Li Gui Freight Forwarder Double Clearance Scam: Impersonating Kuehne+Nagel, Intercepting Goods and Raising Prices After Collecting Payment with Fake Waybills

Who Gets Targeted

The victims are primarily individual sellers with limited foreign trade experience, cross-border e-commerce beginners, and independent site small B-merchants. They have a superficial understanding of international freight forwarding terms such as "double clearance, tax-inclusive, and proxy payment for goods," fearing customs seizure while coveting low all-inclusive prices. Fraudsters exploit their eagerness to dispatch orders and their blind trust in major brands, using fake Kuehne+Nagel official websites and forged customs clearance tracking to build credibility. They then manufacture anxiety through "customs inspections and temporary margin increases," trapping sellers under the pressure of sunk costs to continuously pay until they are blocked and lose contact, realizing too late that they have been scammed.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Impersonate major freight forwarder official websites. Fraudsters register domain names highly similar to Kuehne+Nagel, directly duplicating the Kuehne+Nagel logo, customer service phone numbers, and business introductions on their web pages, and then mass-distribute "double clearance special line promotions" via cold outreach emails and WhatsApp groups. Their pitch is, "We are a Kuehne+Nagel authorized special line, with prices 30% lower than the market." After searching and landing on the fake official website, sellers mistakenly believe it is the official channel, and subsequent communications are completely taken over by the fraudsters.
• Step 2: Quote double clearance tax-inclusive prices far below the market. Fraudsters offer an "all-inclusive price" 20% to 40% lower than regular freight forwarders, requesting sellers to provide packing lists and invoices to project an efficient and professional image. The low-price lure makes sellers skip qualification verification, comparing only prices rather than qualifications. When sellers ask why it is so cheap, fraudsters claim, "We have internal customs clearance channels and large consolidation volumes to dilute costs," when in reality they have no carrier capacity at all.
• Step 3: Forge waybills and customs clearance tracking. Fraudsters do not actually handle cargo intake, or they use a single untraceable one-time tracking number, generating milestones such as "collected, declared, customs released" in a self-built fake backend, and then have "customer service" broadcast real-time updates in the group. The pitch is, "The goods have arrived in Hong Kong for transit, customs clearance is normal." After logging into the fake backend and seeing the complete tracking, sellers mistakenly believe the goods are genuinely in transit and lower their guard.
• Step 4: Charge additional fees under the guise of customs clearance. After sellers pay the basic freight and goods payment, fraudsters demand additional fees amounting to 20% to 50% of the cargo value under the pretext of "customs clearance inspection," "destination taxes not included in double clearance," or "need to pay a security deposit." The pitch is, "Without paying the deposit, the goods cannot be released, and the previous freight cannot be refunded," exploiting sunk cost fallacy to hijack sellers and force them to continue transferring funds to personal accounts or third-party accounts.
• Step 5: Intercept goods and run away or completely lose contact after collecting payment. After collecting the final balance, fraudsters either block WeChat and shut down the fake website, or forge "warehouse receipt slips" for goods sellers have already shipped to overseas warehouses, disappearing after defrauding the proxy goods payment. The pitch is, "The overseas warehouse has signed for receipt, simply transfer the proxy goods payment to the overseas account for same-day release." Once the seller transfers the funds, fraudsters cut off all contact. At this point, sellers can neither find their goods nor recover their payments.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 The freight forwarder website domain differs from the official domain by only one or two letters or suffixes, such as approximate domains impersonating Kuehne+Nagel, with pages lacking filing records or company registration information, leaving only a mobile phone number or WhatsApp customer service.
• 🚩 Quotations are significantly lower than market rates by more than 20%, promising "double clearance tax-inclusive, all-inclusive customs passage," yet refusing to issue formal customs declaration forms and corporate reconciliation statements.
• 🚩 Waybill numbers cannot be found in third-party systems like 17TRACK, DHL, or UPS, and can only be viewed in the so-called logistics tracking provided by the fraudsters' fake backend.
• 🚩 The receiving account does not match the contract entity, requesting transfers to personal bank accounts, Alipay, WeChat, or overseas third-party accounts, and refusing to issue corporate invoices.
• 🚩 Midway demands for extra money under the pretexts of "customs clearance inspection, security deposit, supplementary tax," with escalating amounts, failing to provide official customs documents and issuing only screenshots or verbal notices.
• 🚩 Refusal to verify office premises via video, refusal to provide true warehouse addresses and local business license numbers, sending only blurred photos of company licenses.

