Several recent comments have been about orders placed
to Chinese firms on eBay type web sites where money was transferred
but goods
weren't received. The following comes from the New York Times. I
thought it
might be interesting to some of the members of this list.

TMT

2 Executives Quit Alibaba.com After Fraud Inquiry By David Barboza
Published:February 21, 2011

Alibaba.com, a fast-growing Chinese electronic commerce site that is
partly
owned byYahoo, said Monday that its chief executive and chief
operating officer
had resigned after an internal investigation into fraud at the
company.

In a statement released late Monday, Alibaba said that its longtime
chief
executive, David Wei, and the chief operating officer, Elvis Lee, had
not been
involved in the fraud but that they had resigned after accepting
responsibility
for failing to stop it. The company said the fraud had been small and
would not
affect its financial performance. But the announcement stunned the
technology
community in China because Mr. Wei was one of the country's most
prominent chief
executives and Alibaba.com was one of the most successful Chinese
Internet
start-ups. The company said in its statement that 100 sales officers
at Alibaba
had helped perpetrate the fraud by allowing phony companies in China
to register
and sell products on Alibaba's international Web site as "Gold
Suppliers," which
suggested that they were among the more trustworthy. The sales team
members
often helped the companies avoid detection by internal investigators,
the
company said. According to the company's investigation, phony
companies listed
on Alibaba.com often lured overseas customers, including some from the
United
States, into paying for consumer electronics, like laptops and
televisions. Most
of the transactions were for less than $1,200, Alibaba said, but after
the
payments arrived in China, no goods were delivered.

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
...
Several recent comments have been about orders placed
to Chinese firms on eBay type web sites where money was transferred
but goods
weren't received. The following comes from the New York Times. I
thought it
might be interesting to some of the members of this list.

TMT

2 Executives Quit Alibaba.com After Fraud Inquiry By David Barboza
Published:February 21, 2011

Alibaba.com, a fast-growing Chinese electronic commerce site that is
partly
owned byYahoo, said Monday that its chief executive and chief
operating officer
had resigned after an internal investigation into fraud at the
company.

In a statement released late Monday, Alibaba said that its longtime
chief
executive, David Wei, and the chief operating officer, Elvis Lee, had
not been

Elvis??? Mebbe it's just me, but that sort of explains everything.....

Alibaba is just for electronics?
--
EA



involved in the fraud but that they had resigned after accepting
responsibility
for failing to stop it. The company said the fraud had been small and
would not
affect its financial performance. But the announcement stunned the
technology
community in China because Mr. Wei was one of the country's most
prominent chief
executives and Alibaba.com was one of the most successful Chinese
Internet
start-ups. The company said in its statement that 100 sales officers
at Alibaba
had helped perpetrate the fraud by allowing phony companies in China
to register
and sell products on Alibaba's international Web site as "Gold
Suppliers," which
suggested that they were among the more trustworthy. The sales team
members
often helped the companies avoid detection by internal investigators,
the
company said. According to the company's investigation, phony
companies listed
on Alibaba.com often lured overseas customers, including some from the
United
States, into paying for consumer electronics, like laptops and
televisions. Most
of the transactions were for less than $1,200, Alibaba said, but after
the
payments arrived in China, no goods were delivered.

On Feb 23, 4:32*am, "Existential Angst" wrote:


Wasn't alibaba once connected with Ali Babin?

On 2011-02-23, Jim Wilkins wrote:
On Feb 23, 4:32?am, "Existential Angst" wrote:


Wasn't alibaba once connected with Ali Babin?

Funny.

As far as I am concerned, alibaba is a giant web spamming operation,
coming up on the first page for all kind of queries, with nothing ever
useful.

i

On 02/23/2011 12:32 PM, Ignoramus726 wrote:
On 2011-02-23, Jim wrote:
On Feb 23, 4:32?am, "Existential wrote:


Wasn't alibaba once connected with Ali Babin?

Funny.

As far as I am concerned, alibaba is a giant web spamming operation,
coming up on the first page for all kind of queries, with nothing ever
useful.

i

Yes, I was also surprised to find anyone thought they were a legitimate
business. Umm, doesn't the NAME alone, tell you something? Isn't there
this story called "ali baba and the 40 thieves"?

Jon

"Jon Elson" wrote in message
...
On 02/23/2011 12:32 PM, Ignoramus726 wrote:
On 2011-02-23, Jim wrote:
On Feb 23, 4:32?am, "Existential
wrote:


Wasn't alibaba once connected with Ali Babin?

Funny.

As far as I am concerned, alibaba is a giant web spamming
operation,
coming up on the first page for all kind of queries, with
nothing ever
useful.

i

Yes, I was also surprised to find anyone thought they were
a legitimate business. Umm, doesn't the NAME alone, tell
you something? Isn't there this story called "ali baba
and the 40 thieves"?

Jon

JE:

Yeah, as in "Open your wallet, sez' a me.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Jon Elson wrote:

Yes, I was also surprised to find anyone thought they were a legitimate
business. Umm, doesn't the NAME alone, tell you something? Isn't there
this story called "ali baba and the 40 thieves"?

As I was going to St. Ives, I meet a man with seven wives. Each wife had
seven sacks; each sack had seven cats, each cat had seven kits; how many
were going to St. Ives?

;-)
Rich

On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:47:29 -0800, Rich Grise
wrote:

Jon Elson wrote:

Yes, I was also surprised to find anyone thought they were a legitimate
business. Umm, doesn't the NAME alone, tell you something? Isn't there
this story called "ali baba and the 40 thieves"?

As I was going to St. Ives, I meet a man with seven wives. Each wife had
seven sacks; each sack had seven cats, each cat had seven kits; how many
were going to St. Ives?

Nun.

Oops, no, that was the punchline to the joke "What meat does a
vegetarian priest eat?"

--
"Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty.
There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and
indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration
of virtue. These amiable passions, are the latent spark. If
the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling
the differences between true and false, right and wrong,
virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of
mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?"
--John Adams