Chinese Business license - is it real, how to verify and avoid scams

[roddy]

I don't want to seem ignorant

read the first post (which I've just edited to make much meaner) and try again . . .

[graystores]

Company's Name:GRAY STORES

Contact:********@hotmail.com

We have Unlocked mobile phones in stock, all of which are brand new with full accessories .

We ship worldwide.

Our iPhones are Made in USA while the Nokia products are from Finland.

End of the year Promo

==========================

Buy a product get 1 free T-Shirt

Buy 2 phones get 1 phone free(any model)

Buy 5 phones get 2 phones free

Buy 10 phones get 4 phones free

Price List:

Apple iphone 3GS 32GB :300usd

Apple iphone 3GS 16GB :$250usd

Apple iPhone 3G 16G:$200usd

Nokia N900:$300usd

Nokia N97 32GB:$300usd

Nokia N96 16GB:$250usd

Nokia N95 8GB:$200usd

Nokia N81 8GB:$180usd

Nokia N81 8GB:$150usd

Blackberry Bold:$250usd

Blacberry storm:$200usd

Sony Ericsson Xperia x1:$250usd

Sony Ericsson W890:$200usd

We have all other mobile phones and other electronics available in store contact us for details.

Send your order to the email below:

Email:**********@hotmail.com

IN GOD WE TRUST

Edited October 28, 2009 at 02:30 PM by roddy

[roddy]

And if you responded to an ad like that, it's a scam . . .

[jbradfor]

Our iPhones are Made in USA

Wow, I learn new things every day! And here I thought they were manufactured by Foxconn in Shenzhen....

[Thanks for letting that post through, Roddy! I need a good chuckle early in the morning.]

[SuperJ]

I wanted to come back and thanks Imron for replying to my previous question.

I'm now looking at another company too (they make digital testing meters):

Sinometer Instruments Co. Ltd

Address: Rms 2410-11, 24/F, Sunshine Golf Building, 7008 Shennan Blvd, ShenZhen 518040, China

Tel: 86-755-82872661,2,3

Fax: 86-755-82872660

www.sinometer.com (domain registered since 2003)

http://sinometa.manufacturer.globalsources.com/si/6008800647979/Homepage.htm

I checked around and it seems the company went to the Hong Kong Trade Fair every year since 2005:

http://www.hktdc.com/sourcing/manufacturers/supplier_credit_reference/en/1X00KHOX/Sinometer_Instruments_Co_Ltd.htm

They have provided me with product photos, prices and now a proforma invoice.

I did ask for the company registration document/number and export licence but they just replied that they have been doing business for 20 years to Europe and the USA and named some large stores they supply - e.g. Maplin in the UK. Which I checked and "Sinometer brand" products are they sold by these stores.

The proforma invoice states payment to:

Beneficiary: SINOMETER (HONG KONG) COMPANY LIMITED

Address: Flat B, 18/F., Loyong Court Commercial Bldg., 212-220 Lockhart Rd., Wanchai, Hong Kong

Bank Name: The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited

Bank Address: U/G, 673 Nathan Road, Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong

A/C No.: 534-420864-838 Swift Code: HSBCHKHHHKH

I checked the Hong Kong company registry (from the link earlier in this thread) and SINOMETER (HONG KONG) COMPANY LIMITED was registered in 2003.

Now checking Google that exact Hong Kong address also is listed for an internet company http://www.hkpeernet.com/contact.htm which seems odd, unless this is just a shell company with a registered address in HK just for a Hong Kong a/c (I heard some Chinese companies use HK a/c)?

They told me the Hong Kong account is used "for financial purposes".

The other things are that I was emailed the proforma invoice on a Sunday morning (do they work on Sundays in China?) and the shipping charge was just put as an estimate (wouldn't they want to be sure on this so as not to lose money on shipping)?

Any thoughts welcomed!

[imron]

They work pretty much every day in China. The weekends are officially days off, however you'll still find banks, post offices, shops and most everything still open. An invoice on a Sunday wouldn't strike me as being particularly out of place.

