Retail News CRM

Tag: scam

  • Blackstone and Sky Internasional Be Named as Masterminds of a Big Marketing Scam in Indonesia

    Blackstone Indonesia and Sky Internasional a self-claimed digital strategic marketing agency in Indonesia with premium services in interactive communications, digital strategy, brand identity, social media and online advertising are to be considered as digital fraud masterminds and to be the leaders of an organization with only one goal, to cheat clients solely to enrich themselves with personal benefits and to fund their luxury lifestyles. 

    Retail News received a lot of complaints from several Blackstone Indonesia customers, basically complaining about the same kind of practices. Retail News took the lead in this investigation and took a deeper dive into this matter. After seeing all proof we are committed to send out a warning to all startups and companies in Indonesia. Our advise is not to engage in any partnership with the two mentioned companies. It’s very likely you will lose money, time and efforts in the spiderweb these companies have build out.

    The “modus-operandi” is usually the same ; they issue invoices without tax and ask clients to wire money to a variety of bank accounts. All invoices appear to start with #1 for each clients and one of the bank accounts always coming back is from Aldino Ozky, Bank Central Asia with bank (BCA), Account No. 920000223. They use this bank account to wire company money to and to avoid paying taxes, neither issuing any tax receipts.

    After a company wires the first retainer, Blackstone shows you their digital dashboard which has all sorts of numbers on page views and impressions and gorgeous graphs. It looks like you’ll have access to loads of information about your marketing. Which in theory is a good idea… The only problem with every one of these fancy dashboards we’ve seen is they provide all sorts of information which is of no use to the business of client and they sell 0. While they charge you for a variety of things, simply to run out your budgets.

    Aldi Sky Wungkana, self-esteemed CEO of both companies has an explanation for everything, but not for all above topics we’re writing up ; also not even why the money of the company is wired without tax straight into an employees bank account. Big talker, 0 results.

    Felix Valentino is also a member of their league, he never picks up the phone when you try to call him ; uses fake whatsapp profiles and he’s to be considered as the the email writer to inform customers that their money is litterally gone. Done and dusted, simply call him the “excuse guy”.

    A random overview of what else they are practicing:

    # PPC fraud with high bounce rates and non-targeted traffic.

    # sending bot traffic to your website and charging high CPCs for this ;

    # buying FB engagement on non-legal websites and sending it over to your social media channels basically ruining everything you have build up ;

    # 0 to none connection with big newspapers, but charging the same rates to publish content on shitty websites claiming they offer premium PR services

    In regards to the proof of all statements made above, readers, the police and/or any other governemental institution can contact Retail News to received all proof. We have bundled all complaints from startups and customers. None of the phone numbers we called were available for any comments. Whatsapp groups dissolved and no response on email.

    A police case is about to be filed as well as a court case to stop these gentlemen from doing what they are doing. Companies are warned! The tax authorities received complaints as well and confirmed they have started an investigation.

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  • AirAsia warns of free ticket scam

    AirAsia warns of free ticket scam

    AirAsia has issued a public warning about a social media post, claiming to offer free flight tickets through an online survey.

    The post asks participants to answer several questions to redeem vouchers, the low-cost carrier said in a statement on Monday.

    “There is also another scam circulating on Facebook, offering 268 free tickets in conjunction with AirAsia’s 28th anniversary.

    “Both scams used the AirAsia brand without authorisation and aim to lure the public to participate in it,” it added.

    The airline said it will not be held liable for any claims pertaining to the false scheme and will not hesitate to take legal action against individuals or groups that organise illegal schemes using the AirAsia brand.

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  • China’s move to curb grey market for luxury goods may have opposite effect

    China’s move to curb grey market for luxury goods may have opposite effect

    Given the still significant price gap between high-end goods inside and outside of China, parallel imports are big business. The key players in this grey market are cross-border traders known in Chinese as daigou, and they sometimes double-deal in genuine goods and fakes. While the country’s customs service has taken steps to curb the re-selling of luxury goods sourced from overseas, some evidence suggests that those measures have driven business toward daigou by making legitimate online purchases more difficult. Both trends should be considered by brands tailoring their retail and enforcement strategies to the Chinese market.

