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Hi,
I wanted to let everyone know about what happened to us this past week.
We are based in Argentina, South America, and run a travel agency. We received an email from Mr. Leon Kung saying his company was interested in sending some of their employees to Argentina to visit the new country they would be dealing with on different levels and with different products through other contracts.
Steps we were to follow:
1. Reach an agreement regarding contract
2. Email back and forth email with contract details
3. Travel to China
4. Sign contract ¨face to face¨ in China
We were happy to have such interest in a group of 390 passengers visit Argentina and arrange the accommodations for everyone plus tours, domestic airfares and meals. However, we told Mr. Kung that we wouldn´t be traveling to China for signing the contract and if there was any other way of closing the deal.
Mr. Kung explained it was possible to have the contract signed by them in our name if we sent a letter of authorization to them on our letterhead. This would give them a ¨power of attorney¨ and the signatures would be legalized and certified through a notary public.
Notary public fees were to be paid 50%/50%. Our part came to a total of 1140 american dollars.
All the information we received from them since the beginning of the negotiation (first contact was August 29th, 2016) has all been good. I checked their Commercial ID, Business licence, address, CEO person and everything checks well. However the business licence states a date of comencement of activity as April 2014 and an expiration date for the licence as ¨long term¨. This is what caught my attention as there is no DATE, rather a ¨long term¨ agreement for the licence.
I started looking into how licences were issued in China, how long they were issued for and also looked up the notary public fee to see how much a notary charges in China for certifying contracts. This is where I realized it was all fake and the whole thing was just a scam. I realized that under Chinese law a notary public can not notarize or certify anything without the physical presence of both parties. That the ¨authorization on our letterhead¨ was not accepted as a power of attorney in China to represent us, nor was there any real interest in them sending 390 tourists for us to show them around.
I was quite relieved to read all this. I must have spent close to about 7 hours reading and researching about different case scenerios because I wanted to make sure that what I had been working on was an actual fraud. I wasted almost a month of my time working for them, getting tours organized, contacting translators, making sure the hotels were the best ones according to what they specified in the contract. Anyway, in the end I realized that this scam was EXACTLY the same for different audiences and the product changed according to what the seller sold.
I read that this exact same scam has happened to some movie producers in Spain and Italy, to Canadian wine companies, to interior designers and a long list of other professionals.
Characteristics of the scam:
* Target small offices / businesses
* Place big orders
* Signing of the contract must be face-to-face in China
* Will arrange differently for those not willing to travel to China like a power of attorney letter called an AUTHORIZATION LETTER to be sent by the supplier on their letterhead to China
* Bank account will NOT BE in the name of the company but rather a personal account
* Notary / Notarization fee is a must and has to be sent to China before you travel, if you choose to do so.
Given we didn´t travel to China, nor did we send the money for the notary because I realized all this on Thrusday of this past week, then I can´t tell you anything about having to by gifts or pay for expensive gifts once in China. However, this is what others have had to do in order to show their ¨respect¨ towards chinese CEOs once they are in China.
Information regarding the company that contacted us:
Henan Forest Commercial Trading Company Ltd,Limited in ZhengZhou.China
CEO Name: Li Junliang (李军亮）
ADD: No 8 Yi Feng XinDu Mall, Nong Ye Road,Zhengzhou,China
Email: [email protected]
Tel : +86-371-58526156
Bank account given to us to deposit the ¨notary fee¨
Bank of China, Xi´an Shaan Xi, China
Account name: Zhao Dongdong
Swift number: BKCH CN BJ620
Account number: 621785 3600011 788030
website: (with no info, always in ¨maintenance¨) www.forestchang.cn
Hope this helps someone out there. DON´T GO TO CHINA TO SIGN CONTRACTS NOR SEND MONEY FOR NOTARY FEES.
I wanted to let everyone know about what happened to us this past week.
We are based in Argentina, South America, and run a travel agency. We received an email from Mr. Leon Kung saying his company was interested in sending some of their employees to Argentina to visit the new country they would be dealing with on different levels and with different products through other contracts.
Steps we were to follow:
1. Reach an agreement regarding contract
2. Email back and forth email with contract details
3. Travel to China
4. Sign contract ¨face to face¨ in China
We were happy to have such interest in a group of 390 passengers visit Argentina and arrange the accommodations for everyone plus tours, domestic airfares and meals. However, we told Mr. Kung that we wouldn´t be traveling to China for signing the contract and if there was any other way of closing the deal.
Mr. Kung explained it was possible to have the contract signed by them in our name if we sent a letter of authorization to them on our letterhead. This would give them a ¨power of attorney¨ and the signatures would be legalized and certified through a notary public.
Notary public fees were to be paid 50%/50%. Our part came to a total of 1140 american dollars.
All the information we received from them since the beginning of the negotiation (first contact was August 29th, 2016) has all been good. I checked their Commercial ID, Business licence, address, CEO person and everything checks well. However the business licence states a date of comencement of activity as April 2014 and an expiration date for the licence as ¨long term¨. This is what caught my attention as there is no DATE, rather a ¨long term¨ agreement for the licence.
I started looking into how licences were issued in China, how long they were issued for and also looked up the notary public fee to see how much a notary charges in China for certifying contracts. This is where I realized it was all fake and the whole thing was just a scam. I realized that under Chinese law a notary public can not notarize or certify anything without the physical presence of both parties. That the ¨authorization on our letterhead¨ was not accepted as a power of attorney in China to represent us, nor was there any real interest in them sending 390 tourists for us to show them around.
I was quite relieved to read all this. I must have spent close to about 7 hours reading and researching about different case scenerios because I wanted to make sure that what I had been working on was an actual fraud. I wasted almost a month of my time working for them, getting tours organized, contacting translators, making sure the hotels were the best ones according to what they specified in the contract. Anyway, in the end I realized that this scam was EXACTLY the same for different audiences and the product changed according to what the seller sold.
I read that this exact same scam has happened to some movie producers in Spain and Italy, to Canadian wine companies, to interior designers and a long list of other professionals.
Characteristics of the scam:
* Target small offices / businesses
* Place big orders
* Signing of the contract must be face-to-face in China
* Will arrange differently for those not willing to travel to China like a power of attorney letter called an AUTHORIZATION LETTER to be sent by the supplier on their letterhead to China
* Bank account will NOT BE in the name of the company but rather a personal account
* Notary / Notarization fee is a must and has to be sent to China before you travel, if you choose to do so.
Given we didn´t travel to China, nor did we send the money for the notary because I realized all this on Thrusday of this past week, then I can´t tell you anything about having to by gifts or pay for expensive gifts once in China. However, this is what others have had to do in order to show their ¨respect¨ towards chinese CEOs once they are in China.
Information regarding the company that contacted us:
Henan Forest Commercial Trading Company Ltd,Limited in ZhengZhou.China
CEO Name: Li Junliang (李军亮）
ADD: No 8 Yi Feng XinDu Mall, Nong Ye Road,Zhengzhou,China
Email: [email protected]
Tel : +86-371-58526156
Bank account given to us to deposit the ¨notary fee¨
Bank of China, Xi´an Shaan Xi, China
Account name: Zhao Dongdong
Swift number: BKCH CN BJ620
Account number: 621785 3600011 788030
website: (with no info, always in ¨maintenance¨) www.forestchang.cn
Hope this helps someone out there. DON´T GO TO CHINA TO SIGN CONTRACTS NOR SEND MONEY FOR NOTARY FEES.
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