Most Chinese suppliers are honest businesses. But the distance, the language barrier and the habit of paying deposits up front create openings, and the same few patterns cause most of the losses. Knowing them is most of the protection.
1. The changed bank account
How it works: Just before a payment is due, you receive an email saying the supplier's bank account has changed — often to an account in another country or another company's name. The email looks genuine, sometimes because it comes from the supplier's real, hacked mailbox, and sometimes from an address differing by one letter.
How to avoid it: Never act on a bank change received by email alone. Confirm it through a separate channel you already trust: a phone or video call to a number you had before. The beneficiary must be the company named in your contract. Treat any request for urgency as a warning, not a reason.
2. The factory that doesn't exist
How it works: A polished website and platform profile, factory photos borrowed from somewhere else, and attractive prices. After the deposit, communication stops.
How to avoid it: Check the company in the official Chinese registry before paying anything. Confirm the name on the business licence matches the bank account. Ask for a live video call from the production floor, not pre-recorded footage.
3. The sample switch
How it works: The sample is excellent. It may even have come from a better factory. The production order is made with cheaper materials or components, and you find out when the container arrives.
How to avoid it: Keep a sealed, signed reference sample (a “golden sample”) and write its specification into the contract. Inspect during production and before shipment, comparing the goods against that sample.
4. Quality fade
How it works: The first orders are perfect. Over time, the supplier quietly substitutes cheaper materials, thinner packaging or different components. Each change is small; together they change the product.
How to avoid it: Written specifications that name materials and components, not just appearance. Inspection on every order, not just the first. A clause requiring written approval for any change.
5. Fake or borrowed certificates
How it works: The supplier sends test reports and certificates that are altered, expired, issued for a different product, or issued to a different company.
How to avoid it: Check that each document names your supplier and your exact model. Verify report numbers directly with the issuing laboratory or certification body. Be wary of documents that exist only as PDFs and can't be traced.
6. The deposit trap
How it works: A price well below the market, with 100% payment up front, “because the price is so low.” Or a request for extra payments after the deposit: customs fees, certification costs, a raw-material price rise.
How to avoid it: A structured payment schedule, typically a deposit with the balance due after a successful pre-shipment inspection. Unexpected fees after a deposit should be treated as a warning sign, not an invoice.
7. The quantity or packing shortfall
How it works: The goods are fine, but there are fewer of them than invoiced, or the cartons are packed so poorly that part of the shipment arrives damaged.
How to avoid it: Supervise loading: count cartons, check the packing, photograph the loaded container and the seal number.
The common thread
Almost every one of these depends on the buyer being unable to check. The registry, the certificates, the factory and the goods are all verifiable. The scams work in the gap between what the supplier says and what anyone has actually seen.