@Xiefei: well, that's what they said, that we need to give gift, it's Chinese tradition, which shows respect etc. When we were still in France I read about it in the internet and all seemed good, it is a tradition, so i assumed pen or something symbolic (we also took some sweets to give them from France) but in Kunming, scammers told us that as the project is bigger, gift needs to be bigger and as it's not for one but several people.
We asked what we should give, scammers told us that they have a specific cigarette mark which government people like and took us to the store where we foolishly bought it.
Scammers claimed that it's not a bribe, but tradition, we also have it written in one email.
@Xiefei:
Scammers can't say that we tried to bribe Chinese government and then ran away with the money, cause after returning to France, they wanted to 'proceed' with the contract and make first payment, BUT as according to our contract, we agreed to pay remittance fees, they asked us to pay it first (from whole project amount) and THEN they will make payment asap.
We were quite convinced that everything is real until that moment.
But yes, you're right, i'm pretty sure we'll never get our money back, it's just when somebody who has similar issue is googling Kunming fraud, my posting will come up and they will get more information what happened to us and can be happen to them.
@Long Dragon: i can't get e-mail address for Department of Commerce of Yunnan Province, their site is mostly down? Does anyone know their e-mail? I can't read Chinese..
I found it from the internet, but this article describes pretty accurately our situation.
______________________
Well, how about telling us how you met this person/people?
Did they contact you or did you contact them?
How was contact made - in person or internet?
A: They are contacting designers/architecture companies by e-mail, i copied their first email to me a couple seconds ago.
What services did say they COULD offer/provide?
A: Scammers 'are searching' design company who will provide European/US design for 56 villas that they will 'start to build' in Kunming
I copied their first email to me a couple seconds ago.
How many times did you meet with them?
A: 1x in Kunming
What restaurants did you go to with them?
A: no idea of the name or location
I can think of many more but just a basic idea
A: please read all of threads in the posting, all should be here now.
Thanks!
