Okay all here goes...

First off...This is NOT A TRADE LEAD -- I am in teaching mode here. I have come across so many people who simply have no idea how to research a company, so I'm going to go through a scenario using my own company as an example of how to research a company. It is not a promotion for my company, just an honest effort to teach people how to research BEFORE they get scammed.

Okay, so you get approached by someone on Trade Manager or you contact a company you find in sell leads or someone has contacted you from your buy lead. Here are some examples of ways to easily identify whether they are frauds/scammers or not. This is NOT foolproof. Do your due diligence and you will be less likely to get scammed. Follow along at each step (if you care to).

Before contact or at the time when contact has been made:
Identify the company name.
Let's say that I contacted you. You need to do a search on Alibaba to find my company profile.
Go to the home page of Alibaba.com
Type the name of the company in the search box ? Please take note, sometimes less is more in regards to what the results output will be ? You may want to only put Two Rivers as your search term, you will likely come up with more results.
Choose Companies from the drop down box.
Click search.
Here are the results of that search (for Two Rivers Trading):
http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?Type=&SearchText=Two+Rivers+Trading&IndexArea=company_en

Okay, it looks like the first one is the company we are looking for. Click on that first link.

You see from my company's profile that my company name is Two Rivers Trading Company.
Here is my Alibaba profile page:
http://www.alibaba.com/company/10559201.html

Read what the script says. It will give you a good understanding of what the company offers and may give you some good clues of stuff to research about the company.

Highlight the company name and click copy.
Go to www.google.com
Click on the link Advanced search
Paste the company name in the box titled "with the exact phrase"
Choose 100 results in the drop down box on the right.
Click Search

Okay now you have the following results:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=100&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=Two+Rivers+Trading+Company&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images

You can see that the results page says that there are (at this time) 1-72 of about 330 pages.
Go down to the bottom of the results page
Click on the link "repeat the search with the omitted results included"

Now you have the following results:
http://www.google.com/search?q=+%22Two+Rivers+Trading+Company%22&num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&filter=0

Ok, now you are ready to rock and roll.
The first result looks like a home page of the company.
Click on it.
Yep, that?s the home page.
Look at the navigation bars until you find a contact us page.
Once you find it, look at the address and phone numbers listed, and any names listed on it as well. If they match the information on the Alibaba profile page then proceed to the next step.

Just because a company has a website DOES NOT mean they are legit. IF the information does not match, beware, could be a scammer...use the company's contact us page to get information about the company and to ask if the profile listed on Alibaba is legit or not.

If you want to browse the company (I don't necessarily mean mine) go ahead and do so. It could give you valuable information as to the company itself.

Now that you?ve found the company and looked at its website, take a look at all the other results that you have time to look at. You don?t necessarily have to go into each page, just read the wording that google provides around the company name. If it looks interesting or the result page name looks interesting click on it and see what the page has to say about the company. I?ve found sources who sell on eBay this way, I?ve found links where the company in question (not mine) was listed as a scammer (with proof even) this way. In other words, Do Your Due Diligence!!!

Okay, say there are no results about the company in your google search, except for the Alibaba page(s). Then I?d do the same search, except I?d search the contact person?s name. I also do a search for the address and I do another search for the phone number. I?ve found scammers by doing each and every one of these types of searches. Don?t just stop at one thing. You have to do a lot of research to make certain you are dealing with a reliable seller/buyer.

If you have the Alexa toolbar use it. If not go to Alexa.com and download the toolbar. You use the Alexa toolbar on your browser (AOL users must open an Internet Explorer or whatever browser you have that you have on your machine -- not the AOL browser).

If you have the Alexa toolbar right click anywhere on the page (where there is no link),
Click on the choice "Get Alexa Data"
This is the result:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details?url=http://www.tworiverstradingco.com/

Okay here you will see lots of information about the company. Most notably is the contact information. If the company has other websites, links to those pages show as well -- I don?t have any other sites up currently, so that information does not show up in the Alexa page. I?ve used that feature to determine that I didn?t want to do business with a company who also sponsored some really disgusting * sites. Sometimes however, there is no contact information available. If no contact information is available go to www.whois.org

At www.whois.org you will paste in the company?s web address, i.e. for example www.tworiverstradingco.com in the Whois lookup box. Then click search.

Here is the result:
http://www.whois.org/whois.cgi2?d=www.tworiverstradingco.com

Okay, looks like the information here is like the information on the Alexa page. There is one difference. The owner looks like it is a different name than Two Rivers Trading Company. The Alexa page and the Whois page both show a name 3503, LLC. The next thing to do is to go to the state or regional governmental body website that handles the registration of companies. Sometimes it is the Department of Commerce or Ministry of Commerce. Here in the states there are Secretaries of State. These governmental organizations handle everything from the registration of companies in that state to overseeing elections.

