This week I got a readers question. Is the Chinese shopping site RM44.com legit or not. The reader wants to do business with this site. And he asked my opinion. Since I do not trust this site, I used it as a case study of a fake Chinese shopping site.
Update: 99SSX.com is the same scam site!
I was not familiar with RM44.com. Never saw it before. So I had to do my own research.
The steps I used for this site will be useful for you too. Use them when you hit a new site you have no experience with.
1. Check the URL
RM44.com is not a URL people want you to remember. Unless it means something I can remember. Checking this rm44.com I cannot find an explination for rm44. My conclusion is that it can be a temporary URL for another shop name. Or it is a name to hide it’s real content.
2. Check site name and logo
RM44.com site name is ‘Online Store’. Online Store?? No name?? I can say nothing more than: this is not professional! What about the logo? You guess right. There is no logo!
3. Check the company name
RM44 says to be located in Shengzhen like many Chinese shopping sites. The company name is Shenzhen RM Trade Co., Ltd. This is something like New York Trade Inc. or London Trade Ltd. A Google search for this company tells: This name cannot be found.
4. Check the possibility to chat and contact them
RM44 does not have a chat opportunity. Probably they are too small to have a professional chat service or they don’t want to talk to you directly. The contact info gives office hours and an email address and a maximum of 12 hours reply time. This is very good.
5. Products and prices
RM44 has top of the bill products.
– Canon 1DX camera (EU price: 6.000 Euro or 8.000 USD) for just 719 USD.
– Apple 15.4 inch MacBook 2.3 Ghz, 16GB RAM (EU price 2.420 Euro or 3.200 USD) for just 484 USD
– And much more premium products like iPhone 5s 64Gb for 169 USD. A Xbox One for 114.80 USD or a Samsung Flatscreen 65 inch 1080P 240Hz for just 509.50 USD.
Do I need to say more? These prices are too good to be true. And you know what it means if something is too good to be true? It isn’t true!
6. Delivery
This company promises a delivery within 4-8 days from China! I have never seen this on any other Chinese shopping site and I just don’t believe it either.
7. Secure Payment possibility
So I tried to buy something and see if they have a secured payment environment. Bingo! No secured environment when I need to add my personal info. And no secured environment when I need to pay. This is really bad! Always check if there is a HTTPS:// (check the ‘S’) at the beginning of the URL. There isn’t
8. Payment possibilities
Only Western Union or Bank Deposit. You need to pay first and then send an email with the money transfer number to their customer service manager! Come on! The collect your money first and then you need to ask for you product by email and hope they will send it to you. If they don’t, how will you ever get your money back?
Conclusion: RM44.com is a SCAM
This site fails on many of the criteria above. The prices and the payment environment concludes to me, this site is a scam. Do not buy anything from this site.
These Scam sites benefits from the positive believes online buyers have. You see a good price and thinks: Wow, I need to have this. But you will never get anything but frustrations and a lower bank account. Don’t fall for these sites!
Note to the people from RM44. If you are not a scam shop, respond to the criteria above and prove you have a legit shop. First explain the low prices. Second explain why you do not have a regular payment system like credit cards or Paypal.
Question to you all
I like to give special thanks to Ali for mentioning this site!
Do you have experience with other scam shops? Please let me know. If we get more sites we can create a black list and to prevent other readers from falling for this scam. Please write you experiences down in the comment box below.
In my eBook you can read much more about fake and scam sites. If you haven’t downloaded it yet. Click this link. It is free and will definitely help you Not to make the same mistakes I made before.
Happy and SAFE!!! Shopping
Boris
24 replies to "Case study of Fake Chinese shopping sites: RM44.com"
Hi i asked about 722buy. They also use 599buy, Spearhead Militaria. 24 hour help line name never changes. No reply to emails.
Hi trying to find out about 722buy. Company Spearhead Military ( American company has same name and make a mention of this) Goods order’d On the 9.3.2016 still no show.
Contacted pay pal to this problem. Should get refund approx 10 days.
I’m not familiar with this store, but it seems real. You paid with Paypal and can get a refund. A fake store wouldn’t allow that.
But still they can have a bad service. BTW 3 weeks delivery is no exception at all.
Hi Bastiaan thanks for your reply, So you think Spearhead Mililtaria is real?? sent emails to all where they say send them no reply’s, one address is some religious site. Is this normal and how do they get away with it?? If Pay-Pal know about this sight why do they not put up a warning giving people the chance to pull out. Thanks again. Steve.T
Hi Stephen,
My suggestion is that if you do not trust a site, don’t buy at it. The things you mentioned would make me suspicious. Although they use paypal, they still can have bad service, quality. if you ask me, leave this site.
