Please help to Check this company/person is a scammer?

[Lee_woh]

This company are from Benin and request us to buy fruits.

STE' PRINCE PROSPER & ASSOCIATES SARL is one of the leading import and distributors of Canned Sardine,Canned tomato paste ,Frozen Fish,Frozen chicken ,Foods and Beverages, Rice ,Wheat Flour, Fresh Garlic,Grapes ,Used Clothing , Used Shose and other consumerable goods in our sub-region. Our company has more than 20 years of experience in the import and distribution business. We dominate our local market and neighboring countries markets.

NB:-PLEASE REPLY WITH YOUR FULL COMPANY DETAILES VIA - E-Mail: sameer ( at ) net-shopping dot com

Best regards

Mr.Sameer IBRAHEEM

[Big Al]

net-shopping.com is a register.com com address and is only being used for the E-mail address.

sameer ( at ) net-shopping dot com
I find several ads online stating they buy Red Grapes, Bar Soap, Starch, & Toilet paper.

https://tinyurl.com/58mmuz2t

sameer@net-shopping.com
Gets a hit to one Anti-scam website but not ours:
Two ads, one to buy frozen fish and another to buy skin care products stating they're from Kenya.
One ad wanting to buy Wheat flour and using +229633328234 (Benin) phone number.
One more suggesting they do business with your company but doesn't refer to any particular product.

https://tinyurl.com/4kavpcz3

A search for the phone number gets one more result wanting to buy canned Sardines.

https://www.genuinetrade.com/buyer/cann ... 129/495554

Another point I would make is usually any legitimate business wouldn't normally format their E-mail address in the format of sameer ( at ) net-shopping dot com. It shows deception.
Bottom line? I would not trust them.

[Lee_woh]

Hi,
They want to buy pillar candles.
The reason they used that format is in the trading platform they're not permit to post a e-mail otherwise it will be hide.

[firefly]

The email address is a free one - like yahoo or gmail.

A lot of people active on trading platforms from certain geographic areas (Asia, Middle East, Africa) are using that type of email addresses while doing business online.

Most of them or their businesses don't have websites.

Checking their company name and contact details in Google for reviews or reports works only if someone else previously reported them for fraudulent activities if any.

Finding no bad reports online doesn't mean you are dealing with a real company.

Scammers impersonate real companies all the time and it becomes problematic to do business online when you don't know who is on the other side of your screen.

Most of the trading platforms active online don't do any type of checks to be sure that people offering to buy or sell something on their platforms, are really who they pretend to be. Some of the buyers / sellers advertising on them might not even exist or may impersonate a real company.

You need to do your own due diligence and check everything you can check before engaging in any business relationship with anyone online.

There are business directories you can check online or you can ask your local Chamber of Commerce to verify if a company is real or not. Even so, scammers impersonating real companies will use the real company registration details and addresses, and sometimes even the real company people names.

Trust your instincts and stay away from businesses you are not comfortable dealing with.

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is...

[Big Al]

The best way is to post as much information as possible concerning the suspected scammer.

E-mails, E-mail addresses, Photographs and documents, Phone Numbers, Website addresses, and if you were asked to send money to someone, that information is helpful too.