A shell company in HK for financial purposes isn't out of place either. HK is reasonably attractive to businesses due to its favourable tax policies. As for a business and/or export license, if you have sufficient proof that they are who they say they are, and that they do exist and are reputable, then I wouldn't see them not providing that as a problem (after all if you were doing business with Microsoft or IBM would you ask to see their business license?). Bear in mind however that pirating an entire company is not unheard of in China. So you still need to do your due diligence and make sure things are what they seem. A bank account in the company's name, and verified overseas clients is a good step in the right direction.

Regarding your other point about shipping, a pro forma invoice usually is taken as proof of a sale, but doesn't indicate the exact final price. It's more binding than a quote, but not as final (price wise) as a commercial invoice which should follow later. In this case, I imagine the shipping on the pro forma invoice will be their best estimate, and once they figure out exactly what it costs (based on the shipping rate of the day and final weight of your order) then that actual price will be on the commercial invoice.

[zio1717]

hi..

i am from Greece and a am new here.i found this site when i was looking to find if the

WOBUYM.COM is a trustfull site..

i read all the post and i realize that it maybe be a scamp..

sorry for my english but please help me and tell me if i can buy for this site or i will loose my money..

thank you

[SuperJ]

I just want to come back and update this thread to again say a big thanks to imron!

The company turned out to be fine and I received the goods from them promptly. It turns out the Hong Kong address is that of their accountant so has several companies listed there.

They didn't alter the invoice price after payment was made.

[flameproof]

I would say, not very trustful:

http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/wobuym.com

You can not buy any foreign brand item cheap in China. That concept is extremely hard to understand for many.

[jeego]

Hi everybody. I apoligize that my first post is one of looking for help. However, I am new to importing and hope to contribute much more in the future once I get the ball rolling.

I have been working with this supplier in China since October. After establishing a relationship with their saleswoman via g-chat, I ordered a sample (custom made to my color specification and with my own brand/logo on it). The sample quality was amazing for the price!

Now I am about to place an order in bulk for about $2500 and want to make sure I am safe. I paid for the sample by Paypal, but they want me to pay for the bulk order by T/T. I understand that this is a way for them to avoid high fees, but just want to make sure everything lines up first. Can anyone who reads Chinese help me verify that the attached certificate matches the following information?

I just want to make sure that the quality sample was not a way for me to submit a higher payment so that they can up and run!

WEIFANG YUTIN MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CO.,LTD

contact is yutinmusic@gmail.com

Found their website: www.yutin.com

And the bank information they want me to use to submit payment:

BENEFICIARY BANK：CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK SHANDONG BRANCH

WEIFANG SUB-BRANCH

SWIFT BIC:PCBCCNBJSDW

BENEFICIARY ACCOUNT NO.:37001678108050001188

BENEFICIARY NAME: WEIFANG YUTIN MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CO.,LTD

Thank you all so much!

jeego

[shenmon]

hi i have just read most of these thread and am pretty sure i have been ripped off by a company in china, i have paid for my items last week and have a tracking number that is saying it is currently in shanghai heading to australia, im wondering if someone can verify if the company is real or not, and yes the items i purchased are cheap brand name items such as canon cameras and western digital portable hard drives,

the business details are as follows

Company Name: Nanchang Feijie Tech Co., Ltd.

Business Type: Trading Company

Product/Service

(We Sell): Smart terminal

Registered Address: No.29, Youying Street, Donghu, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China (Mainland) Zip: 330000

Number of Employees: 51 - 100 People

Ownership & Capital

Year Established: 2009

Legal Representative/Business Owner: Mr. Jianfeng Que

Contact Information

Contact Person: Ms. Maggie Que

Company Name: Nanchang Feijie Tech Co., Ltd.

Street Address: Nanchang fuzhou road 84hao olympic mansion 503#

City: Nanchang

Province/State: Jiangxi

Country/Region: China (Mainland)

Zip: 330000

Telephone: 86-0791-3253695

Mobile Phone: 86-15270862163

Fax: 86-0791-3253695

Website: http://jxfeijie.en.alibaba.com

i have had a file with a business licence but i cant seem to find it so if i do i will add it on here

i believe now if i do receive any parcel it will have something completely different inside the parcel, i have looked all through google and cant find anything about the company except for their website and stuff on alibaba, i really hope you can verify this for me, i foolishly thought that a gold member on alibaba was legit as i have never had any other problems with alibaba companies before

PLEASE HELP THANK YOU....

[imron]

Is it this company here? They appear to have the same contact details as the company in the site you listed.

