We see it all the time: fake purses, watches, clothes and more, but what about counterfeit metals and industrial scams?
If you’re buying metal or metal parts from overseas suppliers, it is increasingly more important to be aware of what you’re buying and whom you are buying from!
We’ve been recently alerted to serious counterfeiting problems that could rob you of a 30% to 50% deposit on non-existent product or to a fake company. There are a few steps to this scam that enable the thieves to provide the appearance of a legitimate supplier and/or manufacturing business. They first set up a website claiming to be a supplier and a manufacturer of a specific industrial product. The scammers send out an email offering you their products and the email appears to be legitimate, especially after you check their website.
Now that you’ve determined that you want to move forward, you send an inquiry for your metal product and quickly obtain a very competitive quote from them, listing their terms. You cannot ignore the savings, so now you place an order. If there is a tooling charge, you pay 50% to 100% of this and a 30% to 50% deposit for the cost of goods. Standard payment terms for the balance are that all must be paid on receipt of the shipping Bill of Lading, when the goods are ready to ship. All this appears very legitimate making you feel comfortable dealing with this supplier.
Once you place an order, one of two things happens; they either disappear with your money, as soon as you pay or they take the next step or after a few weeks, send you pictures of packed product that was shipped to the ocean port. They also send you email copies of the Bill of Lading and insurance certificate. All of the documents are legitimate but what was shipped in your crates was not the material that you ordered. Not knowing that the goods are bogus, you make the balance of the payment! Everything is moving along well, so you wait 4 to 6 weeks for your order to arrive. Once it arrives, you pay all the import fees and trucking to your facility.
Now the SHOCK! When you open the shipment or ocean container, it’s packed with worthless heavy bricks or stones……!
NOW YOU HAVE LOST ALL YOUR MONEY AND MAKING A CLAIM FROM INSURANCE OR TRYING TO CONTACT THE SUPPLIER, IS AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK!
It is very easy to buy from offshore; however, there are a lot of pitfalls, scams, bad quality and bad service!
Let Deeco Metals, a USA company founded in 1986, eliminate all the risks of buying your low cost metal products offshore.
Deeco Metals guarantees delivery of good quality product or parts. We visit and approve all our offshore factories and have ongoing long established relationships with them. We continually check on the quality, keep to delivery schedules and also offer stocking programs like JIT and Kanban, from our warehouse.
Stay wary of these scams and save yourself a lot of money and trouble by calling Deeco Metals at 1-800-272-7784 or emailing us at sales@deecometals.com!