Six online shopping websites are looking into the case of a Beijing resident who claimed yesterday to have received goods worth thousands of yuan that he did not order.
The resident, surnamed Wang, told the Beijing Times yesterday that he had received orders two days ago from six shopping websites which were demanding payment.
"Neither me, nor my friends or family have bought anything from these websites," said Wang, explaining to the newspaper that he was not registered with the sites.
A user account with vancl.com placed an order for Wang on Monday, a website hotline operator confirmed to the Global Times yesterday.
"Someone might have placed a wrong order, or it could have been a prank," the operator said.
The websites, including vancl.com, dangdang.com and 360buy.com, all allegedly delivered products to Wang. The person placing the orders apparently had Wang's phone number and address.
Wang was refusing to speak to the media yesterday when the Global Times attempted to contact him.
Feng Yongmin, a member of delivery staff with Vancl, said that in the past, one consumer had received goods worth over 10,000 yuan ($1,588) pending payment, ordered by a stranger.
"Usually the strangers are registered with random email addresses. All we can do is block their accounts and ban them in future," Feng said.
To make the process quick, most websites don't require email or phone confirmation after an order is placed, said Chen Shousong, an e-commerce analyst at Beijing-based research company Analysys International. This is why prank ordering is so easy, he said.
"The third party could be someone with bad intentions, or they're simply a competing company who want to cause trouble," Chen said.
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