As a wholesaler from China, I have many chances to see all sorts of scams from handbags to electronics. They are exposed by angry victims in business forums, blogs and even websites dedicated to Chinese scams. Reading them surely doesnt feel good, not to say a lot of content sways from the wholesale topics to a pure hatred to the Chinese.
Scammers are obnoxious, but they are just a fraction compared to the legitimate ones. Their existence wont dent the overall confidence of wholesaling from China. And more importantly, they are easier to spot and get rid of than you think, with this guide.
Check Reviews & Exclude Proven Scammers
What does your wholesaler look in the eyes of other buyers? Sometimes one thing that has happened to your wholesaler is enough to rule it out forever. You just need to take several minutes to find if your supplier has any priors.
The tip is to make a search on Google with the wholesalers business name, domain name, email address (prefix especially), telephone or cell phone number and other uniquely identifiable information. The aim is to see if your wholesaler has appeared or involved in any complaints, scam lists, and other negative conditions.
It should be mentioned that a legitimate company isnt equal to that it should be of zero complaints. You need to make an analysis about each of your suppliers cases, to make sure whether its of scam nature or just due to an unsatisfactory product or service, though wholesalers of the latter case are often not comfortable to work with too.
You are lucky if your wholesaler has been proven in a scamming activity. But most times no such confirmation is available. On the one hand, new wholesalers emerge like mushrooms these days, too rapidly to get reviewed; on the other hand, bogus websites are created faster than they die out. A latest listed scammer you have discovered is often out of date. So it rarely happens a wholesaler you are talking with has already been listed. In fact, you may be shocked to know a fake company could set up hundreds of websites in order to maximize their victims.
Checking reviews wont help you decide right away which wholesalers you should buy from, as it calls for further evaluation to choose your business partner, but it gives you clues which wholesalers you should dismiss.
Examine Wholesale Websites
Check the following indicators of your wholesalers website. When isolated, they may not mean anything. When coming together, however, they should ring some alarm bells.
1) Is it an independent site or hosted on another website?
If the wholesaler is hosted on another site, like free space, and B2B portals such as alibaba.com, try to track down its own website. If you cant find the wholesalers own web presence, leave it.
Many would trust wholesalers or suppliers on B2B portals and take it for granted all suppliers on these portals are trustworthy simply because these portals are real. Not like that. B2B portals are the most abused web resources by bad guys, especially the second-tier B2B portals, which have almost become the hunting grounds for scammers. Dont trust recommended companies or products on those sites too. The status of these listings is bought with money, not earned with their quality.
Whenever you get a wholesaler on a third party, never stay there or try to send an inquiry. Instead, you should try to find the wholesalers own website. If you cant track it down, drop it. Dont waste your time. You have to make your purchase 100% secure.
2) Look at the Website Name
Cheaters look like cheaters. Though the name of a website doesnt decide the nature of the company, theres something in the domain name.
Several types of domain names should call your special attention:
1) domain names that contain numbers;
2) domain names that are meaningless;
3) domain names that sound too big or sound like hype; and
4) domain names that pretend to be official.
The following domain names are from a scammers list:
1st-phones.com
16988.cn
adidas-nike.net
3seal.biz
5y8l.com
bag-trading.com
super-electronics.com.cn
shopping-kingdom.com.cn
As you can see, these domain names are either carelessly selected or created to drive traffic to certain keywords. They look like scammers, dont they? Next time you see website names like these, be very cautious.
3) Does the wholesale website have a Chinese version?
When a Chinese version is missing, that means the website is targeting only overseas buyers. But usually a wholesale business wants to make their website also accessible to home suppliers, distributors and manufacturers.
After all it needs continuous Inflow of new and better products to grow bigger.
In China, the pressure on the suppliers side is often more than that on the wholesalers side, as therere too many suppliers. Most suppliers would like to provide free catalogs to online wholesalers. That has made the usual practice become that a supplier reaches out for a wholesaler for audition and inclusion of product lines. That means unless for uncommon products, its needless for a wholesaler to seek suppliers. The best and normal way for a wholesaler to obtain new products then has been a webpage often titled looking for suppliers being posted across the website. That explains why a wholesale site having a section especially for suppliers is usually genuine.
More than a language version, a Chinese section implies a complete supply chain behind the business. Some scam artists do include a Chinese-language version, however, though most tend to neglect that.
4) Are their offers too good to be true?
A genuine iPhone on sale for a little more than $200? No, dont buy it, no matter what.
Two things all buyers should be very allergic to: genuine branded items and unbeatable prices (deep discounts). The truth is only replicas are on sale on wholesale websites, as branded products often have their own distribution networks and are not allowed on wholesale sites, and very cheap products often land buyers with sleazy products or scams.
