By SupplierVerify Team | Published: March 5, 2026
You negotiated for weeks. You signed the PI. You wired the deposit. And then — silence. WeChat messages go unread. Emails bounce or get no reply. The phone rings to voicemail. Every importer's nightmare is a supplier who disappears after receiving payment. Before you panic, know this: not every silence is a scam, and even when it is, there are concrete steps you can take to recover your money or at minimum build a case. Here is a structured recovery plan, ranked from least to most aggressive.
Chinese factories have predictable quiet periods. If your supplier went silent during any of these windows, wait before escalating:
If your timing doesn't align with any of these, and you've had zero response for more than 5 business days after payment — proceed to Step 1.
Before you take any action, preserve every piece of evidence. Screenshot all WeChat conversations (including the supplier's WeChat ID and QR code). Save all emails with full headers visible. Download and save the proforma invoice, contract, and any product specification documents. Take a screenshot of the supplier's Alibaba or B2B platform listing. Save the bank transfer confirmation showing the recipient name, account number, and amount. If you communicated via WhatsApp, export the chat. The quality of your evidence determines the quality of your options later.
Don't rely on one platform. If WeChat is silent, try: email (both the sales rep's address and any general company email you can find), phone/Skype call to their listed number, Alibaba Trade Manager or platform messaging, LinkedIn message to the sales rep or company page, and contact through a different team member if you were introduced to anyone else at the company. Sometimes a sales rep leaves the company and nobody forwards their messages — a different contact point can resolve the issue instantly.
Draft a formal demand letter in both English and Chinese. The letter should include: date and amount of payment, the agreed delivery date or production timeline, a summary of your attempts to contact them, a clear deadline for response (7–10 calendar days), and a statement that you will escalate to legal action, platform dispute, and report to Chinese authorities if unresolved. Send this via email, WeChat, and — importantly — physical registered mail or courier to their registered business address in China. A physical letter signals that you have their real address and are building a paper trail.
If you found the supplier through Alibaba, Made-in-China, or Global Sources, file a formal dispute through the platform immediately. Alibaba's Trade Assurance, if you used it, has a defined dispute process with specific deadlines — do not wait. Even without Trade Assurance, platforms can suspend a supplier's account, which creates real pressure. Suppliers who rely on Alibaba for lead generation will often resurface quickly when their account is threatened. File the dispute with your documented evidence attached.
This step requires Chinese-language capability or a local representative. File a report with the local Public Security Bureau (PSB) in the supplier's jurisdiction — the economic crimes division handles commercial fraud. Simultaneously, file a complaint with the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), which oversees business licenses and can investigate fraudulent enterprises. Reports must be in Chinese with supporting evidence. If the amount exceeds ¥30,000 (roughly $4,200), the PSB can open a criminal fraud investigation.
For losses above $10,000, engaging a Chinese law firm becomes cost-justifiable. Chinese civil litigation moves faster than most Western systems — a straightforward contract dispute can reach judgment in 3–6 months. Your lawyer will need: signed contract or PI with both parties' chops or signatures, proof of payment, and all correspondence. If you win a judgment, enforcement is the next challenge — but a judgment against a company that still operates in China has collection value. For amounts below $10,000, the legal cost typically exceeds the recovery, making pre-payment verification your real protection.
Every recovery step above has a catch. Platform disputes work only if you used the platform's payment system. Chinese police reports require someone on the ground who speaks Chinese. Legal action costs money and time. The uncomfortable reality is that once money is wired to a fraudulent supplier, recovery rates are low — industry estimates suggest less than 30% of buyers recover more than half of their loss. The buyers who get whole are the ones who never wire money to a fraudulent supplier in the first place — because they verified the supplier before payment.
This is not victim-blaming. Sophisticated scammers are good at what they do. But the single most effective protection — costing less than the wire transfer fee — is a pre-payment verification that confirms the supplier's legal identity, checks for active litigation, and verifies that the bank account you're wiring to belongs to the company you think you're dealing with.
If you're reading this because a supplier just ghosted you, take note of what you might have missed. Patterns our investigation team sees repeatedly in ghosting cases:
Our Safety Shield report confirms the supplier's legal identity, flags active litigation, and verifies bank account ownership — all before your deposit leaves your account. For high-value orders, add a Reality View on-site inspection to confirm the factory is operational and capable.
Verify Before You Wire