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

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]: Good Job Two:) UKdata is not definitive though. Dun&Bradstreet is a little better. You can search for companies world wide and not pay a nickle. You can also use www.yellow.com/international.html Now to be fair there are new companies starting up all over the world. If your going to send a payment of any kind make sure you call the banks. Make sure they give you the name of the bank, the account number, and the swift code. As well as the account numbers and swift numbers for any intermediary banks. Many have lost their money by not checking out to make sure that the money is not diverted at the intermediary bank to some unknown persons account.

Ranger

This is good information, so I'm sticking it to the top of the forum where it belongs.

One more useful site to know about is this one:

https://www.numberingplans.com//?page=analysis&sub=phonenr

You can easily check the status of a phone number here. Landline numbers will show up as "geographic", and you will see where the number is located. If a company can not provide a landline number that matches their location, that is usually a bad sign. The site is not 100% accurate though, I have seen forwarding and mobile numbers that show up as "geographic".

Many common types of scammers will not have landline numbers. Sometimes they even use invalid numbers on the Alibaba profile so make sure to test them! I even saw one using the number for the London Zoo as his fax once, don't let yourself be fooled by something like that. Scammers prefer using disposable, anonymous mobile phones, or forwarding and VOIP numbers. Forwarding and VOIP numbers will show up as basically anything besides "mobile" and "geographic" with numberingplans.com. There are many kinds of numbers that are free to set up and receive calls to, and that can be forwarded to anywhere in the world, such as the UK +44-70 numbers that are very frequently used by scammers, but not often by legitimate companies. They are also used so that scammers can pretend to be in another country, many of the UK scammers are actually in Nigeria for example.

Quoting from [Detronic]:


Hi guys,


In order to do business in Europe you have to have a valid VAT number. This VAT ID is given to all Eurpean companies. Without this Vat ID you are not allowed to do any business in Europe.


If you do busioness with a mobile phone wholesales company in i.e. the UK ask him for a quotation and his VAT ID. take the VAT-ID and check it over here if its valid or not. If not, dont do business with the company. Sice most scammers in the UK are from Nigeria and so, they do not know the syntax of such number.


http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/en/vieshome.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/en/faqvies.htm#item11

" border="0" src="http://img.alibaba.com/images/eng/style/icon/emoticons_great.gif" />

This was posted by Detronic here: http://resources.alibaba.com/topic/11973/European_VAT_ID_way_to_identify_a_scammer.htm


Especially if a person claims to run a company in Europe, but has no idea what a VAT ID is, you can be fairly certain he's not legit.

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]: I consider this a very helpfull article !! I'd like to add three more things to do though. For e-mail scams it is also advisable to check the antivirus sites like mcafee. Most scams like "the money in the bank of a difficult country" can also be found under scams or hoaxes there. The other method I often use is just picking names out of the lead info and dropping them into Google or altavista and see what comes up, most scammers are "famous"people. The last one is more difficult for most people but you may have the contacts. Just call someone you know in or near the country where the possible scammer is, and ask them to check. Last, if the possible order is realy important to you: invest in a private investigator or trade consultant locally to look into it, or even ring at the doorbell. Usually that is just a few hundred dollars on what maybe a 20.000 dollar deal

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]:which agency is responsible for company registration in china.Mere login into a trade website does not authenticated a person's or company's claim of legality.For example in Nigeria,you can verify a registered company through the corporate affairs commission.-www.cac.gov.ng.

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]: great detail... the only thing that i would would note is to use the FAX number for the search. FAX numbers tend to stay the same over time and are more easily searchable and finadable. also the email address for the contact.

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]:At first i thought you had a great trade lead going. thanks for the info though. I just wanted to add what i use to do check ups.

www.manta.com

It is a great site for this.

Replying to [Labels-R-Us]:
Easy:
1/ They order labels from you
2/ They pay by someone else's credit card
3/ You get payment, send the labels
4/ They get labels - to a PO BOX or some fake address
5/ The person who had credit card compromised files disputed transaction
6/ Credit card company takes money back out of your account.

End of story - you sent labels, try to find who is at the address, no luck :-)

Replying to [Labels-R-Us]:the typical " Nigerian" scam goes like this...you strike a deal...they send money orders that look real good...your bank accepts them and deposits them...you have to wait until hey clear...HERE IS THE CATCH...they are for more then the purchase price...when sent...the scammer tells a story something like this...they have a client who owes them more then your agreed transaction...so they will send you the money orders, and will ask you to please send the difference in a western union or some other type of money wire transfer...you do sooney orders were no good...you are stuck and out your money, while they keep what you wired....always ask a postal inspector to look at the money orders, or an agent from the same company from which they were issued, or try to deposit them, and WAIT until they are 100% cleared...and then still wait...and as always...IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE...IT MOST CERTAINLY IS...CONFIDENCE GAMES ARE ABOUT GREED...DO NOT BE GREEDY...also do not feel sympathetic...this is BUSINESS not CHARITY...do your research, and good luck !

Replying to [tworiverstradingco]:
sometimes there people who work from home and they r honest traders.i have another point of view
Ithink it is better to take your time before ordering.I mean u exchange e mails or chats and u can deduct whether u r talking to a scammer or not.Use the sixth sense and u can distinguish between the serious and non serious people.Try the phone given and if u find that it isnot working ,U should be sure that u r talking to a scammer.Think of the country on alibaba where his address is and compare between it and the country where he wants the products to be shipped.The formal procedures r not enough to recognize scammers but it is better to get a little more intelligence to know and Ithink it is better if there is feedback for the free members too.This will flourish trade more on alibabaand help traders to avoid scammers.