Vgate Technology co ltd (formerly MB Technology)
United Kingdom
Seller:
Vgate Technology co ltd (formerly MB Technology)
Seller Website:
www.vgate.com.cn
Seller Address:
421,4th Building.Second industrial park, ZhuGuang,XiLi, NanShan District, , ShenZhen, GuangDong Province, 518000, China
Initial contact with the supplier:
Search Engine
Type of product(s) being purchased:
Car diagnostic tools
Value of the Purchase Order when the incident occurred:
12,001 to 25,000 USD
Destination market of order in question:
Western Europe
Type of Complaint(s):
scams & other unethical activities
Stage of relationship with the supplier at the time of the incident:
More than 10 orders had been placed with this supplier when the incident occurred
User Experience:
We had been dealing with this supplier for 8 years. Their products were good. I can only assume the company is in financial trouble and has started committing fraud. Avoid. We placed our order and sent payment as requested. The company then claimed their email account had been hacked and the bank details we were sent with the Proforma were fraudulent. Our money was lost. Our contacts in Vgate did not seem to be troubled by the ‘so-called’ hacking of their emails or the loss of our money. They would not even report it to the Chinese Police for us.
Vgate told us that our custom designed products were made and ready to dispatch in 2 weeks but payment was missing. Once we established the payment details provided were fake, they did not seem concerned to be sitting on 1000 custom made product cases, boxes, manuals and PCBs. I am certain the products were not made and believe Vgate executed this scam and fraud. If they genuinely had products made for us, I would expect to them to offer us a deal to cover their costs. What use are custom branded products to others? – as it stands we have walked away and will never use this supplier again.
We have since discovered that bank details supplied by another of our contacts in Vgate for an order in 2013 – one we fortunately did not proceed in placing – were also fake. Again they claim hacking. Avoid this supplier and these people.
Contact name: SHEN CHANGYUN (Sunny), email: cszmbtech@126.com
Contact name: Selina Hu, email: cbtselina@gmail.com
User Recommendations:
I will not trust any China supplier in future. Regardless of the length our our trading relationship. Assume every proforma invoice is ‘hacked’ and check the details very carefully. We learned this lesson the expensive and hard way.
Readers,
The situation described by Sunny and the UK buyer is very similar to two common scams explained at CSIC:
1. Zhejiang Screwjob: http://chinasourcinginfo.org/2013/04/30/move-over-shanghai-surprise-meet-the-zhejiang-screwjob/
2. Shanghai Surprise: http://chinasourcinginfo.org/2013/01/01/factory-email-hacked-29k-usd-stolen-from-buyer-how-to-avoid-it-happening-to-you/
The links above explain what happened and how to avoid it happening to you. Please please please verify that the name on the business of the supplier matched the name on the bank account where you are sending money and AVOID SENDING FUNDS TO A PERSONAL ACCOUNT!
Be safe!
Admin@ Supplier Black List
Dear Sir or Madam.
This is Sunny who it the manager of Vgate Technology Company, we got the information from Google that somebody put the slander of our company on some websites. For this, our CEO feels sorry but disappointed about that. We believe that when you learn about the case deeply, you will trust us, and think it is a misapprehension between us.
On February 14th, 2014, Grant used his Email (grant.gXXXX@hotmail.co.uk) to connect me to order 500 GCR25 and 1000 ELM327. When we had an agreement on purchase contract, Grant said he will remit 19,800 dollars to our Hongkong HSCB account (HK Vgate Technology.Co.Ltd) on 8th March. But we found we had not received the remittance until May 10th. During these days, I received the Grant phone call because of the language; we decided to use email to hold trade talks. So I sent email to Grant to tell him we did not receive the remittance, and it will affect deliver goods to them. Then Grant replied to me “You will receive money soon. Confirm attach for details”. We found something unusual, so I asked my friend Dong to call Grant, then we saw light suddenly that we were all cheated by online fraudsters.
From February 14th, online fraudsters used czsmbtech@126.com and grant.XXXX@hotmail.co.uk to send email to Grant (grant@gXXXX.co.uk) and me (cszmbtech@126.com), and they provided a bank account to Grant, so you remitted 19,800 dollars to fraudsters’ account.
To this case, there are some details that I must point out. Firstly, on February 12th, Grant used grant@gXXXX.co.uk email address to send email to my email (czsmbtech@126.com), but after February 14th, I received “Grant’s” email from grant.gXXXX@hotmail.co.uk address, and Grant received the “Sunny’s” email from czsmbtech@126.com.
We can find both these two email addresses are so familiar to our addresses and it is really hard to find the difference between them. Secondly, before February 12th, our business is responsible by Selina Hu, however, two months ago on December, she resigned from our company. At the beginning, I suspected that she did this thing, so I connected to her and tell her this case is seriously, if she did you would be put into prison. She told me she did not do that, and if there are any evidence alleged her to do this, she was willing to bear the legal liability. Then I asked my friend Dong to call Grant, and we knew Grant remit money to ICBC account (62148501201207781) where is located on Guangzhou, and the payee is Wen Qing Jun.
Finally, I went to the local police on May 12th, but the police said I am not the party to this case, they cannot register. We will cooperate with your company’s investigation and provide clues and evidence.
It is really sad for me to know your company has lost a lot of money because of online fraud case.
Actually, I want to help you get back this money. I sent several emails to Grant (grant@gXXXX.co.uk), but he did not give me the reply. Our company Vgate put the credibility and product quality in the first place. Meanwhile, we are committed to being a global brand. So we will never ruin our corporate image. We have cooperated 6 years, and we have a good cooperation relationship. We really want you to change the evaluation of us.
Manger of Vgate
Sunny Shen
July 28, 2014