Preface
This is a true story portraying how Qingdao Jiahe Dadi Technology Trade Co. Ltd. (青岛嘉和大地科贸有限公司, www.zgqdjck.com) – a faux company in China, lure and scam legitimate foreign businesses, from a perspective of a third party.
Part of the names are intentionally replaced to protect the privacy of some parties.
Chronicle V: The Struggle
[Planning the Next Move]
After calling the credit card department, only Nacel’s Dad realized the card was charged twice – with an amount of RM7,000 immediately after the initial RM14,000.
Although the second transaction seemed suspicious at first, it took Dad a while to recall he did signed for the second transaction – another 50 grams of gold. A total of one hundred plus fifty grams of gold, worth more than RM20,000 is being given to Liu, clearly demonstrated the amount of influence alcohol can make to a human brain.
Dad obtained the name of the department store Liu brought him earlier – 麦凯乐 (MYKAL), from the credit card customer service representative.
“Maybe we could get a copy of the receipt from them,” he said. A copy of the receipt would be an evidence of Dad paying for the gold, while Liu signed the confirmation of receipt.
“Let’s call the police,” Sister suggested.
“We could tell them we are foreigners here for a business trip, and we suspect the other party is a scammer.”
Within 30 minutes after hanging up from the 112 emergency number, two police officers arrived at the hotel room – an efficiency never to be seen back at home.
After explaining the whole incident to the officers, one of the officer stated that they did not have enough evidence to support the claim of the other party being a scammer.
“You will need to pay the company, in Changsha Road, a visit and report to the local police there,” he explained (again, in Mandarin – virtually nobody there speaks English), with a heavy accent.
Before sleep, the family discussed various ways of collecting more evidence, from subtle actions such as letting the other party sign an agreement on the few merchandises they had already given them, to more aggressive approach such as recording conversations secretly while leading the other party into disclosing the whole event.
It was already past sunset, they would have to wait for the next day. They had only one day to act.
[Investigation]
On the next day – Dad and Sister had a fight during breakfast. Nacel’s Dad planned to called up Liu for a meeting on the day itself, while secretly recording the conversation, but Sister insisted on a more thorough plan before calling them up.
In the end Dad and Mom stayed at the hotel, while the others began their investigation on the shady company – Qingdao Jiahe Dadi Technology Trade Co. Ltd. (青岛嘉和大地科贸有限公司, www.zgqdjck.com).
First stop – No. 7, Changsha Road.
The journey from the hotel to Changsha Road was around half an hour. Nacel had prepared a printed map from Google Maps the night before as the local cabs were mostly unfamiliar with the area.
Changsha Road is a long-stretching main road with supplier shop lots of different kinds of hardware at the sides, When they finally arrived at No. 7, Changsha Road – they discovered something odd.
“Looks, there’s 7-1, 7-2, 7-3… The whole block is No. 7!” Nacel exclaimed.
They started asking the different shop tenants for directions to the company printed on the business cards of Liu and his colleagues.
Nobody knew the company existed, not until they met the middle-aged woman.
They stopped and bought drinks from a small roadside food stall, and the woman was looking after the stall.
“They moved away a couple of weeks ago,” the woman said when presented one of the business cards.
“Have you seen the company before? Where was it situated at?” Sister asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen them before. I’m not sure where they moved to either,” the woman replied.
“How does she know they’ve moved when she has never even see the company before?” Nacel was thinking.
“Here’s a package left by the postman a few days ago,” the woman took out what appeared to be a document parcel, placed on top of another box which looked like a bigger parcel.
The parcel is addressed to Qingdao Jiahe Dadi Technology Trade Co. Ltd. (青岛嘉和大地科贸有限公司, www.zgqdjck.com) , sent via EMS (International standard Express Mail Service) from a Singapore company.
Upon closer inspection, the customs declaration form stated it is some sort of product sample.
The parcel was delivered to the woman because the postman couldn’t find the address. The woman told Sister usually someone will approach and collect the parcels from her.
From the looks of it, the company is definitely non-legit, and Dad’s company is not the only one getting conned.
They immediately hired a taxi, and moved on to another location – the registered address of the company. Changsha Road was the printed address on the business card and website.
However, from the findings in the Qing Dao business registrar’s website, the registered address pointed at another address – Liaoning Road, which was the next destination they were moving to.
During the journey, Sister phoned up the Singapore company through details obtained from the parcel and informed the person-in-charge about the matter.
“At least dad helped another company through his misfortune,” Nacel thought.
Liaoning Road is a techno-geek’s paradise – a high-tech hub of Qing Dao, along the road are full of shops and shopping malls selling digital consumer electronics, computers, and repair services. It was like Lowyat Plaza, Digital Mall and everything other electronic stores back at home at one place.
“If it wasn’t for these bunch of bastards, I’d spend a damned happy day right here.”
The address pointed to a shop lot inside an electronics mall. The walls in the shop lot had wallpapers with 青岛嘉和大地科贸有限公司 written. Looks like they finally struck the jackpot.
The problem is – it was closed.
“Oh, they moved away a few months back,” when asked about the company from the nearby shop lots.
“I’m not sure where they moved to,” it was Déjà Vu once more.
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