Tuesday 15 November 2016

How we discovered the copper wire scrap fraud business in Tianjin

Last Thursday (Nov 10,2016), one of our African customers booked our Business Guide Service in China, asking us to accompany him and audit the suppliers together in Tianjin for his copper wire scrap business. The supplier is a fully registered new exporter from Tianjin according to their Business License and Export License offered, they picked us up at the hotel with a car, took us to their office and warehouse, we checked the goods, discussed the trade terms, price and packages etc, everything seems to be very normal.

However, on the third day (Nov 12,2016), I took the customer to their office without informing the supplier of our arrival.(We were supposed to check their export qualifications in person.). When we reached their office during the work time that afternoon, everything shocked us. At the same address, on the same door, they changed their Company name, Logo and staff within 2 days ! I asked them for Ms Chen (the sales lady) and they said they did not know her! After that I called my colleagues to further investigate this supplier in China, noting that they used fake information in their export license. By then we came to a conclusion that this was a real business scammer in China.

Features of such business frauds are:
1. Fully registered NEW trade company and exporter but disguised as real manufacturers online;
2. Insist on using their own Shipping Agent;
3. Require 30% deposit in advance by T/T;
4. Offer high quality samples for FREE sometimes to gain trust from the clients;
5. Use very low prices to attract the clients worldwide. (Far below the market price in China.);
6. Scammers are normally from North China at present. According to the case-reports from our clients, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Qingdao, Dalian,Tianjin etc is notorious for such business scams in China.

Source: Verification Team, STIN Group (www.chinabizservices.com)