GigaQua Electronics Ltd scammed me Internet

First off, I was already scammed a week prior to Joseph contacting me (see my report on Susie from Dianzhongda Technology Co., Ltd.). It was a month before Christmas and I had to get my holiday order of USB hubs in for a client. Joseph's email was unsolicited, which should've tipped me off. But, I was in a bind and was desperate to place my order with anyone. I even told him that I was scammed before, so I will need to see his ID so I can hold on to it. He did as I asked, so I figured that was a good sign.

He told me that I wouldn't be able to see a sample of the product because they were busy with holiday orders so he's just going to run the order and ship them after 3 days. I had to pay him $425 + $40 for shipping prior to running my order.

Nothing came. After that he wouldn't answer my emails and disappeared from Skype. A couple of weeks later, I saw him online and ranted a bit, told him how "sad" I was that he scammed me. He actually replied, and gave me a tracking number, supposedly for my order. I was trying to track it, but the carrier's website would come back and say the number isn't valid. Finally after a week of tracking, the site said the package is on its way to the United States...but I'm in the Philippines. Obviously, he gave me a bogus number and probably didn't realize that it's a valid number! I've been trying to reach him to ask for the correct number, just in case he simply gave me the wrong number. Still giving him the benefit of the doubt at this point, but of course I kind of knew that I'd been scammed.

It's been two months, and just as I feared, I'm now convinced that I was scammed.

I sent the money through Western Union. What I should've done is scanned the receipt and emailed it to him, to show that I wired the money, but blacked out the reference number so he wouldn't be able to claim it yet until I saw proof that he shipped my order.

Piece of advice...never ever trust an unsolicited email. If you're trying to look for a supplier, I've only had luck looking for one through www.alibaba.com. My past two orders from China went smoothly, I found the suppliers on Alibaba. Seems like www.hktdc.com is also trustworthy, but I haven't tried them yet.

Another piece of advice...be wary of "suppliers" who say they're too busy to run you a sample of your order. That should be a red flag.