Aliexpress and Credit Card Fraud

I made my first purchase today on Aliexpress, bought two small trinket items.  Thought I would use Paypal like most places offer, but they didn't accept that, so I used a credit card that I only use for online purchases.

~6 hours later, my CC company texts me asking about some flagged charge attempts that they declined from doordash.  I've never used doordash before, so it couldn't be from them directly.

In 25+ years of having credit cards, this is the very first time I've ever had a fraud attempt requiring the shutting down and reissuing of a CC.

25 years without aliexpress = fine

6 hours with aliexpress = fraud.

I looked it up online, and most people turn a blind eye, blaming computer malware and pretend that it's not aliexpress at fault.  I did the aliexpress purchases at work, on a very secure network/computer.

With that said, I want to buy dumb cheap junk on aliexpress, but fool me once rules say no more using a credit card.  Any suggestions on a foolproof way to buy from them without trying to have food delivered 2,000 miles away without your consent?

Also looking for confirmation of fraud or no fraud experience with them.  Literally the 1st transaction rung my bell.  Fortunately my credit card company was somehow smart enough to decline the bad transactions before they were charged.  Kudos to Bank of America for letting me buy from China to Middle America, but putting the kibosh on ordering Chinese food from California.

***2022 UPDATE***

Aliexpress order processing has improved tremendously in two years! I'm on my 5th order this season with them, and there have been zero lost or stolen issues, item and ID-wise. They continually update order/shipping status via E-mail, and provide tracking info on even the smallest of my orders ($2 Gundam pin). I'm fully  satisfied with their service and now consider them a safe and viable option so long as I have a payment barrier of Paypal to pay through. Also: shipping time tends to be much quicker than what they quote.

FINAL VERDICT: If you're shopping anywhere online, especially Amazon and eBay, for somethimg that's not a name brand, ships from China, or has a long delivery quote, check with Alibaba to see how cheap it can be by skipping the U.S. storefronts; it's typically 1/2 the price. 

I have had my card number stolen at least a dozen times. Not exaggerating at all.

I do nothing particularly risky or odd. Typical purchases at normal places, in person and online.

I also had a debit card number stolen and I literally never used it once. I received it, activated it, and stored it. It popped up with fraudulent charges a year later.

I've purchased from AliExpress a bunch and haven't had any issues with any of the cards I used there.

The part where you said others say it's malware or another type of virus is likely people that work for AliExpress in one form or another trying to convince people that their site isn't fraudulent. That's my guess anyways. Plenty of companies and people out there can easily buy/fake reviews, and some actually seem legit.

Just another thing to think about I suppose lol.

Oh yeah, before I leave, the only time I've ever dealt with a chinese company I got alerted to a fraudulent charge on my card around midnight of the same day. So ~12 hrs later in my case. Although that was many years ago now.

I buy from AliExpress regularly and have always used my PayPal. It is odd that OP couldn't. That seems ... Tampered with.

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Apparently I'm just very lucky, because I've never had any problems with aliexpress. I bought a lot of goods on it. This is the first time I've ever heard of bank card data being stolen on aliexpress. In general, what is the point of this scam? Why would such a huge online store steal credit cards if the name and address of the real user are linked to the credit cards? This directly spoils the reputation of the store, it's just pointless. Maybe you just made a mistake? It happens that instead of aliexpress, you accidentally find the wrong site. Aliexpress is a very high-quality service that will not spoil its reputation just like that. Aliepxress even has kyc aml software to protect against dirty money. Have you tried contacting aliexpress directly? There is support on aliexpress that can help with any question, ask them directly about your problem.

You can use a middleman service like Privacy website, (do your own research). I use them to buy from sites I don't particularly trust. Another thing you can do is open an online bank account from chime, aspiration or something like that, only put money that you plan on using to buy stuff in those (this account for the most part will be empty unless you are buying something). Make sure whatever bank you use doesn't do overdraft, and what I mean by that is they don't allow you to make purchases beyond what you have in the bank, instead they just reject any purchases beyond what you can pay.

It's been almost 2 years since my 1st and only Aliexpress experience, so I thought I'd give it another shot.

This time I was pleased to see Paypal was available as an option, so I went with that. PP has always been my favorite way to pay without providing any actual account details that can be reused fraudulently.  It's the closest equivalent of simply throwing money at the screen.

I was originally planning on using a virtual CC with capital one, but it's not like the old style of VCCs.  The company I used in the past would let me set an actual monetary amount on the VCC, so I could make a safe limit of $20 on it.  The one I tried today just gives you an alias card number/expiry/CVV so you don't have to give out your physical card info.  That's nice, but the reason I wanted a VCC was to prevent charges, I don't care about keeping my real card number in the event of fraud, and that's literally the only benefit of a VCC without a virtual limit setting.

Order placed, we'll see how it goes eventually.  order date: 8/28, expected delivery :10/24, lololol.

Thanks for the replies and likes, update from the original order:  I purchased 2 different items from different sellers, but only one item ever showed up.

If this transaction works out good, I'm entering a dangerously tempting rabbit hole of cheaper than cheap products. The only remaining tether will be the extremely long delivery time (I'm too spoiled at this point between Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart delivering in 1-2 days)

Kerig said:

It's been almost 2 years since my 1st and only Aliexpress experience, so I thought I'd give it another shot.

This time I was pleased to see Paypal was available as an option, so I went with that. PP has always been my favorite way to pay without providing any actual account details that can be reused fraudulently. It's the closest equivalent of simply throwing money at the screen.

I was originally planning on using a virtual CC with capital one, but it's not like the old style of VCCs. The company I used in the past would let me set an actual monetary amount on the VCC, so I could make a safe limit of $20 on it. The one I tried today just gives you an alias card number/expiry/CVV so you don't have to give out your physical card info. That's nice, but the reason I wanted a VCC was to prevent charges, I don't care about keeping my real card number in the event of fraud, and that's literally the only benefit of a VCC without a virtual limit setting.

Order placed, we'll see how it goes eventually. order date: 8/28, expected delivery :10/24, lololol.

Thanks for the replies and likes, update from the original order: I purchased 2 different items from different sellers, but only one item ever showed up.

If this transaction works out good, I'm entering a dangerously tempting rabbit hole of cheaper than cheap products. The only remaining tether will be the extremely long delivery time (I'm too spoiled at this point between Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart delivering in 1-2 days)

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Thanks for the update, I havent ordered from Aliexpress in a few years

Sad to hear about this credit card fraud. Would love to know more about this story.

I've had my card number stolen twice so far in my lifetime, with the most recent time being just last month.

Have ordered three or four times from AliExpress, never had an issue with them beyond just the hassle of the initial account payment setup, which was a really ridiculous process.

First time my card number got stolen was in November of 2018, and was because GameStop.com got hacked and someone started trying to use my card the very next week. Last month I'm not even sure where my card data got accessed from, as I order quite a bit online anymore from all over.

Someone scanned my cc at the airport. Few hours later i received called from the security of my bank, saying that someone os trying to do some weird purchase now. The good thing is that i always can contact ufb direct customer service on this site and ask them for help when needed.