Victim Location 54636
Total money lost $59.50
Type of a scam Counterfeit Product
AliExpress is a bit like eBay, where it acts as a broker for different sellers. One of the sellers had a store for Micro SD cards and USB drives. I ordered a bunch of SD cards and Flash drives intended for long-term photo storage. After getting them I tested them using F3Read/F3Write (a linux compatible software similar to H3test), and several of the smaller drives (<32gb) were legitimate while all of the larger (128gb) drives were fakes. I know my software was working correctly because it correctly measured known-working SD cards of 128gb, and when I first plugged in the frauds, they showed their size as greater than their nominal capacity (134GB instead of 128gb), which no legitimate drive will ever do. After reporting this to AliExpress and uploading screenshots, they took several weeks to respond and then, with zero additional input from me, sided with the seller and closed the dispute. This is especially frustrating because testing was a slow process, so not only was it a waste of money but a waste of a lot of time trying to prove a fraud. The uninformed victim of a fake flash drive scam will usually have no idea they’re fake, and when the card hits its’ actual size limit it will begin overwriting older data. Anyone relying on this to, for example, store treasured family photos, will have their valuable data lost to the digital aether. I avoided this because I’m good with computers; the average person will have no idea.
Fake flash drives are a known and common issue online, and AliExpress/Alibaba is the world’s largest e-commerce platform. I trusted them because of their size and generally good reputation, but apparently that’s just advertising. Many reviews on the store showed the drives passing tests, but it’s now known that Chinese companies will pay for fake reviews; it could also be legitimate drives mixed in with fakes, or only lower capacity drives are real as in my case. I don’t know how AliExpress treats their Chinese customers, but Americans have no recourse. Don’t trust them.
Victim Location 28352
Total money lost $254.40
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Michael Sun from Ali Express is not an honest business person. This person gave me a false tracking number when I purchased a wig. When the wig never got to me on time, I asked for a refund and Michael Sun refused to give me one. Michael Sun said that the last package had got lost in transit and that he would send another to me. I still requested a refund and Michael Sun sent another wig through DHL against my wishes. When DHL brought the package to me, I refused it. Michael Sun never issued a refund for my purchase and will not respond to any of my messages. Michael Sun told my bank that I have the wig and the tracking information even shows I do not have it. Michael Sun can not respond to me but he can fabricate stories to my bank so that he can steal money. I would not ever do business with this person.