Good luck!
please is ioffer a fake website. thanks
Hi Koko,
Don’t know them yet, but seems completely legitimate.
Cheers, Boris
They are a scam, they took me for 400 dollars and i haven’t seen any product after 5 months!!!
Hi Zex,
You’re right and I’m sorry to say, but you’ll probably never see the products…
Hi Boris
Thank you for your blog. I appreciate it very much and I wish you to keep going on helping people.
The rm44.com is I think the same as rmp2.com. I was in contact with them but I doubted on the very cheap prices of the products on this site. That’s why I’ve done a research and fortunately I found this blog which helped me to confirm my doubt. Thank you once more.
Hi Makombela,
Bingo, you found the successor of RM44. I’ll note this link too as scam. And yes, these are definately the same scammers as RM44.
Btw, can you tell me how you found this ‘scammers-site’. See my request here: https://www.startbuyinginchina.com/8-times-looking-eyes-scammer/ I’m curious how these scammers work to find new victems.
Thanks, Boris
Hello sir,
Sir from many days i have been searching for websites that sells apple iphone 5s at a very cheap and affordable price to india. I have came across many fraudlent websites like tradingeuropeltd.nethouse.me, aiwgou.com, etc.
Sir i request you to plz tell me the real and genuine website from where i can order my original apple iphone 5s 64 gb at cheap and affordable price. I live in india. And also tell me the process to make the payment.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Hi Mayank, Good question. I don’t know a shop selling real iPhones 5s for a low price. I wrote about this in my latest blogs about buying phones in China. Part I, II and III.
Wish you good luck.
Hi there
I’m about to buy some gadgets from this website and its from china.
Can u check for me. Is this website trustable?
below is the website
seresy.com/
Thank you 🙂
Hi Max,
The site looks good, but there are some things I don’t trust. Apple desktops for just a few hundred bugs isn’t possible. Second if you check out, there is no secured network https:// to fill in your password.
Two bad things: prices too good to be true and no security. If you want to buy something, start very small, don’t use your creditcard but use paypal.
Let me know your findings.
I give you a list of sites where I want to shop, I would like you to tell me if one of them is a scam so I do not make mistakes that have committed the other. Thank you for helping me with some precision.
sunsky-online.com/
eforchina.com/
tvc-mall.com/
lookfantastic.com/home.dept
cellz.com/?ref=cj
buysku.com/
bigboxsave.com
priceangels.com/
romwe.com
fasttech.com/
dinodirect.com/
599fashion.com/
kmtake.com/
chinabrandphone.com/
ipartsbuy.com/
Hi Roland,
I am familiar with most of them. The others I gave a fast check. As far as I can see they are all real. You can find most of them in this list: https://www.startbuyinginchina.com/best-online-chinese-shopping-sites-2014/
BTW. A fake shop wouldn’t advertise on the front page with very low prices products like 1.95 USD. These fake shops don’t sell accessoiries but brand products.
If you are not sure, start with small orders before you buy large quantities. And check this blog for some simple and fast tips to identify fake shops: https://www.startbuyinginchina.com/fake-chinese-shopping-sites-black-list/
My older brother had ordered it a few weeks ago at the following site: aiwgou.com/
I wanted to know if they are serious because he has not entrusted to it by tracking number. But also do this Secondly site is serious: sunsky-online.com/.
Hi Roland.
Please read my latest blog. With the tips in this blog you can tell aiwgou.com is fake. They claim they can send products like Apple directly from the factory to your house. Nonsense, illegal or fake. I think your brother has lost his money on this site.
About Sunsky-online.com. I have no experience with them. As far as I know it is a professional wholesale site.
Do you know a Chinese shop that ships internationally where I can buy laptops and phones originals refurbished at great prices and better quality?
Update: Tmart sells refurbished originals like iPhone and Blackberry.
No, I’m sorry. Legitimate Chinese shops sell Chinese phones like Doogee or Huawei. I don’t know shops with refurbished originals.
(ps I deleted the duplicated comment)
have a look on compareimports.com Roland,
There is a nice overview of these websites!
Dear
I want to check whether this website is fake or not , cause they are using gmail address for communication
shoesinsports.com/
best regards
Siham
Hi Seham,
For what I can see, there is no real contact info. No place where this site is situated. But they made a lot of effort if the site is fake. No paypal payment possible is also a bad sign. Buy with caution is what I recommand.