Fear to do business? or be victim of scam

[Mikepuentes]

To all of those that are asking what about those website and scam from different companies. There some tips for them and save time and problems.

1- Make sure that the website in the section of “Contact us” is a phone number that you can call instead of e-mail address, which is easy to create and under a fake name corp. even if the telephone number would cause you some international long distance, there are multiples cheap phone card stating at $ 3.00 that would allow you to call anywhere, I believe that I prefer to spent $ 3.00 rather than thousand of dollars on a scam.
2- Make sure to ask that company about some of their clients – references such as telephone numbers, name and address. Do your own re-search and find out if they received the product as ordered, if they ever had any kind of problems.
3- Try to always pay with a credit card that offers you protection such as unauthorized purchases, like I do have one that if don’t received the product that I order, charges that I didn’t t authorized or even if the charges were more of what I authorized they reverse the payment and accredited back to the account without any questions. Many banks this day offer such benefits.
There are my tips for all of those that always are wondering and asking about all this things of scam.
Good Luck

The credit card point is very true--never use western union.

right

scam

really?

Business is always a risk, so that's a chance of loss in business, so why do fear when doing business....

[yctp]

Originally Posted by Mikepuentes To all of those that are asking what about those website and scam from different companies. There some tips for them and save time and problems. 1- Make sure that the website in the section of “Contact us” is a phone number that you can call instead of e-mail address, which is easy to create and under a fake name corp. even if the telephone number would cause you some international long distance, there are multiples cheap phone card stating at $ 3.00 that would allow you to call anywhere, I believe that I prefer to spent $ 3.00 rather than thousand of dollars on a scam. 2- Make sure to ask that company about some of their clients – references such as telephone numbers, name and address. Do your own re-search and find out if they received the product as ordered, if they ever had any kind of problems. 3- Try to always pay with a credit card that offers you protection such as unauthorized purchases, like I do have one that if don’t received the product that I order, charges that I didn’t t authorized or even if the charges were more of what I authorized they reverse the payment and accredited back to the account without any questions. Many banks this day offer such benefits. There are my tips for all of those that always are wondering and asking about all this things of scam. Good Luck

Very good advice. However, here's a little to add to that and which I'm repeating from a previous post, as I feel it particularly pertinent. I hope this isn't against the forum rules:

After having lived in China now for 8 years, I do come across a lot of chicanery and double-dealing; more-so than in any other country I have either visited or lived in. This is my personal opinion, and not an indictment.

However, this chicanery and double-dealing has it's roots deep in Chinese history, and which have now, over time, become a cultural aspect in and of themselves.

China has historically been a nation of struggle. Where life has been cheaply valued, and the necessary measures one must take to ensure one's own, and one's family's, survival have lowered the bar on what IS and ISN'T acceptable.
As other contributors have previously mentioned in other postings; you have a duty to yourself first, when dealing in an alien culture to which your access is limited only to the internet or telephone. That duty is called DUE DILIGENCE.

Before transmitting or handing over any funds, you have a duty to minimize your own risk by making all the possible inquiries you can into the background of the company you're proposing to deal with.

There are agencies such as my own who will perform DUE DILIGENCE for you; and then there are a wide range of OFFICIAL, as well as common sense, methods and approaches one can use.

For example:

The Ministry of Commerce to the Peoples Republic of China
Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China

Local Administration for Industry and Commerce
Company Search

Mediation Center of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade
China Council For The Promotion Of International Trade

Internet Crime Complaints Center
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Home

Do A WhoIS Search on their Website
In the following example I have run a search on my own website to illustrate its' use.

The results are as follows, and I believe very helpful:

Front Page Information
Website Title: China Product Sourcing, Factory Auditing, Supplier Background Checking

Title Relevancy 87%

Meta Description: China Product Sourcing, Factory Auditing, Supplier Background Checking, and International Trade with China.

Relevancy: 91% relevant.

Meta Keywords: accessories, agro products, agro-products, apparel, bath, bidet, biometric, cement, ceramic tiles, china, china export products, china import, china imports, china import and export, china sourcing, chinese, clocks, clothes, computer memory, computers, customs agent, desktop, electrical goods, electronics, export, export agent, factory, faucet, finder, fittings, floor tiles, foodstuffs, hdd, import, importers, laminated board, lamps, laptops, lights, mdf, minerals, mobile telephones, notebooks, notepads, novelty goods, odm, oem, pipes, plumbing, plywood, portland cement, product, radios, shirts, shoes, shower, sink, sinks, skirts, socks, sourcing agent, taps, timber, toys, tools, trading in china, usb, wall tiles, wood, wood flooring, woollens

Relevancy: 25% relevant
SEO Score: 93%

Terms: 556 (Unique: 293, Linked: 83)

Images: 2 (Alt tags missing: 0)

Links: 31 (Internal: 29, Outbound: 2)

AboutUs: Wiki article on Yourchinatradingpartner.com

Indexed Data

Alexa Trend/Rank: #26,254,670: for the last three months.

