AliExpress review: Fraud, hacking or internal malpractice

'Email Batch 1 - Original'

Date & Time: Mon, 18 Sept, 20:25

Email Title: Order XXXX: order confirmation

From: [protected]@notice.aliexpress.com

I placed and paid for 11 items from my cart on AliExpress. Everything was separated into their own order numbers and email confirmations were sent to my inbox from Aliexpress. All 11 order confirmation emails was received from the above time to indicate that all my orders were completed.

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'Email Batch 2 - False'

Date & Time: Mon, 18 Sept, 22:02

Email Title: Order XXXX: awaiting payment

From: [protected]@notice.aliexpress.com

Roughly 1.5 hours later, I received another 11 emails from the same AliExpress email address, all with the above 'awaiting payment' in the email title. Inside each email, the header stated, "You still have time!" and urged me to click on the 'Complete payment' button.

Upon first appearance I automatically assumed that these were relating to my same orders and that I needed to take action quickly to complete my transactions. So I followed their link to complete payment for what I thought were my orders. I stopped after 3 of them as a feeling of wrongdoing crept in.

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I checked my Amex credit card statement to see what was happening outside of AliExpress. There was a large lump sum of £614.85(total price of the order I placed), followed by the price of the 3 false orders that totalled £75.20. I did not generate those orders, but mistakingly proceeded to pay for, until I stopped to check. After checking the orders in my AliExpress account, I saw that I had 8 'Unpaid' orders outstanding.

After several frustratingly arduous attempts at communicating with AliExpress(AE) Customer Service(CS) chat box representatives, they had me go through each order number in question. Several AECS reps stated that duplicate orders was impossible. I claimed that everything I ordered was appearing twice on my account. It was a nightmare dealing with them one after another, getting nowhere and being disconnected. They were driving me insane and refused to look at my evidence and challenge what they thought they knew.

All the exact items from my 11 orders, were falsely regenerated onto my account, assigned new order numbers and followed up with follow up emails urging me to pay. My AE account, Amex account and email confirmations all showed that my initial bulk payment had completed. Yet, there were the exact same items seemingly left unpaid on AE, and AECS were simply under qualified to deal with what I was describing.

I then went through all my emails, both batch 1 original confirmations and batch 2 false order payment requests. Matching every email to their respective order number, I confirmed that everything I ordered was indeed duplicated and re-added onto my account to be paid and processed. Fortunately, I stopped after paying for 3 false orders, but the wider implication is of major importance.

I deduced that either it's a scam or a technical malfunction, or scammers using a loophole. Either way, signs point to AE internal processes being internally compromised. Fraud an malpractice was afoot. I have gathered lots of evidence and am fully compliant in sharing what I have for investigation into the internal security of AliExpress.

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Almost all orders paid for have been shipped within the time of the nightmare that is AECS. I cancelled those 3 false orders I paid for as quickly as I could and contacted the sellers via AE messenger. All three merchants including AECS stated that since they've already shipped, I'll need to wait for them to arrive before continuing with the open refund disputes. None of the sellers have shown concern about what happened and one even asked my to close the dispute. I have also opened disputes with Amex for those 3 false orders.

AE has something called 'Buyer Protection' which helps towards AE stepping in and helping secure a refund and correct disputes. Problem is, the real delivery date is sometimes longer than the buyer protection timer. I'm told my everyone on AE to wait for the false order packages to arrive. I don't understand the details of their protection conditions, clauses and timelines, but I have a feeling that I'm going to get screwed out of a refund for this additional £75.20. I doubt it's the sellers fault, rather the false orders were most likely generated by in insider at AE who has clearance and knowledge of this kind of fraudulent practice.

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