[Asterisk-biz] Fraud Alert: CGC Technologies (HK) Limited & Digiumchina.com

[Mark Phillips]

In many ways you only have yourself to blame.

You should never have accepted the order for goods and services without 
either some upfront payment or escrow type services. Even an 
International Letter Of Credit would have gone some way to helping you 
avoid this hole.

Have you tried reclaiming the property from the end user? Technically 
its still yours (your invoice did say that right?) until its paid for.

David Liu wrote:
> Dear All In The Asterisk Business Community,
> 
> We have been a victim of this company called CGC Technologies (HK) 
> Limited (www.cgc.com.hk) and I believe the community deserves to know 
> about this.
> 
> Earlier this year in March, we were approached by Kent Wong and Billow 
> Li of CGC purchasing Digium hardware and Asterisk consultancy services 
> for "resell" to a customer in China.
> 
> The story basically goes about CGC acting as the middleman and took our 
> hardware and services to turn into cash and run away.  To make the long 
> story short, we delivered hardware and integration services in May 2005 
> to CGC's customer.  The system went live and CGC's customer accepted the 
> system and paid CGC in full.  Since then, we have been chasing for 
> payment from CGC countless times.  The standard reply from Kent Wong 
> (General Manager) was always "We will bank-in payment to you next 
> week").  Of course when next week came, we didn't receive a single dime.
> 
> Finally, after countless attempts, we received a post-dated cheque on 
> 9th August, 2005, see (http://fraud.deltapath.com/dishonoredcheque.jpg)
> 
> Unfortunately, that cheque failed to clear on the cheque date as they 
> have insufficient funds in their bank account. (Source: Phone 
> conversation with Anny Choi, Administration & Accounting, CGC, 7th 
> September, 2005)
> 
> International Collection Agency reported to us that CGC's Hong Kong 
> office address is only a virtual office address that is only used for 
> receiving mailings.  And the office in Guangzhou, China has been shutted 
> down early November by court bailiff, recovering the property for the 
> landlord.  We were told by the Management of that office building that 
> CGC failed to pay rent for several months already.
> 
> These guys are very clever in finding loopholes in the system.  Instead 
> of having the cheque dishonored due to insufficient funds, they would 
> make a stop payment to the cheque and then claim the item was never 
> delivered or doesn't work.  This changes the case from criminal to 
> civil.  This means the police can't help you (at least not in Hong Kong).
> 
> They are now re-advertising themselves again on the Wiki and presenting 
> themselves as digiumchina.com.  So I'd like the community to be aware of 
> this and don't get burnt like we did.  Whether you are a customer or a 
> supplier, do beware!
> 
> Scammers Involved:
> Kent Wong, (based in Hong Kong), Mobile/Cell: +852 96475105
> Billow Li, (based in Guangzhou, China), Mobile/Cell: +86 13929562515
> Peter Ong, (based in Singapore), Mobile/Cell: +65 94501178
> 
> And a word to the wise, it is important to seperate Sales and Finance 
> even in a small business.  With rigid control enforced by a non sales 
> person, you avoid situations like above where a scammer can not sweet 
> talk you to accept less deposits and deliver first before payment.
> 
> Seasons Greetings to the Asterisk community.
> 
> David Liu
> Deltapath
> Hong Kong
> 

-- 

Mark, G7LTT/KC2ENI
Randolph, NJ
http://www.g7ltt.com