How do Chinese scammers cheat you online ?

Internet is the most popular tool for scammers nowadays, here are some common ways for them to cheat overseas buyers in China. Scammer, here referred to any company or individual businessman who did not register themselves with local Chinese government authorities. In China, your business will not be protected by Chinese government authorities in case you deal with illegal Chinese companies. This is why you have to check out your partners before doing business. 

Generally speaking there are two types of Chinese scammers online: 
1. Non-registered scammers
In China, esp in some poverty-stricken areas or less developed areas, you can see scammers everywhere. ' Money makes the mare go.' With enough money, you can make everything, like fake diplomas, fake IDs, fake goods, fake certifications, fake tickets, replicas of branded goods etc. By submitting some fake IDs, some scammers can register themselves and pass the surveillance of some foreign business to business platforms like www.tradekey.com, www.alibaba.com, www.go4worldbusiness.com etc. By this way, some scammers have come to obtain some trust from foreign buyers worldwide. Usually, they never offer real information about their add, tel, fax, legal person names, detailed company profile etc on their websites. I've checked out dozens of such kinds of scammers for foreign buyers in China. Some scammers created a wrong add or contact information online. E.g. Room1302, Building 6, Tianjin Road, Tianjin City, Fujian province. Tel: 0594-55554777, Fax: 0594-5555688 This place doesn't exist in China at all. No cities is called Tianjin in Fujian, Tianjin is a big city in North China. This tel number is not a registered company number, not exist at all and the fax number does not exist either. Business scammers cannot offer you a right company number and refuse to answer local Chinese's verifying questions. Normally they attract foreign buyers with very low prices and then ask buyers to pay some down money as a guarantee etc. They will disappear after steal your money or they will send you some defected goods or replicas etc.

2. Registered scammers

You have to be more cautious with this kind of scammers in China as they seem quite legitimate and honest in China. They can offer you every legitimate document issued from Chinese government. For example, in August this year, Mr. Xu from a famous hair product manufacturer in China signed an contract with Ms Lindova from Romania, everything seemed ok because Mr. Xu was the salesman from that famous manufacturer in China. However, I note that the PI ( proforma invoice ) offered by Mr.Xu was not issued by the real manufacturer, it's issued by a trading company hundreds of kilometers away!!! And this trading compay had nothing to do with this factory. Why didn't Mr.Xu sell the products directly from this manufacturer in case it had its own right to export? I found out that Mr.Xu was a business scammer here because he was selling the goods in name of that manufacturer but he was buying low quality from other factories and trying to get all profit for himself!

Another case is that an Australian client placed an order for tire from a supplier in Qingdao city, but the supplier used another Offshore trade company account to receive the money. The supplier disappeared after he got 20000 USD from the client and they cancelled the offshore trade company as soon as they received the money in China, then the client lost everything. 

If you'd like to seek professional Sourcing, Verification/Investigation, Quality Control and Shipping Support service etc, please have a look at STIN: www.chinabizservices.com or  www.bizinchina.cc , they might help you out at any time in China !

Tips for you to verify Chinese companies and stop you from professional biz scammers in China

We have checked out countless Chinese companies for our clients or friends worldwide this year. Some of the companies, even the Gold members of Alibaba turned out to be a business scammer in China. Your business cannot be legally protected by Chinese government authorities if you're dealing with illegal Chinese companies. Hence, it's very important to verify your business partner as there are more and more business frauds coming forth in China. Here are my tips for you to verify a Chinese company:

Generally speaking, there are some links online for you to check out companies in China:
www.yp.net.cn
www.chinaeall.com
www.cnaic.org.cn
www.114win.com
etc
However, there is no English version of above services so far in China, you have to know a little Chinese to check it all by yourself. Also lot of the companies did not register themselves with above yellow pages. So yellow page is not the key way to judge a business scammer in China! The best way to check out a supplier in China is to visit them in person or check them out with local government authorities in China.

If you don't know Chinese, still you can pre-verify your business partners from following aspects:

1. Contact information
Please note that whether their contact information is right or not, most of the scammers don't offer a right address, tel and fax number online. Some of the tel numbers are empty and some add and tel don't exist at all, they don't offer a company tel number, a private number or mobile phone number instead.

2. Registered corporate number
Every legal company in China has to register itself with Chinese government authortities and obtain an unique company number. If your business partner cannot offer you a unique registered corporate number, definitely he is a scammer, of course, he may submit you a fake number, so you have to check it out with local administrative government organs with the number he offered. There is a Chinese government organ called Bureau of Industry & Commerce ( have branches at all levels ), which is the only government organ responsible for the registration of legitimate companies or enterprises in China. For example, for any legitimate companies from Changsha of Hunan province, you can contact the local administrative organ for confirmation: http://www.csaic.gov.cn/ Tel: 86-731-2891606 or http://www.hunancom.gov.cn/ Tel: 86-731-2287058 , the problem is you have to report your case in Chinese sometimes because most of the local officials do not know too much English in China.

3. Incredibly low prices, esp for international brands
Most of Chinese scammers usually attract foreigners with a very low price. If the prices they offered is too low to be true, you may have a further investigation on your partner to know why their prices are so low. Most of the scammers in China profit a lot by selling replicas or fakes of some branded goods to the overseas market, this is very risky because the goods shall be confiscated or detained by Chinese customs houses in case it considered illegal in China. By the way, please remember that the price for authentic /original brands like Sony, Apple, Nokia, Dell etc should be almost the same at anywhere on the globe. You cannot import from the unthorized brands distributors with cheaper price in China. They must be selling relicas, fake ones or copies of brands etc ! Please simply forget such suppliers in China !

4. Payment and shipment terms
The scammers never accept L/C as their payment terms, they prefer Western Union, Paypal and T/T etc. Also they never deliver goods through formal channels in China, they prefer to deliver samples by Express like Fedex, TNT, EMS to avoid more examinations from Chinese customs house. Most of the scammers use Private Bank Accounts in China!

5. Warranty and after sale services
Scammers never take some measures to guarantee their quality and after-sale services after your payment, they may promise you a lot before payment. It's lip-services only!!!

Be careful with some of the Chinese suppliers!
By the way, I have to mention that, it does not mean the manufacturer has the right to sell or buy in case he has obtained a legitimate unique company number from local BIC in China. In China, all the enterprises with the right to import and export has to apply and obtain a certificate called Certificate of Import & Export from Ministry of Commerce of PRC and its authorized local organs in China after their registration at local BIC. Also a formal trade company has to register with Chinese Customs House and its branches before his formal business with foreign counterparts in China. Then he has to register himself with local Bureau of Inspection & Quarantine in case his products are in need of quality control. Without the registration from above local government authorities from China, no company can deal with you in formal channels in China.
If your order is very big, you'd better book an On-site Factory Inspection & Auditing Service from us to avoid future trouble. Please contact us for any question related: bizinchina1@gmail.com   or Skype: momochong1   Our mission is to save you more and reduce the risks in your business in China!