of you have been scammed at least once trying to make purchases from china. So I have spent the past 3 hours searching the net for as much information on reporting these offenders to chineese officials.
The information on handling these complaints is hard to aquire and even find. So as a community we need to work hard to ensure a better trade environment.
Problem is, is there is really no other way to pay for items in china due to the fact that Credit Cards are virtually non-existant in china. Only 5% of china actually uses or accepts credit cards. That includes businesses. Now that doesnt mean that every single company out there is a scammer. It just increases the risks.
Literally trillions of dollars are lost each year to scammers and 80% of the scammers are known to come from china and indonesia. But lets concentrate on china only at this point.
Most of you are from the USA so the information I have collected is primarily for US citizens but the infor for other countries is easy to search online.
First thing you should do is write out a formal complaint And mail it to the chineese/ American Consulate in the United States for the state you live in. Give as much info as you can in your letter. Including doing a Whois search of the internet address and as much info you can on the bank they use.
As there are only 4 State run banks in china, It would be very easy to track these people down because they all have to use a valid ID to get a bank account. Yes Including the Scammers.
In your letter include this info,the amount of stolen funds, promised products and a note from yourself. Keep this as professional as you
can. Include a copy of the whois info on a seperate page so they can track which site you got scammed from. Since all of these sites have to be accessed through IP address to create and upload files this will make it easier for authorities to track down the creator of the site itself. Most of these scammers are stupid and by thinking they cant get into trouble by scamming people from another countries.
But they are wrong. The chineese government which is a state run government is very concerned on thier global trade image, especially since thier economy is finally booming. Which is where I shall get to my next point.
There are actuall agencies in china that do nothing but watch the news and read papers. Not just some news channels. They watch ALL OF THEM. And they report any news reported in any country ab out china to state officials. And any newspaper ad that has the word china in it.
That is the great part of a state run goverment. They are so worried about image. And that can work in our favor. Right now unfortunately there is no state run internet scam authority that we know of.
What you should do is send the same complaint and information to your local newspaper and TV/News agency. If your in the USA you should send the complaint to a big news agency like { USA TODAY, Chicago Tribune, THE WASHINGTON POST, NEW YORK TIMES AND MORE BIG NAME NEWS AGENCIES NOT LISTED. }..
Keep sending your complaints untill you get a response. News agencies eat up anything that relates to scams because its info that all people want to know about. If they get tons of complaints on how people are being scammed. Its considered inportant news and they will write a article and will have a newscast about it.
We all take losses in this business but we still have the ability to help others from taking that loss and securing a future trade economy with china that can be extremely profitable for both sides.
If china hears big news that Americans, Or EU countries are warned to be cautious when exporting from china due to china being on the frontlines of scammers. They will go ballistic and do something about it in thier country.... Because they know that any bad publicity on thier export economy could cost them billions a year in trade.
Hopefully with enough bad publicity, china will create a state run agency on handling internet fraud and put these crooks in jail. I hear jail in china is ten times worse then a maximum security prison in the USA.
Ok here is the information on the consulates in the united states.
they are sorted by state.
Districts
Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco
1450 Laguna St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
Tel: (415) 674-2900
Fax: (415) 563-0494
Alaska, Nevada
Northern California
Oregon, Washington
Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Houston
3417 Montrose Blvd.
Houston, TX 77006
Tel: (713) 524-4311
Fax: (713) 524-7656
Alabama, Arkansas
Florida, Georgia
Louisiana, Mississippi
Oklahoma, Texas
Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in New York
520 12th Avenue
New York, NY 10036
Tel: (212) 868-7752
Fax: (212) 502-0245
Connecticut, Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
New Jersey, New York
Ohio, Pennsylvania
Rhode Island, Vermont
Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Chicago
100 West Erie St.
Chicago, IL 60610
Tel: (312) 803-0098
Fax: (312) 803-0122
Colorado, Illinois
Indiana, Iowa
Kansas, Michigan
Minnesota, Missouri
Wisconsin
Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles
443 Shatto Place
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Tel: (213) 807-8088
Fax: (213) 380-1961
Arizona, Hawaii
New Mexico
Southern California
Visa Office
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Suite 110, Washington D.C. 20007
Tel: (202) 338-6688
Fax: (202) 588-9760
States other than those mentioned above
Tel: (202) 338-6688
Fax: (202) 588-9760
If there is a member that can fully understand my post and has creative and professional writing talent. {which I dont have lol}
Maybe you could donate some of your time to create a template.
If they see that a template is being used for several hundred complaints It might gain attention to the agencies we want to tell.
Just remember if you talk to someone at the consulate live. Then just remember how hard you worked for the money thier people stole from you and you should have the motivation to keep on it untill someone listens.
Well I hope this can help start something good.
Catch you later hehe