真实案例

• On April 14, 2026, CCTV's "Rule of Law Online" column exposed the "cross-border e-commerce all-inclusive" scam: scam companies built fake shopping malls and forged overseas orders for sellers, then fabricated logistics waybills requiring sellers to advance payments for goods. Many sellers paid after being lured by "passive income" sales pitches, while the actual orders and waybills were completely fake. The case was reposted and reported by Sina Tech, and police reminded sellers in the program not to advance payments for unfamiliar orders.
• According to a specialized article by Hangyi International Logistics, a gang "Li-Gui-style impersonated" the Kuehne+Nagel brand, registering approximate domains and misappropriating Kuehne+Nagel customer service information, using the fake official website as a fraud umbrella. Sellers mistakenly thought they were signing contracts with Kuehne+Nagel, but after payment, cargo tracking was interrupted, revealing that the payee had no relationship whatsoever with Kuehne+Nagel.
• According to media reports, a foreign trade company once encountered a high-imitation email scam: fraudsters cloned a freight forwarder's finance email, sending "collection account change" emails to scam massive freight charges into a third-party account. After the dispute entered court, judges cooperated with foreign mediator "foreign uncle" to coordinate and resolve it. This case shows that impersonating emails to defraud logistics funds has become a high-frequency risk in cross-border trade.

Official Stance

• On April 14, 2026, CCTV's "Rule of Law Online" column reported on the "cross-border e-commerce all-inclusive" fake order scam, reminding sellers to be vigilant against forged waybill and proxy payment schemes, and to verify any questionable orders with platforms and logistics providers first.
• On August 12, 2026, police reported through 21jingji on a courier station involved in fraud as a "transit station": police intercepted suspicious parcels and seized over 200,000 yuan in fraud-related assets, reminding logistics practitioners to immediately report high-priced couriers, vague addresses, abnormal recipients, and similar situations.
• On June 24, 2026, Taiwan Life Legal Network issued an avoidance warning for "customs parcel seizure SMS fake tax bills," reminding cross-border consumers and sellers that when encountering notifications of "customs parcel seizure, supplementary tax payment," they should verify through official logistics customer service first rather than directly clicking SMS links or transferring funds.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Step 1: Verify qualifications before discussing prices: Log into enterprise credit publicity official websites to check freight forwarder company registration information, call public phone numbers on brand official websites like Kuehne+Nagel to verify agency authorization, refuse to use customer service phone numbers from fake official websites as the sole contact method, and incidentally confirm their shareholder structure and whether they have customs dishonesty records.
• ✅ Step 2: Conduct small-scale trial orders through the full process: For initial cooperation, send only low-value samples, verify waybill numbers using 17TRACK or courier company official websites, and enlarge cargo volume only after confirming logistics tracking is genuine and verifiable, without being misled by low prices and "customs clearance tracking" in fake backends.
• ✅ Step 3: Insist on corporate account payments: Resolutely reject any personal accounts or collection accounts that do not match the contract header; for large transactions, choose corporate accounts, letters of credit, or payment methods with third-party guarantees as much as possible, and retain quotations, contracts, chat records, and transfer vouchers.
• ✅ Step 4: Appeal price increases upon receipt before paying: When encountering requests for "customs clearance inspection, supplementary security deposit, temporary taxes," first contact the China Customs 12360 hotline or destination country customs official channels to verify, and never transfer funds directly over phone calls or WeChat.
• ✅ Step 5: Stop payment and collect evidence immediately after being scammed: Report to the police at the earliest moment and provide collection accounts, fake website URLs, waybill numbers, and chat records, while applying to payment platforms to stop payments, and lodging complaints and reports with customs, market regulation departments, or logistics industry associations.