Roman Hartung, CEO of German thermal management company Thermal Grizzly, recently posted a YouTube video detailing how his company lost approximately €40,000 in a sophisticated materials fraud involving Chinese suppliers on Alibaba.
The trouble began when copper and aluminum prices surged across Europe, making local supply both scarce and expensive. Thermal Grizzly needed high-purity copper and aluminum plates for manufacturing high-end GPU water blocks. Hartung identified two suppliers on Alibaba, both appearing credible. One had been operating for five years, the other for eight, each with verified transaction histories and positive reviews.
To reduce risk, Hartung split the order between both suppliers. He paid a 30% deposit upfront, received production photos, confirmed shipment, and paid the remaining 70% balance before the goods arrived by sea roughly 40 days later.
Upon arrival in Germany, the materials passed visual and dimensional checks. A scanning electron microscope and EDX surface analysis confirmed 100% pure copper. The goods were signed off and accepted.
The deception only became clear once the materials entered production. When a CNC milling machine began cutting the copper plates, sparks appeared, something that does not happen with genuine copper. A strong magnet was then applied, and the plates were drawn to it, revealing that the core was magnetic steel coated with a thick copper layer, precisely thick enough to pass surface-level EDX analysis.
The aluminum plates told a similar story. While the top layers were genuine aluminum, the bottom 60% was low-grade steel used to match the expected weight. The suppliers had even left portions hollow to ensure overall weight and appearance raised no flags during inspection.
Hartung stated that these substandard materials could never be used as production raw materials, and even recycling them would result in significant losses. With the suppliers based in China, legal recourse has proven extremely difficult despite ongoing contact attempts. His company is currently facing a cash shortage as a result.
A comparable situation occurred in 2025, when a buyer from Uruguay lost approximately $40,000 after purchasing what were supposed to be galvanized steel coils from a supplier in Jiangsu, China. The supplier had a polished website, stamped business licenses, professional staff, and production photos.
After the final payment was made, the goods were never shipped. A third-party investigation later found that both addresses listed by the supplier were vacant lots, the business license was forged, and the company did not appear in China’s corporate information system.
Hartung released his video both to warn other businesses and to apologize to customers facing delays on pre-orders.
