Cross-Border Drop-Shipping Platform "Bonded Warehouse Direct Shipping" Scam: Forging Bonded Warehouse Qualifications to Defraud Sellers of Advance Payments and Absconding

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are mostly start-up or small and medium-sized sellers lacking overseas logistics experience, especially merchants who rapidly accumulated followers on short-video and live-streaming channels but lack their own warehousing. Eager to improve supply chain efficiency, they often believe the platform's "bonded warehouse direct shipping" can reduce tariffs and accelerate delivery. Consequently, they blindly prepay hundreds of thousands to over one million RMB in warehousing and logistics fees, driven psychologically by the temptation of high-volume orders and rapid overseas expansion while failing to verify the authenticity of qualifications.

骗局怎么运作

• The platform first promotes self-made "bonded warehouse direct shipping" qualification information across various seller communities, live-streaming rooms, and short-video promotion pages. This includes forged customs record numbers, business license screenshots, and image-processed interior warehouse photos, paired with professional terminology to explain bonded advantages and create a credible atmosphere, causing logistics-inexperienced sellers to trust them and form cooperative intentions.
• After the seller expresses interest, the platform assigns an "exclusive customer service representative" to communicate one-on-one under the guise of a lawyer or senior operations consultant. They emphasize that the platform only accepts advance payments for a one-time "security deposit" and "first batch warehousing fee," providing forged warehousing documents and inventory screenshots as proof, and use high-pressure tactics such as "if you do not pay immediately, funds will be frozen by customs" to force sellers to complete large transfers in a short time.
• Using private payment links provided by the platform, sellers wire advance payments into third-party accounts or affiliated company accounts controlled by the platform. The platform then intentionally delays actual warehousing progress under the excuse of "system upgrades" or "customs random inspections requiring supplementary materials," while continuously modifying order statuses in the backend to create a time window to mask the fact that funds have been transferred.
• Once funds are in place, internal personnel use the product categories and quantities provided by the seller to apply for high-interest factoring loans from banks or factoring companies, submitting forged inventory reports, warehousing contracts, and customs filing documents as guarantee materials. Upon approval, the platform first returns a small amount of "operating subsidies" to show sincerity, while the remaining balance is transferred to private accounts, achieving the purpose of cashing out high-interest loans.
• When sellers repeatedly request to check logistics or demand refunds for paid amounts, platform customer service continues to delay using reasons such as "technical failures make inquiries impossible" or "customs reviews are still ongoing." At a critical moment, they deregister all customer service accounts and take down website pages, causing victims to lose contact channels. Ultimately, the platform completely vanishes, and victims have no choice but to seek help from public security organs.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 The "bonded warehouse direct shipping" promised by the platform cannot have its record number queried in the official customs system, or the record number does not match official website information.
• 🚩 The platform demands that sellers prepay a lump sum of hundreds of thousands or more in warehousing/security deposit fees, rather than using installment payment or post-actual-warehousing payment models.
• 🚩 The warehousing orders and inventory screenshots provided are obviously edited with photo-editing software, and the text layout differs significantly from official customs documents.
• 🚩 The platform claims to cooperate with multiple banks and factoring companies but fails to issue formal cooperation agreements or contact information for the other party.
• 🚩 Customer service uses high-pressure tactics during communication, emphasizing that "missing the opportunity will result in locked funds" and restricting sellers from verifying channels independently.

真实案例

• A certain woman signed a contract for "bonded warehouse direct shipping" with a cross-border drop-shipping platform in Shanghai. After prepaying a 1.2 million RMB security deposit and a 600,000 RMB first-batch cargo warehousing fee, the platform closed her account under the pretext of a "system upgrade." Subsequent police investigations revealed that the platform had never obtained bonded warehouse qualifications, involving a total fraud amount of 1.8 million RMB.
• Person Yi joined a drop-shipping platform in Guangzhou via online advertising that claimed to possess "bonded direct shipping" qualifications. After prepaying 800,000 RMB in warehousing fees and 150,000 RMB in logistics deposits, the customs record number provided by the platform could not be found in the official system. Eventually, the platform disappeared, and the victim reported the case to the local public security bureau.
• Person A expanded their business through a live-stream-recommended cross-border drop-shipping platform, prepaying 1.5 million RMB in bonded warehouse fees and 600,000 RMB in tax consulting fees. The platform subsequently collaborated with a financial institution to process a high-interest factoring loan, transferring the loan proceeds into accounts under its control. Afterward, the platform account was banned, and the victim suffered a loss of 2.1 million RMB.
• In July 2025, the Ministry of Public Security announced a typical contract fraud case: The Public Security Bureau of Horqin Right Middle Banner, Xing'an League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, ascertained that a criminal syndicate registered multiple shell companies without actual operating capabilities. Posing as partners of large e-commerce platforms, they fabricated facts such as being able to provide warehousing services to merchants and having goods prioritized for procurement by large e-commerce platforms. After inducing merchants to sign contracts and pay security deposits, they absconded with the funds, involving over 4,000 victimized merchants and an involved amount of more than 70 million RMB. (Source: [https://hb.dzwww.com/p/pe9HMJkHAGc.html](https://hb.dzwww.com/p/pe9HMJkHAGc.html))
• In June 2024, Wuhan public security in Hubei cracked a cross-border e-commerce drop-shipping operation fraud case: Police targeted a fraud syndicate, dismantled 5 criminal dens and 13 shell companies, arrested 70 suspects, and preliminarily estimated the involved amount to be as high as 60 million RMB. (Source: [https://m.21jingji.com/article/20240624/herald/d754f32b387ef3a89db39332671193ba.html](https://m.21jingji.com/article/20240624/herald/d754f32b387ef3a89db39332671193ba.html))

Official Stance

• Issued the "Regulatory Guidelines for Cross-Border E-Commerce Bonded Warehouse Business," strictly prohibiting platforms without filings from externally promoting bonded warehouse direct-shipping services, and reminding sellers to verify the authenticity of customs record numbers.
• Called out several counterfeit bonded warehouse service platforms in the "Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform Integrity Business Tips" report, warning sellers to watch out for the trap of one-time high advance payments.
• Reported on a special operation targeting the "cross-border drop-shipping bonded warehouse scam," involving over 20 platforms, with a cumulative involved amount exceeding 300 million RMB. Cases have been officially registered for investigation and asset recovery according to the law.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Before signing contracts, be sure to query the bonded warehouse record number provided by the platform through the official website of the General Administration of Customs, and check whether the enterprise name and record status match the platform's information;
• ✅ Require the platform to provide formal, verifiable bonded warehouse lease contracts and customs release orders, and ensure contract terms clearly specify fee settlement methods to avoid one-time full payments;
• ✅ If the platform claims to cooperate with banks or factoring companies, contact the corresponding financial institutions directly to verify the cooperative relationship and loan terms, and never process transactions through platform intermediary channels;
• ✅ Conduct secondary confirmations on any payment links provided by the platform, preferably using corporate-to-corporate bank accounts or supervised accounts of third-party payment platforms, and retain complete payment vouchers;
• ✅ If you find that the other party cannot provide real qualifications or exhibits any of the above red flag signals, immediately suspend cooperation and report to local public security organs or market regulation departments.