Anyway, on that site they say they were "founded in 2000", however a whois lookup says the website was registered on Dec 15 2009, so barely even a month ago. Googling some of the "feedback" left by customers shows the exact same comments appearing on multiple different websites that all claim to sell cheap brand name electronics, so the verdict isn't looking too good.

Please make sure to come back and let us know what happens when the package finally arrives.

[shenmon]

thanks for the fast reply imron, i will keep in touch and post when i receive parcel, i dont want this business to scam more people if they are scammers,....

[Bohemian]

Hi guys! I am in the middle of a deal with a couple of chinese companies for an order of iron sheet fridge magnets. This is the first time I have ever done this and I am a complete novice as you can imagine. I haven't even thought about checking the companies out until I run into a site about scams only a few days ago! Since then I did some checks, mainly googling the companies, whois-ing to find out about their sites (emails seems to cross-match/sites are booked for a long time etc). Finally I asked about their registration numbers which they gave promptly. The companies are both in Xiamen. I tried the municipal Industry and Commerce site but I couldn't understand anything. I searched some more and I came across the main Chinese Industry and Commerce site www.saic.gov.cn. It is in chinese too, but I tried to google-translate the page. It worked, up to the page where you are supposed to enter the company data. It was the only page it couldn't translate. So I am asking for your help!

1. YuXiang Magnetic Materials, F/16, Jinyuan plaza, # 57 South Hubin.Road, Xiamen, CHINA 361004, RegNo: 350204705430377, Website, Whois report

2. Xinchang magnet Industry Co, Unit 902, #221,Huizhan Nanli, Siming, Xiamen,China 361008,361009, RegNo: 350203200097526, Website, Whois report

(I have to say the second looks dodgier...)

If you need any info about the order, please tell me and I will edit the post.

[shenmon]

replying to my earlier post, just letting you all know NOT to deal with a company by the name of NANCHANG FEIJIE TECH CO LTD they are 100% scammers, i have lost US$1280 to them, so please do not buy from them you will be ripped off, i ordered canon cameras and western digital hard drives from them, for that matter if you are thinking about purchasing any branded products from such sites as alibaba please do your homework, most of the branded items sellers are scammers, it is not possible for them to sell these products at these prices so beware......just because they are gold members mean nothing, i even contacted the third party who verified another company (Ocean trading) on alibaba selling these branded items and they told me that the company i asked about had a history of forged documents, my lord a history of forged documents and they verified them???? they just gave this company verification so they can rip people off, it is unbelievable,.....

[mansion402]

Hi Imron,

Can you please help me verify this company details

Business license - 35732931-000-06-09-9

HongKong K.S Wigs International Co.,Ltd

Address: Rm 1502,No 6-2 Zhongshanba Road,Guangzhou,China.

Website: www.kswigs.com www.kswigs.en.alibaba.com

Mobile: 86-13539793604

Tel : 86-20-61271408

Fax: 86-20-62610242

Many thanks

[imron]

Sorry, I'm too busy at the moment.

[mansion402]

Its Ok Imron,

Can someone please help me...I have been trying to verify the below company registeration number but most of the websites are in Chinese and i can't speak Chinese. I am about to do business with them and really worried about the genuity of the company. Company details are:

Business license - 35732931-000-06-09-9

HongKong K.S Wigs International Co.,Ltd

Address: Rm 1502,No 6-2 Zhongshanba Road,Guangzhou,China.

Website: www.kswigs.com www.kswigs.en.alibaba.com

Mobile: 86-13539793604

Tel : 86-20-61271408

Fax: 86-20-62610242

Your assistance is highly appreciated

Thank you

[ak1976]

Hi

This is my first time here. However I am very happy I found this page. Unfortunately I am one of those who seek for help in translation of the Chinese certificate.

Can anybody help me with that? This is quite urgent for me however any help at any time will be appreciated.

The comapny sells as they say both original and copies of mobile phones.

Their prices are not crazy cheap however one can add a small margin on top of their prices I think.

Any help will be appreciated.

Below details of the comapny and the certificate.

Shenzhen Zhongda Technology Trading Co.,LTD

Address:12th Floor Fuyuan Biulding,Huaqian Beilu,Shenzhen city,China.