    Driven by high taxes, tariffs and the impact of different retail strategies, price differentials for luxury goods between China and developed markets like Europe and North America make buying through daigou a compelling option for many consumers. According to Fortune Character’s 2015 China Luxury Report, the average price difference last year was between 25% and 33% depending on the category of goods. For watches, certain models were nearly 90% more expensive in China.

    These disparities make it a no-brainer for Chinese consumers to look for alternatives to their local retail outlets. One result is the huge amount spent by Chinese tourists on trips abroad. But for those who are not travelling overseas in the near future, and cannot ask a friend or relative to pick up goods for them, daigou have emerged as an alternative. Often coordinating through messaging app WeChat, Chinese buyers pick up specific items for Chinese customers and ship them to China in what Bain & Company says is a 43 billion Rmb per year business in the luxury segment alone. But the introduction of this unknown third party also creates an opportunity for dishonest traders to introduce fake goods into the mix, meaning daigou customers may be getting less than they bargained for.

    Chinese shoppers do have another option – buying online direct from the brand. While only 4% of consumers told Fortune Character that e-commerce was their preferred channel for buying luxury items, more opportunities are opening up. Among these is Alipay’s ePass, introduced about a year-and-a-half ago. The service allows brands to sell directly into China through their existing online outlets by providing both Rmb payment settlement and a delivery network in China. Cutting out the middleman gives customers more confidence that the products they order are the real deal, and Bain says this option is already hurting parallel traders’ bottom line: cross-border e-commerce accounted for 48 billion Rmb in luxury sales in 2015 – a shade higher than the figure for daigou business.

    China has also introduced measures specifically aimed at curbing grey market imports and thus allowing the government to recover more tax and tariff revenue. Last summer, the Ministry of Finance cut tariffs on cosmetics, fur products and suits. It followed up in December by announcing reduced duties on sunglasses, handbags and clothing.

    So far, this sounds like good news for brand owners. But a recent report in Business of Fashion suggests that tougher customs controls – intended to check parallel traders – are instead hampering legitimate e-commerce, and may even be driving customers back to daigou sellers.

    China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) has stepped up scrutiny of small shipments with high declared values as part of the country’s wide-ranging anti-graft campaign. That’s problematic for some consumers who prefer to buy big-ticket luxury goods directly from overseas brands. A woman named Gao described to Business of Fashion her experience of having two DHL parcels from a UK luxury retailer turned around at customs, saying: “If they’re more than 1,000 Rmb, your parcels will be returned. So I have to either order them separately and pay double DHL overseas shipping fees, or use a daigou.” Unlike legitimate sellers, daigou can attempt to get around this by not declaring an accurate value. An e-tailer who provides a legitimate platform for Chinese consumers to buy directly from brands including Chloé and Lanvin said the complaint was a common one among his customers, with many saying their parcels had been rejected “for no reason”.

    Asked why they think luxury goods cost so much more in China, 24% of people told Fortune Character it’s because “Chinese commerce channels are unduly complex”. For brands looking to sell directly into China via e-commerce, GAC may be complicating their efforts to give customers there a simple and reliable way to buy authentic products. According to Bain, the market share of luxury parallel importers contracted last year, but if cross-border e-commerce gains a reputation as unreliable and the price gap persists, the daigou could prove more resilient than brand owners would like.

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  • Premium SMS Scam in Thailand by Foreign Content Providers

    Premium SMS Scam in Thailand by Foreign Content Providers

    Scammers create SMS competitions or trivia scams to trick you into paying extremely high call or text rates when replying to an unsolicited text message on your mobile or smart phone. Over the last few months mobile operators in Thailand managed to close some sms gateways from frauduleus foreign content providers like Mexcomm.

    A Malaysian company, with offices in Thailand who’s tricking mobile users offering free gifts and promises to win numerous prizes. All fake. True Move together with AIS and DTAC are doing everything they can and even created mobile scam teams to reveal the companies behind these marketing techniques. Shortcode 4741777 was used by one of them, to trick unwilling clients and let them pay high mobile fees. Mobile operators have shut down the companies shortcode and is on the look for other companies who’r running similar marketing campaigns.

    According to their website, Mexcomm has won several mobile content prizes. You can question this, as most of the events were sponsored direct or indirectly by the company over the last decade.

