Before paying for third‑party store management, e‑commerce training, or “dropshipping” services, be sure to ask whether extra fees will be required and where the sales figures actually come from

No upfront cost is needed. Before paying, obtain three things: a written contract, the full legal name of the company, and clear terms for refunding your money. Pay only to the company named in the contract — never to a personal account. The hard part is resisting the urge to pay on the spot when the seller shows screenshots claiming “students earn over $10,000 a month.”

The Guangdong Provincial Higher People’s Court ruled on a case involving such a scam. Jiang and Xu, together with 55 others, set up multiple companies in Guangzhou, Nanning, and Hangzhou. The court found they “knew full well they lacked any real capability or technical know‑how for e‑commerce management.” Still, they lured 7,711 victims into buying or upgrading service packages, stealing more than 52.99 million yuan. The two main organizers were sentenced to 14 years and 13 years and 6 months respectively for fraud. The court described the scheme as “flawlessly engineered,” noting that “many victims fell for it repeatedly.” In 2025, the Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Bureau broke down a typical “dropshipping” cross‑border scam into four steps: first posting messages promising “no prior experience needed” and “no inventory required”; then contacting prospects as “operational advisors” and urging them to download a specific platform; next, once a store was created, generating a first order and demanding the seller pay the product cost, claiming the buyer’s payment was “frozen” until delivery; finally, after many extra payments, refusing any withdrawal on the grounds of “account irregularities” or “system maintenance.” One victim, Ms. Zhang, ended up paying over 900,000 yuan; three days later the site vanished. Another example involves an agency that staged fake group‑buying events to boost rankings; it was fined 100,000 yuan by regulators, lost 50,000 yuan in platform deposits, and the Supreme People’s Court listed this as a typical case in 2026, stating that “false transactions and order‑padding are strictly prohibited by law.” In 2025, the State Administration for Market Regulation fined another firm 530,000 yuan for selling software that automatically copied product listings from other sites — a practice the agency warned operators to avoid. According to the Civil Code, any contract signed under fraudulent circumstances can be annulled by a court or arbitration body within one year of discovery; once annulled, all money obtained unlawfully must be returned.

广东省高级人民法院 (2023). 广东法院打击治理电信网络诈骗犯罪典型案例（案例三：蒋某、徐某等 55 人犯罪集团诈骗案）. https://www.gdcourts.gov.cn/gsxx/quanweifabu/anlihuicui/content/post_1388464.html；江苏省公安厅 (2025). 防范提示：无货源跨境电商，当心有诈！. https://gat.jiangsu.gov.cn/art/2025/2/13/art_89956_11491354.html；最高人民法院 (2026). 最高人民法院发布依法规范平台经营、保护消费者合法权益典型案例（案例三：某代运营商诉某平台服务合同纠纷案）. https://www.court.gov.cn/zixun/xiangqing/507691.html；市场监管总局 (2025). 市场监管总局公布五起网络不正当竞争典型案例（案例一）. https://www.samr.gov.cn/xw/zj/art/2025/art_0d043840ec9445a689496bcf30c94820.html；全国人大 (2020). 民法典（第一百四十八、一百五十二、一百五十七条）. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202006/t20200602_463888.shtml

If you see claims such as “no prior experience needed,” “no inventory required,” “low investment, high returns,” or “guaranteed profits,” pause immediately. Likewise, stop any request to prepay product costs to a platform. Before paying, verify the company’s license and any prior penalties via the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. Make sure the contract explicitly defines the services offered and the refund terms. Keep all chat logs, contracts, and payment screenshots. If you have already paid, call 110 or 96110 right away to request a payment freeze (see Section 8, Item 2). If the agency performed some services but poorly, the matter is likely a contractual dispute; attempt negotiation, complaint, or litigation. Annulling a contract requires a lawsuit; the ordinary first‑instance process takes at least six months, you bear the legal fees, and the defendant may have disappeared by then. For any franchise‑type offers, first check the Ministry of Commerce’s registration database as described in Section 5. Ultimately, you are the one who stands to benefit. 〔52994000〕