There are a number of actions you can take to research your potential business partner whom you have met on the internet, so that you can reduce the risk of being subject to a fraudulent transaction or business misunderstanding. These include:

 

Confirm Contact Details
Always confirm if the address, phone number and email address given to you by your trading partner belongs to the same company. If a trader provides inconsistent contact details, for example an address in the USA and phone number from another country, we recommend you look up the address in the local phone directory and obtain the local phone number, and call this number to confirm that the person you are in touch with actually works for the company. Similarly, if a partner's email heading states that they work for a certain company, you should verify this. Be aware that some scam artists could alter their return email address heading to make it look like they work for a company that they don't. If a buyer or seller claims to be a TrustPass member, we suggest you visit their TrustPass profile on Alibaba to verify this information.

 

Meet Your Partner in Person
Whenever possible, meet your business partner in person and visit his company's facilities. While the internet offers you a wealth of information on your potential partner which enables you to make an initial assessment, there is no substitute for face-to-face contact.

 

Protect Yourself When Ordering or Providing Samples
As a buyer, order a sample before committing to a purchase order to be sure that the product meets your expectations. As a seller, request payment for a sample and/or payment for shipping costs before you send out the sample, especially if your product has a high resale value.

 

Use Pre-Shipment Inspection Services
If you are a buyer, you can protect yourself against poor quality by ordering a pre-shipment inspection of the products. You can demand the inspection as a condition to payment.

 

Protect Yourself Against Payment Risk-You Are the Seller
If you are a seller and have not been doing business with your partner for very long, avoid selling your products on open-account (in which case you are extending credit to your buyer). Instead ask your buyer to open a letter of credit ( an "L/C" ).

 

Protect Yourself Against Payment Risk-You Are the Buyer
If you are a buyer, sometimes a supplier may ask you for a deposit (usually 30%) before he accepts the order. While this is not unusual between long-standing trading partners, if you are doing business with the supplier for the first time, make sure you have done sufficient background checks on the supplier before you agree to the deposit, or ask for a different form of payment, such as a letter of credit. If the seller seems more focused on payment than any other issue, or indicates that cash payment must be made urgently, more caution should be given to the transaction. Be extra cautious when the seller asks you to send money to an account whose real owner cannot be traced; for example, you cannot trace the real name of the person behind an account with a wiring service such as Western Union.

 

Beware of over generous Trade Leads
Beware of a business partner who offers a significantly high and low price or positive contract condition to you in first transaction. It is easy to be tempted by such proposals, but they often attempt to defraud. This method is commonly employed in the Mobile Phone, PSP, PS3, IPOD, MP3 Player, Game Console and branded goods transaction.

 

Suspect Shipping or Contact Addresses
Pay close attention to shipping or contact addresses located in regions with high reported incidences of online fraud, such as Eastern Europe, Western Africa and Central America.

 

Beware of Fake E-mail Addresses
It is possible for anyone with some technical knowledge to send an email with a fake address. These emails often direct you to a fake website that looks similar to Ebizfair.com and asks for personal and/or account related information. These fraudulent emails often stress account closure or downgrade if you don't immediately provide credit card or account details.

If you think you may have been a victim of email fraud, contact our service team by email at service@ebizfair.com. You can also sign-in to My Ebizfair and confirm your account status.

Fraud Safety Guidelines

We will never ask for your password or personal information in an email unless you contact us for your account problems. Avoid filling out forms in any email that ask for sensitive information. Don't click on suspicious links, instead type URLs into your browser address bar.

Fraud emails usually contain HTML links that look genuine, but hide their actual URL address. To avoid being directed to fake websites, you can always manually type ebizfair.com into your address bar and begin your visit from our homepage.

Remember, the best tools for fighting fraud are awareness, education and vigilance. We encourage you to remain cautious whenever providing sensitive information, be it in an email or to a potential trade partner.