2. Verify Contact Details
Make sure that the contact details given to you by your trading partner such as: address, phone number, and email address are valid and really belongs to the same company. If by chance that a trader gives incompatible data, we recommend you t o look up the address in the local phone directory and get the local phone number. Call this number to confirm that the person you are in touch with actually works for the company. Verify all possible details so that you will have a consistent data about your trading partner. Be aware that some scam artists could alter their return email address heading to make it look like they work for a company that they don't. If a buyer or seller claims to be an AsiaKingWorld’s Assure Partner member, we suggest you visit their Assure Partner profile on AsiaKingWorld.com to verify this information.

3. Check the Partner's Background
Background checks from independent third-party sources include a search for legal registration and credit reports. In many countries the existence of a company and its legal status is a matter of public record. If your trading partner is not an Assure Partner, check with the company’s registry in the partner's country to ensure that the company exists with a valid registration. If you cannot have independent access to your partner's registration information, ask your partner to provide you with a Certificate of Good Standing issued by the company’s registry of his country or state/province. You can also gain further knowledge about your partner by ordering a credit history report from a local credit agency. Credit history reports contain information about the partner's business history in their relationships with banks and other trading partners.

4. Meet Your Trading Partner in Person if it is Possible.
If it is possible, meet your business partner in person and visit his company's amenities. While the internet offers you a wealth of information on your potential partner which enables you to make an initial assessment, there is no substitute for face-to-face contact. We can always help you in doing such services. Allow AsiaKingwolrd.com to arrange a face-to-face meeting with suppliers in our Assure Partner community, please contact our Buyer Service team. (put link on it if it is available)

5. Protect Yourself When Ordering or Providing Samples
As a buyer, order a sample product before confiding to a purchase order. This would surely bring you to the expectation of the product. So that if you will purchase the product you wouldn’t regret anything since you’ve already seen a sample one. On the other hand, as a seller, request payment for a sample and/or payment for shipping costs before you send out the sample, especially if your product has a high resale value.

6. Use Pre-Shipment Inspection Services
If you are a buyer, you can keep yourself against poor quality by ordering a pre-shipment inspection of the products. You can demand the inspection as a condition to payment.

7. For the Seller: Protect Yourself Against Payment Risk
If you are a seller and have not been doing business with your partner for very long, do not sell your products on open-account (in which case you are extending credit to your buyer). Instead ask your buyer to open a letter of credit.

8. For the Buyer: Protect Yourself against Payment Risk
If you are a buyer, there are some instances that a supplier may ask you for deposit (usually 30%) before he accepts the purchase order. Since this is already usual between long-standing trading partners, if you are doing business with the supplier for the first time, consider researching of the supplier’s background before you agree to the deposit. You could also ask for another form of payment if possible, like for instance a letter of credit. If the seller seems more focused on payment than any other issue, or indicates that cash payment must be made urgently, more caution should be given to the transaction. Be extra cautious when the seller asks you to send money to an account whose real owner cannot be traced; for example, you cannot trace the real name of the person behind an account with a wiring service such as Western Union.

9. Suspect Shipping or Contact Addresses
Pay close attention to shipping or contact addresses located in regions with high reported incidences of online fraud, such as Eastern Europe, Western Africa and Central America.

10. Beware of Fake E-mail Addresses
Don’t be surprise of having fraud transactions in an online trading matters. It is possible for anyone with some technical knowledge to send an email with a fake address. When you receive an email from someone you know or whose email address appears legitimate, but the message of the email looks suspicious, you can verify whether the email came from the person whom the sender claims to be by using a simple procedure to check the email address.