I did not receive my product shipment. How should I proceed?

Full Question We sent a Telegraphic Transfer (TT) payment to a factory in Qingdao, China but they did not ship my order, and they are not responding to me. How should I proceed? The first 2 shipments were fine, but they never shipped the third order and my TT was for $4,040. Should I try to hire an attorney in that city? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Answer Your situation sounds very similar to that of three other buyers I have heard from recently. In all cases, the supplier was doing fine, then suddenly disappeared without shipping the goods. In those cases, it turned out a hacker hijacked the factory's email account and tricked the buyers into making payments to a new bank account in People's Republic of China (PRC) or Hong Kong (HK).

I'll be happy to recommend a lawyer if the factory has done you wrong rather than the hacker. But first, I would suggest you reach out to the factory via a channel that is less likely to have been compromised like the original phone number, fax or FedEx. If it was a hacker, the factory may be as surprised as you about this order. Let me know how it works out.

For your reference, there are two simple ways to protect yourself as a buyer from these hackers.

ONE: Be very sure the name of the supplier is the same for the following:

1. On your contract
2. On the bank account where you send them the money
3. On the business license of the location of production.

TWO: More important, do an inspection (yourself or a third party) before final payment is made, even with regular suppliers. It only costs a few hundred bucks and very hard for a hacker to fake an inspection at the factory. I'd be happy to recommend the inspection agents I use if you like.

I have one of the guys who got ripped off giving me the details of his case in hopes we can inform others. In the scam he fell for, it turns out the hacker was a Brazilian in Beijing pretending to be the factory! The police got his identity from the bank, but he has left the country. The police said there are hundreds of scammers doing this; many are not Chinese! In the past, the scammers went after new buyers, now they are going after big buyers who have established relations with existing suppliers. Very clever.