A first export order from an unknown company is exciting, which is exactly what makes it dangerous. Fraud in international trade rarely looks like fraud — it looks like an unusually good order from an unusually agreeable buyer. Here are the checks that cost you an hour and can save a container.
Verify the company exists as claimed
Start with registration. Most countries have a searchable company registry; confirm the legal name, registration number and address the buyer gave you actually resolve to a real, active entity. A company that has traded for years leaves traces — a website with history, a physical address that matches, staff with findable professional profiles. A company that appeared last month with none of this is not necessarily fraudulent, but it changes what terms you should offer.
Check that the pieces belong together
Fraud usually fails on consistency rather than on any single document. Does the email domain match the company website, or is a company claiming to be an established importer writing from a free mail address? Does the bank account name match the buyer's legal name, and is the bank in the country where they claim to operate? Does the delivery address make commercial sense for their stated business? Each mismatch is a question worth asking out loud.
The third-party payment pattern
Treat any request to pay from — or ship to — an entity other than the contracting buyer as a stop-and-verify moment. There are legitimate reasons for it, and there are laundering and diversion reasons for it, and you cannot tell them apart without asking directly and getting a coherent, documented answer. A buyer who cannot explain why the payer differs from the buyer has told you enough.
Pressure is the most reliable signal
Almost every attempted fraud shares one feature: urgency that discourages verification. A large first order that must ship immediately. A reason the usual payment method will not work this once. Reluctance to do a video call. Pressure to release documents before payment clears, with reassurance that funds are already sent. Legitimate buyers under genuine time pressure will still answer questions and still accept a documentary payment term. Buyers who resist verification while pushing for speed are the pattern.
Beware the too-good order
An unusually large quantity at your asking price with no negotiation, from a buyer who has not asked the questions a real importer asks — certifications, packaging, lead time, import requirements in their market — is a warning, not a windfall. Serious importers negotiate and interrogate specifications, because they have to sell the goods on.
Verify the payment instrument, not just the message
Advance payment protects you only once funds have actually cleared to your account. A payment confirmation screenshot is not money, and neither is a swift copy. For letters of credit, verify the credit through your own bank rather than trusting a document sent by email. Bank-to-bank confirmation is the only confirmation. Also watch for interception: if banking details in an email thread suddenly change, confirm by phone on a number you already had. Compromised email accounts and altered invoices are among the most common losses in trade, and they exploit ordinary correspondence rather than any weakness in your product.
Match your terms to what you actually know
Verification does not have to end in yes or no. It should set terms. A buyer who checks out fully can have documentary terms; a buyer with gaps you could not close gets advance payment or a small trial order first. Sizing the first shipment so that a total loss would be survivable is not pessimism — it is how experienced exporters open new markets.
Write down what you verified
Keep a short record of the checks you performed and what you found, per buyer. It makes your own decisions reviewable, it is useful if you later seek credit insurance, and it stops the institutional memory of a risk assessment living only in the head of whoever handled the enquiry.
Where a platform reduces the work
Verification is repetitive, and repetition is what platforms are for. On Mall Of Türkiye, buyer accounts and RFQs carry a record — who they are, what they have requested, how they have engaged — so you begin due diligence with context instead of a cold email, and correspondence, quotations and documents stay in one auditable thread rather than scattered across inboxes.