The Wholesale Forums

[dnaimport]

Dear All,

I would just like to share this experience with you in the hope that users of this website, and anyone doing some research on the net comes accross this post.

A few months ago we received a very substantial order for our suits from a company called Changsha Xinghong Machinery & Electric Trading Co.Ltd . We performed our usual checks to see if this was a scam and all seemed in order. The contact at the company, LinTauo asked us to go visit their facilities in China. This was after they made a €400,000 order for suits. We thought it suspicious that they wanted to close the deal without even seeing a sample, so we offered to send them a sample of suits by DHL instead of us going all the way to China. They accepted, and we sent the suits.

A few days after they received the suits, they told us we should still go to China to conclude the deal. We insisted that as the buyers, it is up to them to travel to Europe. They could visit our facilities in Italy, and head office in Malta. That was the last we heared from them.

In the meantime, we started a new form of research. And we found out that we were on the verge of being scammed. Here is how it goes. Had we accepted to visit them in China, we would have been asked to pay all their companies expenses such as business meals etc. We would have been asked to make a costly gift to their CEO on the basis that it is Chinese Tradition. Furthermore, we would have been given documents to "conclude" the deal. After signing the documents, we would have been told that there are government fees of around $20,000 to pay, but as a sign of goodwill, their company would refund half the money to us. So basically, we would have paid this $20,000 and received a cheque from Changsha Xinghong of $10,000. The problem here is that their check would have been a fake, as would have been fake the contract we signed.

By this time, this bogus company would have scammed us out of around $30,000. On the service, they seem legit, but please be very careful and certainly do not deal with this company.

As the old adage goes, if something seems too good to be true, then it is. And if your first instinct tells you there is something wrong, then there probably surely is.

Hope this post helps someone

Marcel
224trading.com

[blaze]

Nice, helpful post. Thanks.
We have heard about several scam attempts before. How low can these Chinese go ?

[dnaimport]

Oh well, to be fair its not just Chinese. In 25 years of trading, we have had a number of scammers from all over the world contact us, which include the US, and Europe.

[Quad Band Phone]

Good catch! Out of curiosity, what was the new form of research that you used that tipped you off they were scammers?

[wholesaleguru87]

Originally Posted by Quad Band Phone

Good catch! Out of curiosity, what was the new form of research that you used that tipped you off they were scammers?

i would also like to know what it was?

[canada]

Always run a credit check,coface is the oldest credit reporting company in Asia.

http://www.coface.com

Scott

[dnaimport]

Well to be honest, we sent a friend who owns a company in China! He went to the address provided and the company didn't look anything like it did in the website picture! Also, we started asking around both in China and here in Malta and information started popping up.

[jitverify.com]

This was a typical Chinese buyer scam case, it is easy to identify it because the business seems too easy to be true. Anyway we are in China to provide verification services and factory audit,etc. We can help you to evaluate your business contact in China by a on site visit.