We have checked out dozens of Chinese companies for 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 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 some 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 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 or 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 entice foreigners with a very low price. If the prices they offered is too low to believe, 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, refurbished 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. Contact me for details when you need verification and other business services in China.

Hi,
could you please give me your mail?

thank

Replying to [sdstrading]:hello, I'm contacted by henan hengxin investment co.ltd (mr.Su) asket invitation letter to visit us in Italy. could you tell me your experience? is he a releable person and company? thank you for your support

Replying to [habibou]:erreci1958@yahoo.it

Replying to [pegaso1958]:
Please simply forget this company in China. There are too many similar companies from Henan province, China.

hi,
all the information you told me was very helpful to get a clearer picture of what is going on in China with registration and verification. So for example this company found me on the Alibaba Trade manager Messenger chat, who is a Gold Supplier and has been verified & authenticated apparently. This lady talked to me about their products called ''Miss Kitty'' and she told me her real name later once I told her I have actually had been to china twice. This is their link directly to their company web-site with the Trustpass information: http://yihuitrade.en.alibaba.com/trustpass_profile.html

they claim to have really good prices and they do when I ckecked, they are reasonable but not too low in them either. You'll see they have a registration number too: 3503022001106, is this a legit number, with how long it is first of all? If you could put someone who speaks Chinese (I have a close friend who is Chinese but he is away for the next 2 weeks, abroad) to check those web-sites you gave me to see whether they are what they say they are. Also in terms of payment they accept T/T, western union and paypal and they take 5-7 to deliver they said. Which you told me can be a lead sometimes to a fraud sometimes, not always.

They are based in the Fujian province I think. What is L/C terms of payment by the way? I have heard of that term many times, but don't know what it is by the abbreviation. Also when I checked yesterday they were claiming they make $1.5 million dollars in revenue per year. The most important lead that we have on that page, that I think can be checked by what you told me is which authority they belong to, which is: Putian City Chengxiang District Administration for Industry and Commerce. I think this info pretty much gives us a lead to verify them.

Please respond asap for this, it would help me greatly spotting fakes from real and I think for everyone on Alibaba that trades with China (which i'd say is half of Alibaba and maybe even half of the world, and that goes on the fact that if you look at the latest statistic that 80% of the world's products are actually manufactured in China now.

regards
Peter

Replying to [Business in China]:
did the Shenzhen Beaconton Electronic Co., Ltd. is alegal company
please send the answer to momo10egy@yahoo.com

Replying to [Business in China]:

Hi

Could you please help me to verify this company (I tried to search google but all I found whas in chinese unfortunately):

Winstar Electronics Industrial Co., Ltd.

Registered Address: Room 913A, Xiongying Mansion, 2nd Xinzhou Street, Fuqiang Road, Futian, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China Zip: 518038
Telephone: 86-755-26518188
Mobile Phone: 86-13145812972
Registration No.: 4403012108961
E-mail: sales1@winstarelec.com
www.winstarelec.com
http://winstarelec.en.alibaba.com


I would like to buy wooden usb sticks (available on their alibaba' store but when searching their www site I did not find it)

As for me it looks fair - they accept L/C - but would like to make sure.

Many thanks in advance
Best regards

I have set up a list of supliers for my business however I still need verification how much would it cost to verify 7 suppliers

Replying to [Aussiebuyer]:

Please contact me directly for any question related. Thank you for your attention!

hi,
can you tell me what you think about this supplier?
http://honeylandwig.en.alibaba.com/

I am about ready to do my first order with them but I would feel safer with some comments.
thanks


I may add that we received samples product from them.
We have family in shanghai so they sent samples to shanghai and then family sent back to us.

My wife is Chinese.

they look legitimate but I am still worried