青島の大作戦―最終話

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 VI: The Prestige

[Shattering Hopes]

It was Monday, the day Liu promised to sign the contract after his company’s executive meeting. He called in the morning, saying they will drop by the hotel during afternoon.

Everybody was nervous. Questions like “will they come”, “will they sign”, “what if they don’t come” were continuously popping up in Nacel’s mind.

The family waited until afternoon, and called Liu, to confirm the exact time of the meeting.

This time, Liu said it is before 5PM, and the whole conversation was recorded in Nacel’s iPod.

Nacel and Sister started to compile all the information, photos and other evidence into portable files to prepare them for submission to the police.

At 5PM, Liu and his gang’s contacts were no longer reachable. A final call to the “office” was made and it got through, the woman on the other side of the line said Liu has left the office, while the other two key persons were still around.

When pressed on why the people couldn’t be contacted, the woman contradicted and said everybody left the office. Sister trapped the woman who answered the call to admit the company’s address is indeed No. 7, Changsha Road.

The entire conversation was recorded.

The very last glimpse of hope was shattered. It was time to report to the police.

[Kicked Around]

The entire family went to Changsha Road once more, and called 112. In less than 10 minutes, a 4WD police vehicle arrived at the scene.

The officer whom stepped out of the car looked like a veteran in his sixties, he and Dad exchanged conversations and roughly knowing the situation.

While the conversation was ongoing, there was a man, probably in his twenties, tried to snap the photo of the family with the officer using his mobile phone.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the officer immediately turned towards the man.

“I was just playing…” the man replied, panicked.

“What is that? What do you think you’re doing?” the officer repeated, and snatched the phone from the man.

“Get in the car!” a grab on the neck, the man is hustled the man into the back of the police vehicle.

“Is he some kind of spy?” Sister asked Nacel.

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“That’s some kick-ass officer,” Nacel thought.

The family then followed the officer back to the local police station.

At the police station, Dad made a report and explained what happened to the officers on duty. However, the officer has decided that the incident was outside their area of jurisdiction, and should be reported to the local police station near the hotel instead.

It was late evening, the family rushed back to the other police station, luckily the driver was kind and helpful throughout the journey. This time, the police station was packed with people.

As the family walked into the office, a girl asked Sister if she is a reporter, seeing Nacel was carrying a not-so-portable camera around.

Apparently, there were too many cases and too little manpower during that time, the family waited for more than half an hour just to get their turn to report.

There where a few officers questioning Dad, while walking around, and going in and out of the room, before one of the officers finally settled down.

The officer, probably in his forties, was not in a good mood. After listening for a while, he decided the case was out of their jurisdiction, and should be reported to the local police station near MYKAL instead.

Not only after a session of debate and a call with the local HQ, the officer agreed to take on the case, but advised the family to make a report at 8AM the next morning.

“I guess there are scammers in your country too as well?”

Tired, the family headed back to the hotel. The driver only surcharged 10 RMB, even after following the family through all the troubles – has earned himself respect among Nacel’s family members.

The entire journey in Qingdao was very rough and tiring – from flight delays, to simple scammer cabs, to well-planned business scammers, on top of that, getting referred around to different police stations. These incidents had left a deep scar in the whole family, especially Nacel’s Dad, whom had lost a large sum of money during the course of this incident.

青島の大作戦―第五話

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.

青島の大作戦―第三話

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 III: The Inception

[Masquerading Daemon]

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have now arrived at Qing Dao Interrrnational Airrrprot. *gibberish* apologize *gibberish* delay *gibberish* due to weather. Yourr underrstanding is much apprrrreciated.”

It was very foggy outside, hard to tell if it was caused by mist or haze. The ground was wet, hinting the cause of the flight delay was probably due to rain.

As they are walking out of the arrival hall, Nacel’s family was immediately greeted by a man of slightly plump figure, with short and slightly curled hair.

The man immediately identified himself as Liu Zhi Qiang (刘志强, International Affairs 国际部) and helped with the luggage while leading the family to the already-prepared transport.

“You must be tired, with all that lengthy flight,” he said in Mandarin with a typical Chinese accent, while loading the luggage to a China-manufactured MPV.

