Most buyers don't get cheated by obvious scammers
They get cheated by suppliers who look perfectly fine on paper. A WeChat contact with a few factory photos, a website with a clean logo, a quote 15% below everyone else, and a business license sent as a blurry JPEG. Two hours of checking would have caught most of it.
Below is the process we walk buyers through before a deposit leaves their bank account. None of it requires Chinese, but some of it requires someone who can read Chinese.
Step 1: Confirm the company is a real legal entity
Every Chinese company has an 18-character Unified Social Credit Code (统一社会信用代码). Ask for the business license (营业执照) and that code, then look them up on gsxt.gov.cn — the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. It is the government's own database and it is free.
| Field on the license | What it tells you | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Company name (Chinese) | Must match the proforma invoice and the bank account exactly | An English trading name with no Chinese company behind it |
| Unified Social Credit Code | Unique 18-character ID | "Being updated" or never provided |
| Legal representative | The person legally responsible for the company | A different name on each document you receive |
| Registered capital | A nominal figure, not cash in the bank | Very low capital for a "factory" quoting six-figure orders |
| Date of establishment | How long the entity has existed | Registered eight months ago, "25 years of experience" on the site |
| Business scope (经营范围) | What they are licensed to do | No 生产 / 制造 / 加工 (manufacturing) when they claim to be a factory |
| Registered address | Where they are legally based | A residential apartment or a virtual office block |
Chinese aggregators like Qichacha, Tianyancha and Aiqicha pull together lawsuits, ownership changes and regulatory filings in one place. They are in Chinese and want a local phone number to register, which is where a colleague on the ground helps.
Step 2: Work out whether they are a factory or a middleman
Trading companies are not the problem. Buying from one without knowing it is. You end up paying factory-plus-margin prices, and when a defect shows up, nobody on the other side controls the production line.
Signals that separate the two:
- Business scope. Manufacturers usually list 生产、制造、加工. Traders list 销售、贸易、批发、进出口.
- Two addresses. Ask for the registered address and the factory address separately, then look both up on Amap or Baidu Maps. If the factory address is a office tower, ask why.
- Environmental permits. A real factory has an environmental impact assessment (环评) approval or a pollutant discharge permit (排污许可证). Traders rarely do.
- A dated photo. Ask for a photo of today's production line with a handwritten note showing today's date. Stock photos are easy; today's date is not.
- A video walk. Ask them to walk from the entrance to the machine that makes your product, without cutting. Watch how many machines there are and whether people are working.
- What is outsourced. Plating, molding, printing and packaging are often subcontracted. That is normal, but they should be able to tell you which steps happen in-house.
A good trading company will admit it is a trading company and tell you which factory it works with. That honesty is worth more than a fake factory tour.
Step 3: Check the records that never come up in a sales chat
- Abnormal operations list (经营异常名录). Shown on gsxt.gov.cn. Usually missed annual reports or a wrong registered address, and sometimes worse.
- Dishonest judgment debtors (失信被执行人). Check zxgk.court.gov.cn. If the company or its legal representative is listed, stop.
- Lawsuits. Sales contract disputes as a defendant are worth reading, especially if there are several.
- Customs registration. If they claim to export directly, they should have an exporter registration and a customs code.
- Sanctions screening. Relevant if you sell into regulated industries or government contracts.
Step 4: With certificates, the number is the only thing that matters
A PDF with a CE mark on it means nothing. Take the certificate number and check it against the issuing body's own register.
| Certificate | Where to check |
|---|---|
| CE | The notified body that issued it (TÜV, SGS, Intertek, Bureau Veritas). The four-digit body number can be checked in the EU NANDO database. |
| ISO 9001 | The certification body's online register. Confirm the scope covers your product and the site address matches the factory. |
| FDA (US) | The FDA establishment registration and device listing database. |
| RoHS / REACH | Ask for the full lab test report, not a summary page. Check the report number, the sample photos and the test date. |
Recurring problems: expired certificates, certificates whose scope covers a different product, certificates held by the trading company rather than the factory, and self-declared "certificates of compliance" designed to look official.
Step 5: Get on a video call with a human
Ask for a call with the person who will actually handle your order, not just the sales account on WeChat. Then:
- Ask them to walk to the machine that produces your item and point the camera at it.
- Ask to see the QC area and how finished goods are packed.
- Ask two or three technical questions and see who answers.
- Check the email domain. A company using a free mailbox is not automatically a risk, but a domain that has existed for years with a website that has real product pages is a better sign than one registered last month.
Step 6: Buy a sample, then inspect before you pay the balance
- Pay for the sample. Free samples are usually cherry-picked. Paying also tells you whether they can issue a proper invoice.
- Test it. If specs matter, send the sample to a lab yourself rather than trusting an attached report.
- Book a pre-shipment inspection on the first order: SGS, TÜV, Bureau Veritas, QIMA, V-Trust or a smaller local firm. Budget around USD 250–350 per inspector-day.
- Book a factory audit for larger or repeat orders. A basic audit runs USD 400–800 and covers capacity, equipment, staffing, QC records and social compliance.
- Inspect before the balance payment, not after. An inspection after final payment is a conversation. Before final payment, it is a decision.
Step 7: The bank details — where most money is actually lost
This step protects more money than all the others combined.
- The bank account name must match the company name on the business license, character for character. Not the boss's wife, not a Hong Kong personal account, not a "payment agent".
- Cross-check the account number on the proforma invoice against the contract and against what they send by message. Fake "our bank details have changed" emails are a common attack, especially on buyers who only communicate by email.
- Confirm any change of bank details by voice or video with a person you already know, never by replying to the email.
- Use payment terms that give you some control: 30% deposit and 70% after a passed inspection, or a letter of credit or Trade Assurance for bigger orders.
- Never pay a company order into a personal account, no matter how reasonable the explanation sounds.
Red flags worth walking away from
- A price well below every other quote, with no clear reason.
- Refusal to share a business license, or a license that does not match the invoice.
- A factory address that changes between messages.
- No video call, only photos.
- Pressure to pay quickly because "the price is only valid today".
- Payment requested to a personal or third-party account.
- Certificates with numbers that do not appear in any register.
- A company registered in the last year claiming decades of export history.
A realistic budget and timeline
| Task | Time | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Business license and registry check | 1–2 hours | Free |
| Litigation and credit check | Same day | Free to USD 50 |
| Video factory walk | 30–60 minutes | Free |
| Sample order and shipping | 1–3 weeks | Cost of sample plus courier |
| Third-party factory audit | 3–5 working days to book, report in 2–3 days | USD 400–800 |
| Pre-shipment inspection | 2–3 days' notice | USD 250–350 per man-day |
What to put in the contract
Have it in Chinese and English, stamped with the company chop (公章) rather than just signed:
- Product specification with tolerances, photos and the approved sample as an annex
- Inspection standard, who performs it and who pays
- Delivery date and a late-delivery penalty
- Packaging and labelling requirements, including barcodes and shipping marks
- Payment schedule tied to inspection results
- Mould and tooling ownership if you paid for them
- Governing law and arbitration — CIETAC or HKIAC if you can get them to agree
None of this is complicated, but it has to happen in the right order and in Chinese. If you would rather not manage registry checks, factory audits, inspections and payment verification across a language barrier, Globesino's team in China handles these steps for overseas buyers from supplier screening through to delivery.