I am often asked: how do I tell if a company is real or not? This is not a simple answer. There are no national databases in China for company registration for authentication purposes. That is not saying that everything is done by hand. There are many local databases for cities or provinces that have this information.

The first thing that you need to do is to get a copy of the company’s business license and then go to the local municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce (AIC) office and inquire in person. They will give you a print out of everything they have on file about the company. It should include when it was set up, who set it up, and registered addresses and phone numbers of the company.

Once you get that information you should then go to the registered address on the AIC print out and make sure that it is really the company there and not just an empty hole in the wall that they are paying rent on for the purpose of having a business license.

From there you should do a telephone directory search of the company name and make sure that all the addresses are the same on all the documents.

This is not the end-all, be-all for confirmation. Now what you must do is actually go into the company and make sure that they are doing just what their website, catalogues, and business cards are saying they do.

Once you have done this and only after you have done all this will you know for sure that you are dealing with a legitimate company.

I know what you are thinking…I am going to come to China and go do this…yeah right. Well the truth is that you do not have to do it. Many reputable sourcing companies or legal firms can do this for you for a minimal charge. For just a few hundred dollars you can be a bit more certain that the company you are thinking of doing business with is just that: a company and not a scam.