How Importers Got Scammed By Qingdao Jiakang?

On August 11, 2024, we received a sudden WeChat message from a foreign client we hadn’t contacted in years: ‘You are one of the best people I have ever dealt with in China.’

Over the past period, I have suffered from a fraud and blackmail operation by a shipping company.

These are the original words of our former foreign customer, who stated that they recently encountered fraud and extortion from a freight forwarding company and had no recourse. I just wanted to check if the old friend could help.

Our former customer purchased aerosol valves for pharmaceutical sprays from China, packed in 32 pieces, with a total volume of 2.9 cubic meters and a gross weight of 330 kilograms.

The customer urgently needed those goods, and the price offered by their regular shipping forwarder was not attractive enough. So, the customer began searching for a freight forwarder with lower costs, and this is where the nightmare began.

By chance, the customer first discovered Qingdao Jiahang International Logistics Co., Ltd. (青岛嘉航国际物流有限公司) on Made-in-China.com, but later contacted Ann from another company, Qingdao Jiakang International Logistics (青岛佳康国际物流有限公司), without knowing how.

Later, Ann quoted the shipping cost for our customer’s 330 kilograms of goods. The price was so attractive that our customer gladly accepted it. Then, the agent picked up the goods from the factory in Shenzhen and transported them to their warehouse in Shenzhen for shipment to Saudi Arabia.

The freight cost was approximately $ 3.25 per kilogram, with other shipping charges calculated separately.

The foreign customer purchased the goods from the factory under the EXW term. The freight forwarder then went to the factory to pick up the goods, which consisted of 32 pieces weighing a total of 330 kilograms, and stored them in their warehouse in Shenzhen.

Since that was an air shipment, the freight forwarder insisted that our customer pay the freight cost before the planes took off.

Ann mentioned that she had encountered cases where other customers failed to pay her after she arranged for shipping by air. She stated that other foreign customers had taken advantage of her.

Then, the freight forwarder arranged the flight for July 27, 2024. On July 24, they picked up the goods from the factory. Our foreign customer wired $1,718 to the fraudulent agent on July 26, 2024, as the shipping cost for 330 kilograms of goods.

It is only now that the agent has begun to be out of control

Sure, the freight agent didn’t ship the goods to the foreign customer, claiming that the wire transfer was too late. They held the goods in their warehouse and charged the customer for storage.

If you needed them to arrange the next flight, they could, but their shipping cost increased from $3.25/kg to $7/kg.

When the customer asked the agent to ship their 330 kg goods to the warehouses of other agents, the fraudulent agent claimed that USD 1,700 was not enough for the pick-up expenses, let alone the storage fees.

They would hold the goods until the customer made another payment. The key was to determine how much to pay.

Then, the customer realized that they were dealing with scammers.

USD 1,700 was approximately 12,000 CNY, and the cost of a tow truck weighing 330 KG was at most 3,000 CNY; therefore, it would be unlikely to exceed 10,000 CNY. If the agent can deduct their proper costs and refund the rest to the customer, there should be no problem.

The key was that the fraudulent agent needed more money to release the goods.

The foreign customer was now stuck in a dead end. They wouldn’t get their goods if they didn’t pay again. Even if they paid again, the fraudulent company could still retain the goods and request additional money to cover their so-called expenses, and there was nothing you could do about it.

The fraudulent agent failed and disappointed the foreign customer, so the customer would think the scamming agent would give them something else even if they paid again.

They were unable to take any action, so they contacted us for possible assistance.

Then, we contacted the scammers on the phone, knowing they were only trying to get more money and had no intention of changing the goods for something else.

It was difficult for them to find another buyer for those goods, which were useless to the scammers.

You might think we should call the police on those scammers, but the fact is that local police didn’t handle those economic disputes. Instead, the police would ask the victim to file a lawsuit against the scammers, and it was even more challenging for a foreigner to press charges.

The goods were stuck in the scammer’s warehouse for 20 days, and the scammer claimed an additional $3,500 for storage fees.

The scammers knew that the foreign customer wouldn’t pay $3,500 because the total value of the goods was around $4,000. With that 3500 USD, the customer could place another order with the factory without worrying about being scammed again.

The foreign customer could not do anything; he could only negotiate with the scammers. The scammers were also waiting for his final negotiation. They made a deal that they would release the goods to new agents if the customer made another payment of 1250 USD.

Even when the customer was ready to pay 1250 USD, he began to doubt: What if the scammer still held the goods after this? Therefore, they requested that we conduct a background check on the scammers’ company to determine the nature of their activities.

As mentioned above, the scammers were seeking additional funds with no intention of fulfilling their obligations, and their company was newly established in 2022.

We could only solve it this way because the customer needed the goods urgently, given our long-standing friendship.

We should sign a contract with the scammers’ company, ensuring that they release the goods to new agents after we pay our customer USD 1,250. Once the new agent receives the goods, our customer could pay us the remaining 1250 USD later.

The worst scenario is that the scammers hold onto the goods after they receive payment, continue scamming, and request additional money.

Then, it is time to press charges against them. We are in China, and it is easier to sue a Chinese company for fraud.

It turned out to be as we expected after we paid 1250 USD to the scammers, and they released the goods to the new agent.

The release date is August 12th, 2024.

Almost two weeks passed, and we tried to contact the legal representative of Qingdao Jiakang Logistics, Hu Jinfeng, with cell phone number 15376908731, hoping that Ann was only a salesperson and the legal representative might not be aware of the scam.

The phone was either busy or unanswered, and we never received a call back from them.

We were trying to discuss the whole thing with them and see if they could return some of the money to cover the customer’s expenses. We will treat this as if it never happened and do not need to write down the whole story.

Maybe we overthought that scammers wouldn’t return any money.

We must shout out to more exporters to avoid working with them and expose the scammers to a broader audience.

The lesson we learned from it

The lesson of this story is that you shouldn’t be lured by low prices offered by new agents, suppliers, or anyone else. There is always something fishy behind them.

Scammers would often lure importers with extremely low prices to set a trap.

Once you bite, you will lose something, and international lawsuits are not easy to win.

Also, be kind to your regular suppliers and shipping agents; they are at least reliable and trustworthy.

If you don’t let them earn their margin, they will disappear from the markets.

It is a vicious circle, and no one wants to be in it.

When all those left are scammers, you can only get scammed, and there is no other way.

The End Word

How could this scamming company still exist in our beautiful Qingdao City, Shandong Province?

Shandong is famous for its hospitality, and the people of Shandong are well-known for being loyal and dependable; we wouldn’t want those bad apples to tarnish our hard-earned reputation.

We hope that more and more freight agents and chemical exporters will share this post, so that this company will scam fewer people.

2025.06.23 updated

Many victims in China of the Jiakang Company have filed lawsuits against the company, and they have gone to the scammers’ hometown to demand their money back.