“No, no, it’s okay. Sorry to have kept you waiting,” Nacel’s Dad immediately apologized.

En route to the hotel, Liu and Dad had a conversation on the possible future collaborations between the companies, as well as other random topics like the weather and attractions in Qing Dao.

“The Qing Dao beer is originated by the Germans during their stay in Qing Dao. We have an annual beer festival here,” Liu said when the topic moved on to the famous Qing Dao liquor industry.

The entire trip from the airport to the beach hotel took almost an hour. Going through rural areas with many small factories, towards the more urban main city.

青岛东海大酒店 (lit. Qing Dao Dong Hai Grand Hotel) has a lobby that smelled of traditional Chinese herbs and dried fish, probably due to the exposed restaurant on the same floor.

The family performed the hotel check-in process, oddly, with their own credit card. As Liu explained, the hotel bills would be refunded by his company at a later date.

The hotel suite was spacious, with a fusion of western and antique Chinese decor, 2 bedrooms, a living area, a kitchen, but only one toilet.

There was another problem – there were not enough beds.

While the family is satisfied by calling an extra bed from room service, Liu insisted the family to rest in the room temporarily while he contacts the manager for a more suitable room.

Moments later, the family is relocated to a very similar room, but with just enough beds for everybody.

Liu sat down and talked with Dad for a moment while the others were unpacking and settling down.

Then he asked about the two units of iPhone 3GS.

“The phones are not for me. The wives of the supervisors requested for them.”

Nacel’s Sister hesitantly handed over the phones to Liu, while Dad expressed his intentions of giving them away as a gift.

“No, no. We don’t do business this way – there’s a difference between private and business matters. The receipt of the phones, along with the hotel bill will be submitted to the company and the costs will be deducted from the 5% rebate,” Liu firmly declined the offer.

“I will bring you to dinner later. At the mean time, please take plenty of rest,” Liu said before he left.

[Calm before the Storm]

It was a very foggy sunset in Qing Dao, Nacel was busy trying to snap a decent photo from the hotel room’s dirty stain-covered glass window.

The room’s phone rang and broke the silence, with Dad picking up the phone.

“Liu said he will let us rest, so he will not be joining us tonight. Tomorrow morning he will be bringing his superiors over for a small meet-up,” Dad announced after hanging up the phone.

“Such a considerate man,” he added.

With empty stomachs need to be filled, the family headed out and hired a cab for a place to dine.

After a few minutes of drive, the cab brought them to a crowded seafood restaurant, with a small mutton satay stall right in front of it.

The service was very poor and lengthy, some of the customers were upset and ended up ordering the waiters to cancel their orders.

Strangely enough, the ordered food showed up only moments after the cancellation request, baffling the customers.

It was not until a bill of over 1000 RMB is presented to Nacel’s Dad, that the family realized they were probably duped by the cab driver into dining in an overpriced “tourist restaurant”.

Worst of all, the food wasn’t that great. With that price tag, anybody could enjoy a five course meal multiple times in a decent restaurant at home.

Little do they know, this was just the beginning.

青島の大作戦―第二話

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 II: The Departure

[The Sign]

It was Thursday, the day Nacel’s family depart to Qing Dao.

A bagpack with his netbook, electronic chargers and digital camera; a wheeled case containing clothes, toiletries and power extension panel – Nacel’s belongings were well packed a day before, probably due to his mom’s repetitive nagging.

During the day, Nacel’s Dad accidentally glided the new knife he bought across his finger. Being a very expensive Japanese-made sashimi knife – a knife that allows you to literally slice a coconut as if it’s just tofu, even a light touch to the blade causes injury – the inflicted cut is deep enough to require bandaging.

Near midnight, 3 hours before departure time, the whole family happily started their journey to the airport, with absolutely no idea what is awaiting them.

The airport at midnight was especially quiet. Most of the shops, including restaurants were closed.

It took the family a few trips to different (closing or closed) restaurants until they finally settled on one of the most famous fast-food chain around that seems like it is on eternal daytime – McDonalds.

“Seems like a great time to try out the oh-so-popular GCB,” Nacel thought.

The GCB tastes okay, but Nacel’s Sister prefers the chicken nuggets.

[The Delay]

An hour before departure time – it was time to proceed to the boarding gate.
 

