Hello sourcing guys!

Scam Attempt Detected

Last week, we again confronted a scam from a Chinese supplier. This scam attempt is not the first or definitely not the last one that we face. This is why I would like to inform and remind you that scams and scam attempts are going on all the time in China and greater Asia, so you need to be very careful before buying from a Chinese manufacturer.

We have previously written about scams and how to avoid them. Here is the post about the Chinese Freightforwarders Scam and here is another one about e-Mail Scams.

Here is a great summary of How to Avoid Scams in China

Yei, a Cheap Apple!

For example, if you think you can buy branded products cheaply from China, you’ll want to think again. Companies like Apple and Sony have a very tight grip over their supply chain. They are really good in avoiding product leakage. Cheap genuine products that “come out of the back door” or “fall off a truck” are very rare occurrences for the global brands.

Another reason is that selling branded products internationally without an official distributor account in the importing countries is strictly forbidden. So the companies that do this (including those based in China) are operating outside the law.

Would you trust on these?

A fake Apple Watch that appears in Chinese online marketplace Taobao

Success

This time, luckily our sourcing agents and our customer detected the scam early enough to avoid that anything serious happened. In worse case scenarios, you lose all your money sent to the supplier and never get it back.

How to then avoid these? Remember your due diligence. For example, if you cannot yourself go to China and check your supplier, you can order a third-party inspection company like SBE International to go to the potential supplier’s premises to check their legal registration, credits etc. Read more about supplier auditing from here.