Before wiring a 30% deposit, use our interactive legitimacy calculator below. Spot shell companies, intermediary trading brokers, and payee bank hijacking setups before your capital leaves your account.
Select the option that matches your supplier's current profile. Our logic will calculate their baseline transaction risk score in real-time.
When sourcing on B2B directories like Alibaba, Global Sources, or Made-in-China, verifying corporate legitimacy is the single most critical step in safeguarding your budget. Too many international importers assume that premium visual catalogs, gold badges, or polite customer service representatives equate to a legally compliant, solvent business.
In reality, the barrier to entry for setting up a shell trading company is near zero. To help you verify target entities independently, we apply first-principles analysis to audit the three core pillars of a Chinese supplier’s legal existence.
Every authentic business operating in mainland China is assigned an **18-digit Unified Social Credit Code (统一社会信用代码)**. This code serves as the foundation for their business license and tax status.
If a representative cannot immediately provide their Unified Social Credit Code or a copy of their **Business License (营业执照)**, terminate discussions immediately. Once you have this code, check their official registry entry on the **National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (国家企业信用信息公示系统)** managed by the SAMR. Look for any active entries in the **Abnormal Operations Directory (经营异常名录)**, which can indicate missing filings, unreachable addresses, or tax disputes.
To translate and make sense of these complex 18-digit codes and the associated registry fields, check our step-by-step China Business License Translation Guide.
A major scam vector involves hijacked domains or spoofed corporate names. Fake suppliers often register domains that look nearly identical to established manufacturers, differing by only a single character.
Run a WHOIS search on the domain. If they claim to be an established supplier operating since 2012, but their website domain was registered only 3 months ago, you are likely dealing with a shell site designed to execute payment fraud.
Additionally, any website hosted on a mainland Chinese server is legally required to obtain an **ICP (Internet Content Provider) License (ICP备案)**. Verify that their ICP registration lists the exact legal Chinese corporate name, not a private individual. You can learn more about verifying official registrations in our China Supplier Verification Blueprint.
Even if the supplier is a legally active entity, your payment can still be compromised. If a supplier requests a wire transfer (T/T) to a bank account whose beneficiary name does not match their Chinese corporate name, you are exposing yourself to extreme risk.
Don't guess if a supplier is legit. Upload your Proforma Invoice or business details, and our compliance analysts will verify registries, ICP licenses, and bank account beneficiary routing.