    How this scam works

    An unsolicited text message may invite you to enter a competition for a great prize—for example, a smart phone or tablet or gift vouchers for a well-known retailer. You will be required to send a text message back. You may also receive an email or encounter a pop-up window online asking you to enter your mobile number in order to claim a prize you’ve supposedly won. Sometimes these come in the guise of a ‘customer survey’ in which you are prompted to provide your mobile number.

    Alternatively the message may invite you to take part in a trivia contest with a great prize on offer if you answer a certain number of questions correctly. The first lot of questions will be very easy – scammers do this intentionally to encourage you to keep playing. However, the last one or two questions that you need to answer to claim your ‘prize’ could be very difficult or impossible to answer correctly and may even require you to guess a random number.

    The scammers make money by charging extremely high rates for the text messages you send, and any further messages they send to you. These charges will not be made clear to you, and could be as high as $4 for each message sent and/or received. You may also be automatically subscribed to ongoing charges. You will not discover these charges until you see your next itemised phone bill.

    Warning signs

    • You receive a text message, which may look like an advertisement, offering you the chance to win a great prize by sending a return text to enter a competition.
    • A text message tells you that you could win a great prize by participating in a trivia competition over SMS. The first message may even contain a very easy question to tempt you.
    • The text message (or advertisement) does not contain all the terms and conditions, or an ‘opt out’ to stop receiving more messages.

    Protect yourself

    • Do not respond to text messages or missed calls that come from numbers you don’t recognise.
    • Look out for SMS and MMS numbers that start with 19 or phone numbers beginning with 190. These are charged at a premium rate, even sometimes for receiving a message, and can be very expensive.
    • Contact your mobile phone service provider to ask about the number—they will know if it comes from a premium rate service. Ask your telephone company to put a bar on premium rate services (190 numbers) to and from your phone.
    • If you did not want to participate and you receive more messages, contact your mobile phone service provider and explain that the charges are being made without your permission.
    • Do not provide your mobile number to websites or in response to unsolicited emails claiming you can win a prize without very carefully checking the terms and conditions. If there are no terms and conditions or they seem to be hidden from plain view, don’t risk it.
    • Read all terms and conditions of any offer very carefully. Claims of ‘free’ or ‘very cheap’ offers often have hidden costs. Before you sign up to a subscription service check that there is an option to ‘unsubscribe’.

    Retail News will hold a close watch and will monitor this more the next few weeks and months.

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  • Jenny Bakery Shanghai store scam

    Jenny Bakery Shanghai store scam

    A Jenny Bakery Shanghai store scam has angered the Hong Kong brand’s owners – not to mention Shanghai city officials and hundreds of customers who queued for hours only to find the cookies were copies.

    In the latest example of Mainland China’s seemingly contagious penchant for copying brands and labels and ripping off other people’s IP, crooked entrepreneurs launched a promotional campaign for the Shanghai opening of popular Hong Kong baker Jenny Bakery. It was even located in a respected shopping centre – the Global Harbour mall in the city’s Putuo District.

    Chinese media say that promotional material for the new store suggested the maker of the “most tasty cookies in Hong Kong had come to Shanghai”.

    The difference was in the signage: The Shanghai store bore the branding JENNY BAKERY (in capitals); the original Hong Kong business signage is Jenny Bakery. The Shanghai store even sold similarly packaged products: cookies in tins with teddy bear graphics which bore a strong likeness to the Hong Kong packaging.

    But such is the laxness of Chinese IP laws, it appears all that Putuo District city officials could do was reprimand the copycat scammers. They have been told to make it clear it has no association with the Hong Kong business and warned they could be fined if investigations prove they deliberately misled customers.

    The scammers had priced boxes of cookies at 98 yuan, or US$15.80 – nearing double the price of the original Hong Kong product, which sells for HK$70, or about US$9.

    While Jenny Bakery made it clear it does not have any stores in the mainland and that all its cookies are handmade, JENNY BAKERY maintained it had done nothing wrong by selling cookies baked at a factory in Shenzhen. The company said it was a legally registered brand and its business is legitimate.

    The Shanghai store has since closed, but not before affixing a notice to its door claiming it was the only legal owner of the brand name in the mainland – which is actually true; it was registered in Shenzhen earlier this year.

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