The point is you should always discard wholesalers that claim their branded products are real. As for unusually low prices, they are not impossible. But its often tricky and highly risky and believing that is why so many buyers wind up being cheated. Some buyers are obsessed in discounts. Generally, many products being sold at discounted prices on wholesale websites are actually lower in quality. Reselling substandard goods is not a good business in the long run.
Use your common sense. No greediness.
5) Do they copy content from other websites?
Its okay if its product information, as its common many wholesalers share a same supplier, just like on eBay many shop owners would sell a same item.
What you need to check are sections like About Us. Copy a neutral sentence and paste it in Google search box without quoting them with quotation marks. If it returns results from other websites, the wholesaler is questionable.
Check those websites and its easy to judge whether the wholesale site you are investigating is nothing but a rip-off.
By checking content, you get a better understanding of how the wholesaler runs their business at the user-end. A legitimate wholesaler often puts user experience at a position of high priority. They will make their best efforts to create copywriting that shows their features different from their competitors.
Anyway, how much you could depend on a wholesaler who even doesnt care to say things about themselves?
Besides content, you should also check the design and layout of the wholesalers homepage. Ripping off is not only limited to words.
Just keep in mind that scammers dont have time to take care of copywriting, web design and other time-consuming web elements. They are a small team, and the life cycles of their websites are extremely short. They have to use over reproduction, that is, many fake websites, to target victims.
6) Do they put Adsense and other ads?
Some wholesalers do put different types of ads on their websites. But most wholesalers wont. The advantage is these ads generate additional profits if the website traffic is good. The disadvantage is obvious advertising distracts the attention of buyers and blurs the nature of websites.
What you should take notice of is whether the ads are created merely for the purpose of earning clicking money. Therere some indicators: a) too many ads across the website; 2) they interfere with the normal clicking of non-ad links; c) they are in the disguise of normal links and when you click them irrelevant content pops up.
These websites dont sell stuff. Their main job is to attract ad clickers. Their part-time is to rob your money. After a period of time, you may find some of the domains are on sale.
7) Does all the information match?
Its hard for scammers to keep all the information coherent as long as its fabricated. Tinny mismatches can be exposed here and there to sharp eyes. Once you have discovered two things that are mismatched, you may safely remove the wholesaler from your list. Business should be based on honesty, right?
Anytime the following elements should match each other:
* Town
* City
* Province
* Postal Code
* Telephone Area Code
* Cell Phone Number Location
* WHOIS Domain Information
* Year Established
* Website Copyright Assertion
For example, if you have looked up the registration information, which says the wholesalers domain was registered in 2008. Then you go to the About page, which says the company was established in 2002. By comparison, you should not consider doing business with the company.
Sometimes, you may need to go to the advanced by comparing information on the wholesalers own website and information on third parties, like on B2B portals.
WHOIS database is a great tool to use. Scammers may fake address, owner name, and year of establishment, but they cant hide the truth in registration information.
Payment Options
Your money is always safe before its paid. Thats to say, its never too late before you pay, no matter how you trust your wholesale supplier by mistake.
Check the payment options on the website. If Paypal is not provided, dismiss the supplier. If Paypal is provided but when you start to pay they say they only accept wire transfer, leave it. If you are not dealing with wholesalers you are familiar with, do not pay by Western Union, Money Gram, Money Order, Bank Transfer or Credit Card.
The payment methods above are only for people you are familiar with. The following is taken from Western Unions own website:
The Western Union Money Transfer service is a great way to send money to people you know and trust. If you need to send money to someone you don’t know well, you may be putting yourself at risk for fraud.
Because we care about consumers, Western Union urges you to protect yourself from fraud by considering the following:
Never send money to a stranger using a money transfer service. Beware of deals or opportunities that seem too good to be true. Don’t use money transfer services to pay for things like online auction purchases. Never send money to pay for taxes or fees on foreign lottery winnings.
Useful Practices
* Make a telephone call to your wholesaler and check if their contact is real.
* Ask in a forum and see how experienced buyers think about your wholesaler.
* Try a sample before a large volume order.
Some Rules of Thumbs
The following points are collected from seasoned buyers. They are not made to be arbitrary, but whenever you are in any of the conditions, you should execute caution.
1) Its better not to trust wholesalers that sell almost anything.
2) Wholesalers from Fujian China are most complained as scammers.
3) Legitimate wholesalers normally dont work at unsociable hours in China.
4) Dont trust websites that contain a lot of grammatical errors.
5) Tracking code can be fabricated.
6) Dont trust a wholesaler just because its website looks elaborate.
About the Author:
Senior Online Marketing Manager of Idlemall.com, a China-based electronics wholesale & dropship company as well as local helper for buyers interested to buy quality cell phones, mp3/mp4 players, car electronics, laptops, and other electronics.
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