The Safely Sourcing China Blog

I was recently contacted by Eric Vermaas, the CEO of PT Team Wood (www.teamwood.org), a Dutch-Indonesian timber and furniture partnership based in Jakarta, to run a background check on an Import Export company based in Tianjin, China, and which had just placed an order for $915,000 USD in speciality wood furnishings. Fortunately, for Eric I just happened to be in Tianjin at the time, as I was visiting family for the Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the two main traditional festivals along with Chinese New Year, and therefore checking them out was a fairly simple process for me. The Chinese company details are as follows: Tianjin Tanbo Import & Export Trade Co., Ltd., Address: 43 Nanjing Road, Heping District, 300350, Tianjin, China Web: www.sjzdingsheng.com.cn Tel: + 86 228 143 92 09 Fax: + 86 400 67 61 100 ext 1010 Email: heiyexingguang8@126.com, tanbo_2003@yeah.net Trade Manager: Chen Jinliang I quickly discovered that telephone number is not a land line, and is actually a mobile number known as a xiao ling tong, and which looks like a land-line number, can’t be easily traced, and is very cheap to buy. The fax number isn’t in Tianjin and seems to be out of town, and is perhaps a fax service somewhere, hence the extension number; quite probably a big room in a cheap building with a number of fax machines in it – linked to a PBX if the extension number is anything to go by. I visited the address provided on the website and discovered that it doesn’t actually exist. Basically the numbers on that street jump from number 35 to number 57 Nanjing Road, with nothing but an abandoned construction site between these two numbers, and therefore no sign of number 43. Of course, all of this seemed somewhat suspicious at best, particularly more so since I further determined that they allegedly scammed a businessperson from Europe out of 8,000 Euros on or about the 22nd or 23rd of September 2009 (you can find the details here), and have also placed large orders with several other companies, in one case up to $600,000 USD in value, and all since the 31st August 2009. I further discovered that Tianjin Tanbo Import & Export Trade Co., Ltd., also operate under the name of Hebei Dingsheng Import & Export Company, and have the same non-existent address. In consequence to all of the above I strongly advised PT Team Wood to have nothing whatsoever to do with this “company“. Tianjin Tanbo also failed to respond to my repeated phone calls or emails. Particularly when once they realised they had Chinese speakers, currently resident in China, on their tails. The only call we had, and which I instigated, was brief, and led to their prevarication and a lot of stuttering, particularly when I asked for their address, and they said it was the same as the website – to which I responded that I’d been to visit the location, and it didn’t exist. Whereupon they responded that they’d just recently moved. How convenient and how odd they’d forgotten to mention this when first asked, or even to update their website. Finally, I asked them to have a senior executive call me back, and have had no response in the three days since that call – and neither do I expect one.

The CEO Gift Scam Works in the Following Manner:

1. The scammer places a large order with you. 2. They then invite you to China to finalise the contract. 3. When you arrive, they will tell you that in traditional Chinese business culture you should buy the CEO a gift commensurate with his position. This in the case of the last person I found scammed by them was for gold bars worth 8,000 Euros. 4. After you have signed the contract and returned home, they then contact you again and tell you the contracts must be translated and stamped and sealed by a notary, and that the fee for this is 1,350 Euros or something of the type. 5. If you pay that then the next step would be for them to cease contact with you, as they are in no way interested in a purchase.

Gift-Giving In China

Gift-giving in China is common in business, but a bottle of wine or a treat from your own country is usually more than acceptable, and I know of no CEO who would expect me to buy them anything expensive. Moreover, since you are a foreigner you’re usually expected to be ignorant of gift-giving in China, and so are exempt from this. Most gifts between Chinese businessmen are cigarettes, Chinese white spirits (baijiu – a strong clear alcohol), or a good tea; certainly never in the form of gold bars, unless you have plans on bribing your way into a contract. In conclusion, and as a rule of thumb, you should never feel obliged to buy anybody any kind of gift in China during the pursuance of your business interactions. However, out of politeness, a small gift of not-too-great an expense from your own country or culture will be gratefully received and appreciated. Safe Trading!

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Originally posted 2009-10-07 22:50:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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