Before you step out your door and go wire someone you do not know nor have never met in person, follow these steps. Scamms are real and given I see on this forum people talking about "suppliers" and "how can you be so trust worthy" - is because (1) you have never been scammed or (2) just cannot face reality. I live by these rules and they could save you money, if you just put this into practice.
If you are looking for suppliers just pm me, I will save you time or point you to the right direction as a business owner and a victim of scamm artist. I now have my onw successful business and as a pro-seller on ebay, I went through tough curves obtaining an honest supplier.
Hope this saves you time and capital,
AVOIDING SCAMMERS
So now you have targeted your products, you are ready for sending your inquiries.
The fact that you are not used to international business will make you the perfect victim for scammers, they will feel it in your messages and will take care of you. It’s now your time to defeat them at their own game.
You can’t even imagine the creativity of scammers to convince you that you are dealing with a real company. But there are many manners to be sure that the person you are in contact with is reliable.
The checking process is simple (and free !), follow these checking points anytime you feel ready to place an order:
- Check the quality of your contact’s communication,
- Check the accuracy of the information you are given about products,
- Check that the company have a registration number,
- Check the company’s bank account,
- Check the company fax and phone numbers and their postal address,
- Check their internet website.
Here’s the detailed checking method for each point:
1 – Quality of the communication and prodcuts information
When talking about wholesalers, we are talking about professionals. Most of them are managing huge stocks and are not common with being friendly. Just imagine an hundred faxes and phone calls per day, with customers asking you to always give them lower prices (Yes, that’s you!).
However it can be stressful, wholesalers know that a single price error can be fatal to their business. If you loose by mistake 50 cents on each 2,500 products sold, the total loss is 1,250 $. A company cannot handle such a loss two times in a year. Be sure that wholesalers know their job and are very accurate when spreading information.
The first thing you will be able to verify is their ability to communicate information. Maybe you will not get very friendly emails, but be sure that any information you will have asked will be given.
Think about something: scammers never have the products they are selling. If you ask a very technical question, a wholesaler will give you an accurate response, while a scammer will ignore it or will mumble about it.
A checking example: “Will the Ipod Nanos have the good AC/DC plug, I need the 220/240V European norm?”
The scammer’s answer will be: “Yes of course, we have the European models!”, when the professional’s one will be: “Since Nanos are charging via an USB 2.0 cable, power plug is an option. They will charge on any computer on earth equipod with USB 2.0. Language can be chosen at first start or changed later”.
Don’t hesitate to ask pitfalls questions like this one, you will immediately know who you are in contact with. You are a seller, all you want are sexy products, you are not assuming to know all about them, don’t fear to ask even silly questions.
2 – The company business registration number
First of all, ask the wholesaler to send you proof of registration of the company. Depending of its state or country, the company have a registration number or VTA/TVA number. This number is not a mystery, it’s the identity of the company in its country, its business authorisation number. If you can not have this number from your contact don’t go further; this person is a scammer.
When you have this number, search the web (like google.com) for a business verification site in the country where the company is registered. This service is not always free, if you cannot afford a fee, send a fax to the business information center of the city where the company is located. It will only cost you a fax.
For Europe, check this usefull site:
The address you requested is obsolete
HINT : To find these verification websites, use
www.google.com, and type « google thailand » in the search bar, to find the google thailand website, then check “only Thailand pages” to refine your search results.
Than type « verify company » and you should get good results in english. If you don’t find such service, ask your wholesaler for the address, phone number and fax of the chamber of commerce/business where their company is registered. It should not be a problem for him to give you this information.
If he wish to send you a copy of his company certificate, let him do so, but this should be only a document for further verifications, and not considered as an ultimate proof. False documents are very easy to produce today.
3 – Verifying the company bank account
Let’s imagine you have placed an order and the method of payment is T/T (for Telegraphic Transfer, well known as bank to bank transfer). Ask your contact for its bank full address, phone and fax number. Verify all these on the bank website and call the bank to ask them if the bank account numbers are good (pretending your T/T has been refused by your bank) and try to know if this is a company bank account.
Due to a protection of bank information, you may not be able to verify all. Give the bank all the details you have and just ask them if the information you have is ok.
4 – Verifying the postal address, phone and fax numbers
After some emails regarding a possible order, give a short phone call to your wholesaler. During his work hours of course, but without telling him that you will call him.
You will see immediately if he remembers you, he will not try to argue but only to bring the transaction to an end (this is business, you know).
After that call (or before), check the prefix of the phone number. Try to see if the fax number match with the company number, are you calling on his cell phone, is the +32 the good prefix for Germany?
With google, try to find the phone number of the police office, or a school, or a shop near the company’s street and see if it tends to be the same first local numbers.
The best way to verify a phone or fax number is to find the company in the yellow pages of its country.
5 – Verifying the company’s website
If your contact has a website, you’ll have to verify it too. Try to find a website specialized in domain name registration with Google.com.
You can try this site for example:
Whois : Recherche de nom de domaine.
Type the full wesite adress (eg. :
Wholesale Lanterns - Super Wholesaler) in the « propriétaire du site » bar, and and click on « proprietaire et infos ». It will give you a large view of who registered the domain name, if it’s a company or a web agency. Look after the name and contact info and see if they are the same as your contact ones.
You can also check the website itself by clicking with your right mouse button and select “properties” in the menu that will open. The images should have an address following the same directory (eg.:
Page Not Found). If the images are coming from another site, you can be sure this is a scammer site, using a mirror site, leave this contact immediately.
Last thing : ask your supplier for some pictures of his stock or products, with the day newspaper, and a note with your name and his.
Cheers!
Always Verify your supplier! 