In our case here, the company states that it is located in the State of Colorado. So we do a search on Google (can you see that Google is my best friend!) for Colorado Secretary of State. Here is the google results for that search:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=100&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=Colorado+secretary+of+state&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images

It looks to me as though the first item on the search is the one we want. Click on it. Here is the URL to that site:
http://www.sos.state.co.us/

Once you are in the main page of a governmental website that you think will probably handle registrations of companies, look for something along the lines of Business Area or Business Center. In this case you want to go to the Business Center (in blue). Click on the link ?Search Business Database.? Sometimes these searches are provided free of charge by the states, sometimes the states charge. I know that Texas charges, but Colorado does not.

So, you?ve clicked on the link to ?Search Business Database?
In this case I?d try to search by Business Name (in most cases, I?d try the business name first).
Click on the link; ?Business name, trademark or trade name.?
You come to a page where there is a box in which you will type; ?Two Rivers Trading Company.?
Click Search button
Okay, we came up with just one record. Let?s see if it has the right information.
Click on the ID number
Now you come up with a page that gives a bunch of information. Here you can see the Registered Name (me), the Registered Address (my company address). the status of the company (good standing), the Form (LLC), and the formation date. Also, the government gives you the option to view the documents that this company has filed (scroll down a bit). Click on the link; ?View History and Documents.?

Here you can look at the articles of organization and any trade names. Oh, what do you know. This explains why we saw two different names! The 3503, LLC is the name of the company and Two Rivers Trading Company is the Doing Business As (DBA) name.

So far everything has matched up with the Alibaba profile. Things look good. If they don?t match, if something looks wrong, then stop and decide if you want to proceed. I usually stop at this point (especially with the UK electronics and cell phone companies) and give up on that supplier. If the information on the governments website (or in the UK; www.ukdata.com) does not match the Alibaba information, I stop and don?t even go any further.

Now, in some cases the ukdata.com site does not give phone numbers. In that case I do a google search for UK phone directory and find a good one to search for that company. If I don?t find that company listed in the book, or if the company is listed but the phone number is not correct then I stop and do not go further.

Ok, so in this case everything looks legit. The next thing I do is go to the Better Business Bureau and search their database for the company. I can already tell you that my site is not listed for whatever reason. If they are not there, it does not mean that they are not legitimately in business. Also, check out the site: www.ripoffreport.com . You should also check out a few other spots out on the internet that are there specifically to ?out? the scammers. Here are those sites:

www.badsuppliers.com
www.419eaters.com (this one has some hysterical scambaiting stories in it).
http://www.freeforumworld.com/forums/?mforum=stopthescammers (join this forum it really has potential)

If you know of any other sites to post scammers please post them here. We have to get rid of these scammers!

Other sites:
UK:
www.ukdata.com
www.companieshouse.gov.uk

If anyone else has ANY ideas please post them here. We could all use a little bit of help. I help you, you help someone else, it just keeps going and we get back what we sow. Thanks everyone?sorry for the long post!

Sharla

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]:
I take my hat off to you (don't wear one though).
That would be the best article on how to check anyone out that I have read.
I really hope that others, especially newbees, take heed and do what you say. If they all would do that, then scammers would be only a very small part of our business community. It is because people DON'T check out those with whom they want to deal, that scammers get away with catching more and more unsuspecting "suckers"

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]:

Excellent Posting, i follow most of those but there is definitly a few that i wasn't aware of.

Thank you

Grigo and Candy,

Thanks for your responses. My hope is that we rid ourselves of these scammers. I know that will be impossible, but every little step we take to protect ourselves, makes it harder for the scammers(especially for the more stupid scammers) to take our hard earned money.

I hope all the newer folks that have found this trade forum read this article and take heed. Please realize that if each of us would do our due diligence on companies that we plan to do business with, it would make the scammers jobs that much harder. Just like with a car, you don't park your car in dangerous places, you roll up the windows, lock the doors and if you are really careful you get one of those bars that hooks onto your steering wheel. One or more of these things will deter many thieves from stealing your car...however they might not deter all car thieves. There will always be some thief out there who is really smart and is canny enough to figure out a way to steal your car. The ways to identify scammers is really just like doing all that stuff to prevent your car from being stolen. A really smart scammer can come along and scam you even after you had done your due diligence.

Check out this other discussion here on Alibaba for more ideas:
http://resources.alibaba.com/topic/7523/Ways_to_know_a_Fraudster.htm

Remember to join my anti scammer forum too:
http://www.freeforumworld.com/forums/?mforum=stopthescammers

Please, if ANYONE has any other ideas or suggestions please post them here. This is a wonderful opportunity to teach newbees how to protect themselves and maybe even learn a few things ourselves in the process.

Thanks all,
Sharla

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]:

Wow, more postings of scammers today. I'm going to bump this post again. Hope no one minds too much.

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]:

Thanks a bunch for all your effort you have put to help us lot here. This stuff is really helpful.

Thanks again!!