The boarding inspection gate was surprisingly empty. Upon closer observations to the displays, apparently the flight, ran by China Eastern Airlines, had been delayed by an hour.

“Damn, another hour to wait,” Nacel turned on his PDA. Lucky for him, the airport has wireless Internet equipped.
Nacel’s Dad and Sister both flipped open their notebooks and started surfing the Internet.

Facebook is a great way to kill time.

[The (Other) Delay]

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and *gibberish* members on board China Easterrrrn Airrrlines flight MU 540. *gibberish*”

All of the flight attendants of China Eastern Airlines are Chinese, and they speak very fluent Manglish (Mangled English), which sounded very close to Gibberish. Unfortunately, the on-flight food is also mangled, in its own way.

“Ladies and gentlemen, *gibberish* Shanghai Pudong Interrrrrnational Airrrrprot *gibberish*”

Due to the flight delay, arrival at Shanghai was an hour later than scheduled.

The flight to Qing Dao involved a transition in Shanghai Pudong airport. However, due to the flight to Qing Dao being a different flight, the baggage had to be claimed, requiring the check-in process to be redone once more.

The family almost missed the check-in time, resulting in securing very scattered seats.

It is China Eastern Airlines once more.

“Ladies and gentlemen, *gibberish* bad weather *gibberish* Jingnan Interrrrnational Airrrprot *gibberish*,” announced 30 minutes before the plane’s supposed arrival to Qing Dao.

Due to bad weather in Qing Dao, the captain had decided to redirect the flight and land in Jingnan. The other passengers beginning to feel uneasy, some started to question the clueless flight attendants.

The plane stayed in Jingnan for an hour for refueling, with all passengers onboard, and finally took off to Qing Dao upon receiving news on the improved weather conditions in Qing Dao.

The entire journey from home to Qing Dao was a grueling 12 hours.

青島の大作戦―第一話

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 I: The Bait

[It’s Decided]

“We’re going to Qing Dao this Friday.”

“This coming Friday? But I have an test scheduled on that day,” though with feelings of excitement, Nacel suddenly recalled about the upcoming certification exam.

Coming across a chance for the family vacation is rare enough, let alone crossing the international waters.

When such a thing suddenly pops out, it usually means one thing – Dad’s going for a business trip, so he’s bringing the whole family along.

Killing two birds with one stone, brilliant.

“What time is your tests?”

The exam was from morning till noon, the whole family can catch a flight after noon. The flight time should be 5 hours nominal, reaching Qing Dao during the evening would mean wasting a whole day inside the plane.

Since Dad needs to return back before Wednesday morning, the stay in Qing Dao is effectively shortened to 3 days – Saturday, Sunday, Monday – with Tuesday being the day where the whole day is wasted on the plane.

The air ticket was expensive – 2500 bucks per person, staying there for only 3 days for the price of 2500 bucks is not a good deal.

“I can reschedule my test,” Nacel suddenly remembered the exam voucher is valid for one whole year, it’s not mandatory to sit for it this Friday.

“So it’s settled – we’ll depart Thursday night.” One extra day makes a lot of difference, everybody is happy with the decision.

 

[Uncertainty]

Let’s face it, China is a country known for the very corrupted government officials and God knows how many scammers are there.

Nacel’s Dad is invited to sign the sales contract, how can it go wrong? The sales contract is clearly favoring Dad’s company – and on top of that, it is a USD150,000 contract – upon successful agreement, the dark ages of pouring midnight oil in processing the materials, giving talks, facing stiff competition is over!

Dad did a small background check on the company Jia He (嘉和) online, and found out it is a fairly large corporation involving in a multitude of different businesses.

Furthermore, communication with the company was made by email, phone and fax – it couldn’t be wrong.

Though one of the staff – Liu Zhi Qiang (刘志强, International Affairs 国际部) made a small request – 2 units of 32GB iPhone 3GS as “gifts” to the company’s superiors.

The cost of the iPhones will be deducted from the 5% rebate from the sales, exclusively used to “smoothen the transaction”, as agreed.

Heck – 5000 bucks for a half a million deal – you can even give them the iPhones in exchange for such a deal.

Nothing can go wrong.