I am a wholesale agent for clothing and electronics. What this means is I seek out reliable wholesale suppliers and then represent them and market for buyers then work as mediator betwen the 2 to earn my commisions. If you decide you want to venture into this business then there are some things to be aware of. This would have to apply for many online businesses.

Supplier:

1) There are many people out there who claim they can get you items for too good to be true prices and in many cases it is too good to be true. Then they want you to pay them with the most worst payment option out there which is western union and then you never hear from them again. I cannot stress enough the importance of researching a company before you buy from them. Ask them for references in your country. Do not ask for email address or to talk with these references via msn because this could be the potential scammer trying to fake you out. Always ask for a phone number from at least 2 people in your country or area that you can call and verify. Ask them for pictures of their stock and at least 5 tracking numbers from shipments that they have sent out no later then 1 month ago to proove they ship after someone pays them and follow the tracking numbers and if they have not delivered yet or is still not showing up in system then do not place order until it does. Also note the weight. If you continue to see about 2 pounds on shipments and you know what you order is going to weigh considerably more then ask for tracking numbers for shipments that weigh more. Many times scammers do ship...but when you open the package what you get is not what you ordered (i have received rocks, newspapers, envelopes with messages saying i just got scammed) and this is what your scammer could be trying to do. If they have a website then go to their website and check the stats and found out how long the website has been created and is it active (meaning it can be changed at any time) or locked( secured and cannot be changed unless the website host request it). I do most my checking at DNS Stuff: DNS tools, DNS hosting tests, WHOIS, traceroute, ping, and other network and domain name tools. and all you have to do is add the web address in the whois look up box then click lookup. Be careful of those photo websites like 163 or yahoo photos and do not base your research solely on these type of websites. It is best that a website be open at least 9 months for me to be comfortable. You can also go onto the wholesale forum called Wholesale411 and do a search on the company and if you cannot find anything on them then you can start a thread to inquire about them and in most cases someone will reply about them that has good or bad news to tell. If the supplier is in the USA then a quick chat over the phone is a good thing and also to ask for a business license or some kind of proove of existence such as a DBA. I rarely have problems with Businesses here in USA but it does happen. Once you have established trust then always start off with a small sample on orders. This way you can check quality of goods and also get an idea of how long it takes them to ship. If the person you are doing business with is not from your country or area then it is best you never go beyond what you can afford to lose. Even when business picks up. I find in many cases that once money exchanges hands on huge orders ,even from those I have used for years, that problems often develope and shipments can take many months to complete, if they complete at all. Find your threshold and stick with it no matter how busy things gets. It is always best to have a back up or 2 of suppliers in the case things do get hectic so you can split shipments among them to keep quota low on orders.

2) There are also what me and many associates of mine call "professional scammers" who also offer too good to be true prices but actually deliver and will deliver again and again but when you place that first huge order then you start developing complications. Partial orders that never complete, no shipments at all, delays that lead no where and the list goes on. Never get to excited and to trusty and send $50,000 for a order of say 350 Ipods or so unless you can cover it in the case they do not come through because that is alot of money to recover. If you insist on doing this then only do this with suppliers who allow you to visit warehouse and buy on the spot or offer escrow services, credit cards like american express or letter of credit. NEVER...i repeat NEVER send wire transfers or any unsecure form of payment for huge orders.

3) Suppliers that offer poor quality of goods. I hate to attack a particular country but if you decide to order from certain countries, including the USA, then be aware that what you recieve may not look a whole lot like the beautiful picture they send to you of their stock. For example clothes may come as very poor quality fakes with poor stitching and a size large fits like a size extra small or material looks and feels cheap and so on. This is why it is best to ALWAYS request samples and do not just order one. Anyone can go to local retail chain and buy one and ship it to you and say it is sample from their stock but rarely will they do it if you order a sample of say..5. Once again remember, if you cannot afford to lose on a sample order then buy what you can afford but never just 1 or 2. The supplier may say you have to pay a little more for sample then wholesale or they may offer it free but will need to ship through your shipping account and that is fine. If they do not offer samples then there is something very wrong with that picture and I recommend you to stay away. Most of the poorest quality fakes I ever recieved was from countries that offer only western union or wire transfers into personal accounts (always send wires to business accounts).

I am not saying all people who accept western union are scammers but there are plenty out there who do. Too many to take chances. Just have to learn to go off of more then your instinct and do your research.

Buyers:

I have learned to no longer waste any more time with people from the following areas. Not to say that all people from these areas are bad business but in ALL of my experiences it has been.

Nigeria
Benin
Togo
Ivory

These places are good for running you in circles and then either sending you fake checks/money orders or fraudulent credit cards and then want you to hurry and ship before the real owners of these accounts found out and not only are you out of product (cause scammer vanish) but you are held with the bag to pay these funds back to the bank when the check bounces, or if the bank trusted the funds would clear from a check and credit your account then the funds will be taken back if check prooved to be fake and hopefully you had not already taken the funds out to pay for this order and now you are thousands in the negative or the same happening with your merchant account. Often they will say they have a freind, or relative, or associate that will pay or owe them money and funds will come from them and blah blah blah but it is just a lie.

They are also good with saying they will pay with wire tranfer into your bank account and then request your bank details then say they need you to pay a fee to pay taxes, or to open a bank account in their area to transfer funds and you later find the fees you paid into was a fake bank but the double sword is that they now have your routing and account information..guess what they plan to do with that? You guessed it. make a fake check and one day after you long forgot this transaction you find thousands of dollars missing from your account which was un-authorized and nine times out of ten the person who took it fell for a scam from guess who and cannot pay you back.

The best thing to do is set up 2 bank accounts...one to give out to buyer so they can transfer funds to you (never order or write checks for this account)and then you immediatelty transfer it to the main bank account that you NEVER give out. This way if anything was to happen, all you have to deal with is a NSF fee that you can fight and more then likely win to get your account back on track. Don't be too friendly giving out your bank information though. Banks have been known to consider folks high risk and close accounts.


This is all I have for now. I hope this helps a few folks. Did I miss anything?