Website: www.wsaaaaa.com

MSN: wsaaaaa@hotmail.com

Tele: 0086+18760569711

Thanks a lot

[imron]

*sigh* why is it that people don't want to believe the information in the first post

We really mean it. Also, when we ask people to read the linked to article, we're not just doing it for fun. It contains lots of useful information that will allow you to figure out scams for yourself.

Let's do an example with the above website, going through all the recommendations listed from the link.

Step 1) Look at the website name

We hit a match for "the website doesn't even bother trying to make a name that makes sense." Fail.

Step 2) Whois searches

Using the link provided in the article, do a whois lookup for wsaaaaaaa.

First of all, we see that person who registered this domain is also associated "with about 438 domains". Not a good sign.

Then we look at the date registered:

"Creation Date : 2009-05-15 12:43:30"

So, the site is less than a year old - and yet on their webpage they say they were established in 2004. are the alarm bells ringing yet?

Then we look at the contact information:

Registrant:

Organization : wsaaaaa

Name : wsaaaaa

Address : 466M

City : ZhengZhou

Province/State : HeNan

Country : CN

Postal Code : 351100

Administrative Contact:

Name : wsaaaaa

Organization : wsaaaaa

Address : 466M

City : ZhengZhou

Province/State : HeNan

Country : CN

Postal Code : 351100

Phone Number : 86-222-2222222

Fax : 86-222-2222222

Email :

Technical Contact:

Name : wsaaaaa

Organization : wsaaaaa

Address : 466M

City : ZhengZhou

Province/State : HeNan

Country : CN

Postal Code : 351100

Phone Number : 86-222-2222222

Fax : 86-222-2222222

Email :

Basically garbarge, but interestingly the site was registered in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and yet the company claims to be in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province,

So, it's fail, fail and fail on all three counts for the whois info, making it 4 out of 4 so far.

Step 3) Quality of the website

Is it the quality you'd expect from (and I quote wsaaaa's site here) "a leading supplier of quality brand electric products".

Well, quality is subjective, but personally I'd also rank this as a fail.

Step 4) Grammar and spelling quality

"abaut us", "Lates Remmendation", ok, fair enough, English is not their native language, but again would you expect this from "a leading supplier of quality brand electric products" that claims to have been in business since 2004? That means in 6 years, they've never noticed it, or never had one of their customers point it out. Once again fail.

Step 5) Web searches are your friend

Let's try googling the website name.

What is the recommendation from the article:

The point here is that no historical evidence, no user discussion, should really give cause for concern. It may be too you find other people asking about websites, or discussing bad experiences they had. Don't think that no news is good news however. Reliable and honest internet companies will always reveal positive search results.

Once again, fail.

Step 6) Search for uniquely identifiable information

Once again we turn to google, and search for a few sentences from their about page.

Our company was established in 2004.We are leading supplier of quality brand electric products with competitive prices.

With rich experience in the market we have been serving many customers all over the world, and have won deep trust from many buyers.

Over a thousand hits for the first sentence, and over two thousand hits for the second sentence. Fail.

Step 7) Use of free services

This is one step I potentially disagree with, as there are some people/companies that for whatever reason will use free services for their email.

Step 8 ) Buyer Protection

"If the website doesn't offer secure forms of payment, or forms of payment that offer the buyer protection you should consider that a major warning sign. There are no excuses." Fail.

Step 9) Western Union

"Western Union is being used because it's totally anonymous and there's no way to recover the losses. Western Union itself has a warning/tip on their website that their service should only be used to send money to someone you know." Fail.

Step 10) Consider what it is you are purchasing

Branded electronics bought through non-official channels? Yep. Fail.

Step 11) Using Common Sense

"If it's too good to be true, then it probably is." They don't list the prices on the site, but I'm guessing it's going to be cheaper that what you could find elsewhere, except for similar scam sites. Fail.

By now, I'm sure you're starting to get the basic idea. This site has failed every single one of the above steps. On the "likely scam" scale it rates 15 out of 10, and you didn't even need to be able to read Chinese to figure it out. You do however need to read the first post . We link to that article for a reason

In fact, these are basically the same steps I would follow to figure out if something is a scam. If you follow these steps, you'll find there is no need to email me directly, or even post here. If you can't even be bothered to do those basic checks, why should you expect someone else to spend their time doing it for you?