Alex Petersen, owner and founder of the company Bangkok Mold Consultant Ltd. in Thailand, only narrowly escaped being the victim in a Chinese scam.
“Maybe the scam is old, and maybe I just have not heard about it before, but it is still going on full speed,” Alex Petersen says.
Bangkok Mold Consultant is a company producing molds and parts for plastic manufacturers in Europe and US. This years, the company has also received a few orders from Taiwan also for some special parts.
Alex was therefore not surprised when by the end of November he was contacted by the Chinese company Xin Xin Ju Shang (Beijing) Import & Export Trading Co., Ltd. asking him if he could make a product with enclosed technical drawings. The drawing seemed real, but it was not a product he could produce himself so he found a solution with some business partners. The good part was that the order should be produced in Thailand and delivered in Thailand which made it feel more safe.
When the Chinese sent him a contract, Alex had a few changes and they were all accepted. He now just had to fly up to China to sign the contract in front of a Notarius Publicus, because this was their first project together.
“I received a few calls from the Chinese company,” Alex explains.
“They where nice and wanted the project started fast because of delivery dates. For a company my size this was a good order and we would be producing it over the next 10 months.”
“My business partners and I still some hesitation, though. Everything was too easy and we where still not sure about the company.”
Suddenly, after some intensive search on the Internet, they found out that the company was connected to several scams similar to the way they were about to be cheated!
The scam would happen just after the contract had been signed and they now “only” had to get the verification by Notarius Publicus. This would cost a whooping 7000 Euro to be paid 50% – 50% by seller and buyer!
Other people who had fallen prey of the scam reported that after they paid, they never heard from the company again. The few who had refused to pay had been put under some hard pressure.
“We were lucky that the scam was found out in time!” Alex says.
“I could have lost a lot of my own and my partners money not only to pay the “Notarius” his fee but also expenses for air tickets, hotel costs, etc.”
“This is a warning to everybody not to fall in a trap like this!”
——————————
