10 Tips to Prevent Getting Scammed by Chinese Suppliers

With the development of international trade and the convenience of payment and shipping methods, many people have shifted their goods sourcing countries from China and Europe and the US to China. China’s vast territory, abundant products, and due to China’s large population, the employment gap is small, resulting in a large number of surplus cheap labor, so low labor costs, many buyers from Europe and the United States have shifted their goals to China. The Chinese government encourages exports, and also has good export norms and policies, but still can’t avoid some black-hearted businessmen selling low-quality goods, resulting in some foreign buyers in Europe and the United States and other foreign countries to be cheated. My name is Judy, in order to help buyers avoid being cheated as much as possible, I hope this article is helpful to you, please subscribe to my blog: https://www.wepaperbag.com/blog.

1. to find suppliers in the right channel, not the cheapest one:

Google

Google is the world’s largest coverage of the search engine, and Google’s ranking is based on customer search intent, will be the most useful information to the user to the forefront, have good customer experience, can Google ranking of Chinese businesses exist in some aspect of great advantage. So the initial screening of customers in Google is the first step to prevent fraud.

Alibaba

The preferred platform for foreign customers searching for Chinese suppliers is Alibaba. Alibaba is well known internationally and it has a great customer rating system, Alibaba has ratings based on the number of years a supplier has been a member, and customers can log in to see the supplier ratings and what customers have already done with the supplier.

Here is a Youtube video that teaches how not to get scammed by suppliers on Alibaba, watch it here:

GlobalSources

Global Sources also has a membership system that allows customers to go to the platform to find paying members to send inquiries to select suppliers.

Made-in-china

Made in China is also a great way to find suppliers.

2.Check the qualifications of Chinese suppliers.

You can add the word “scam” to keywords on the internet. If a company has been scammed by a Chinese supplier, it may be described on the Internet.

Find companies with real export records on import genius, tradesns, tradesparq, panjiva and other sites with import data.

Try to work with a company that uses paid corporate mailboxes

If a company doesn’t even want to use paid mailboxes, then it also means that the company is not legitimate or is a skinflint company at all.

The reason for using a paid mailbox is also to avoid the mailbox being hacked and to avoid monetary losses from transactions. There have been many cases of suppliers’ mailboxes being attacked by hackers, and emails from suppliers saying they want to change their bank information, not knowing that it is because they use free mailboxes, and free mailboxes are the easiest to be targeted and attacked by hackers. The hacker will monitor all the emails between the supplier and the customer until he finds out the supplier sends emails to the customer’s payee account. The hacker will intercept the emails and use a very similar email (or steal the password of the supplier’s email) to send his own bank payee account directly to the customer. There are too many such cases, and the customer suffers a blow and loss, and the supplier’s hard negotiated order may end.

Therefore, both the supplier and the buyer need to confirm the payment account in the payment process. It is also important to note that if you are contacting online via Skype or Whatsapp (it is possible that the online chat will be hacked), so before you send the money to the supplier, call the supplier to confirm.

3. Determine if the vendor is professional

See if their offer is detailed enough.

A well-run company pays attention to many details, and a good quotation speaks volumes about the supplier’s respect for the customer!

Quotations with the supplier’s LOGO and other information, product raw materials, process, specifications, packaging, quotation method, whether the tax is included, etc., which can fully illustrate the professionalism of the supplier. This is something that scammers can’t do.

Ask the supplier more professional questions

You can ask the supplier some professional questions, especially about the product process, specifications, etc. The supplier’s clean, clear and timely answers can be used to determine whether the supplier is genuine and reliable.

Visiting the factory

Pay Chinese friends to visit and take video or pictures of the factory.

This is the most economical way to determine if the supplier is a fraud. At the same time, you can also ask your Chinese friend to check the company registration information and other licenses.

Visit the factory in person

If time and money allow, buyers can personally go to the factory to visit, from their own professional point of view to fully understand the supplier of all the company, the two sides can discuss a lot of product details and bulk production to pay attention to the problem, on the back of business negotiations, communication plays a great role.

4. Choose a safe payment method

Secure payment methods such as letters of credit

Advantages of paying by letter of credit

The advantages of the letter of credit are even more pronounced when the beneficiary (exporter) is assured of collection when the letter of credit is used for settlement, especially when the exporter does not know the importer well and there are exchange controls in the importing country.

The letter of credit approach allows for a more balanced financial burden on both parties.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Letter of Credit

5. Collect quotes and samples from different suppliers, and order samples before buying in bulk.

Choose the most suitable supplier by comparing prices and quality. Filter qualified suppliers from a large number of quotes and samples, when the price and quality of different suppliers are similar, it means that the price is the general range, you can eliminate unreliable high price and low price suppliers.

Suppliers and buyers in the space are too far away, to talk about the order must be negotiated through the sample product details, when the sample above to reach a consensus, you need to follow the sample for the production of large goods. In this way, we can avoid the buyers receiving substandard products. For example, our company (https://www.wepaperbag.com) is to do wrapping paper bags, if buyers need to check the quality of our paper bags, we will send free samples for customer inspection, customers receive to confirm the sample quality OK, we can carry out bulk production in accordance with the sample to avoid customer losses.

6.The actual receipt of goods does not match the sample

The supplier sends samples of OK quality but uses inferior materials for mass production

When negotiating with the supplier, the supplier is required to provide samples, and the quality of the product is required to be consistent with the samples and to provide large samples for express delivery to the customer at the beginning of the large production. Usually, the supplier will provide free samples for low-value goods and the express delivery fee needs to be provided by the buyer.

International courier options

DHL

UPS

Fedex

TNT

EMS

punctuality of delivery

quality stability

7. Does it support customization

Vendors that typically support customization have their own development and design departments. Vendors that can have development capabilities can help customers design products that best meet the end market customer needs and increase market share. If the supplier is unable to customize the product to meet the customer’s needs, even if the partnership goes on, there will be various problems.

8.Good suppliers usually have their own websites, such as www.*****.com

Suppliers and product details are available to buyers through an independent website.

9. Referral of suppliers by competitors or friends

Vendors referred by buyers’ rivals and friends definitely have flashpoints: price, quality, after-sales, awareness of service, etc.

10.The Ultimate Checklist to Avoid Fraud(alibaba.com)

These are 10 tips to help you prevent being scammed by vendors. If you have anything to add, please contact me, thanks!