Registry Data

ICANN Registrar: WEB COMMERCE COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED DBA WEBNIC.CC

Created: 2006-10-01

Expires: 2009-10-01

Updated: 2008-09-26

Registrar Status: clientDeleteProhibited

Registrar Status: clientTransferProhibited

Registrar Status: clientUpdateProhibited

Name Server: NS.OURHOST.COM.CN (has 6,395 domains)

Name Server: NS1.OURHOST.COM.CN (has 6,395 domains)

Whois Server: whois.webnic.cc

Server Data

Server Type: Microsoft-IIS/6.0

IP Address: 222.35.2.158 Whois | Reverse-IP | Ping | DNS Lookup | Traceroute

IP Location China - Beijing - Beijing - China Railway Telecommunications Center

Response Code: 200

Domain Status: Registered And Active Website

DomainTools Exclusive

Email Search: is associated with about 8,231 domains

Registrar History: 1 registrar

NS History: 1 change on 2 unique name servers over 3 years.

IP History: 3 changes on 4 unique name servers over 3 years.

Whois History: 6 records have been archived since 2007-11-23.

Monitor Domain: [Monitor this domain] Set Free Alerts on yourchinatradingpartner.com

Free Tool: Download DomainTools
Whois Record

Domain: yourchinatradingpartner.com
Status: Protected

DNS:
ns.ourhost.com.cn
ns1.ourhost.com.cn

Created: 2006-10-01 00:00:00

Expires: 2009-10-01 11:08:16

Last Modified: 2008-09-26 15:02:17

Registrant Contact:
nidezhongguomaoyihuobanyouxiangongsi
zhijuan ji ()
beijing
huilongguan, , cn 102208
P: +86.10817278 F:

Administrative Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Technical Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Billing Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363
nidezhongguomaoyihuobanyouxiangongsi
zhijuan ji ()
beijing
huilongguan, , cn 102208
P: +86.1081727890 F:

Administrative Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Technical Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Billing Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363


OF COURSE, THIS IS A HUGE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION!

But what is of direct importance and relevance to you, as a prospective buyer are the following and final sections of all of the above:

Registrant Contact:
nidezhongguomaoyihuobanyouxiangongsi
zhijuan ji ()
beijing
huilongguan, , cn 102208
P: +86.1081727890 F:

The above is the company name of the the website in Chinese (Pinyin - the romanised form of the language) - nide zhongguo maoyi huoban youxian gongsi

Next is the owner or representative of the website's name: zhijuan ji (family name at the end here, but usually in spoken and daily Chinese the family name comes first) in this case, the site was registered by my wife - Ji Zhi Juan

Next is the city in in which we live: Beijing

Following that is the district or town in the city: HuiLongGuan

Following that is our PostCode: 102208

Then comes our telephone number preceded by country and area codes (Beijing (0)10): +86.1081727890


So, straight away you can see you have all the details you need to track us, or have a check run on us.

All of the following details are those to whom our ISP is registered and hosted; including contact names, addresses, and telephone numbers of their representatives. Through these even more information can be garnered.

Administrative Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Technical Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Billing Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363
nidezhongguomaoyihuobanyouxiangongsi
zhijuan ji ()
beijing
huilongguan, , cn 102208
P: +86.10817278 F:

Administrative Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Technical Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Billing Contact:
Beijing Hongwang Shenzhou Technology
Lifu Zhang ()
Room 415, 4th floor, Meijiang mansion Xicheng District
Beijing, China, cn 100088
P: +86.1082012363 F: +86.1082012363

Another rule of thumb; try not to deal with companies who don't have REAL email addresses, and go through gmail, yahoo, or hotmail addresses.

I advise ALWAYS any prospective purchaser to require references from other foreign companies the prospective seller claims to have dealt with: name, address, telephone, and email addresses.

All of the above is the very least you can do to ensure your safety, barring hiring someone like myself to go and visit your prospective seller, to get a face-to-face.

Well, I do hope this has opened your eyes a little, and demonstrated just what you can do for your own protection.

Safe trading and a prosperous future to you all!

All the best,

Ken Stone

Originally Posted by Unregistered Business is always a risk, so that's a chance of loss in business, so why do fear when doing business....

But at least you should take all safety precautions. Like, avoiding western union, paypal and any such means.

I think there's always a risk to doing business. However I feel that as long as we practice caution, we can turn the challenges to opportunities.

More things we can do is to ensure that the company address is not one that you can register for free like "yahoo.com", "gmail.com" etc.

And to further protect ourselves from scam, one b2b website that I will highly recommend is www.globalsources.com [Manufacturers: Global Sources]. They have a strict verification system whereby they verify their suppliers at least 3 times to ensure that they are real companies, with real people.

Good luck!