The boss is in jail? Another service provider goes bankrupt, and a group of sellers are implicated

Cross-border e-commerce sellers and service providers are interdependent. Sellers cannot avoid dealing with service providers. However, now sellers looking for service providers is like buying lottery tickets. Good or bad depends on luck. If you are unlucky and meet an unreliable service provider, you may end up losing money and your business will be affected.

Recently, a piece of news has been circulating wildly in the industry: "A group of service providers have collectively 'disappeared' recently. The service providers who used to contact sellers frequently now don't send messages or advertise." This matter is not groundless. Recently, a seller said that the service provider she cooperated with disappeared.

I paid the money, but the service provider I worked with could not be contacted.

Recently, a seller named Taozi said that after she paid 20,000 yuan in service fees to Jinan Haifeng E-commerce Co., Ltd., the other party suddenly disappeared and all the salesmen she contacted could not be contacted. One of them, named Xiaoxiong, used to have advertisements in his Moments, but now it is "only visible for three days" with no updates.

To her, this service provider was not a complete "stranger". They had been "WeChat friends" many years ago and had consulted each other several times during that period. However, she did not expect to fall into a trap during her first cooperation.

There are many people who fell into the same trap as "Taozi". They all said that they were badly cheated by "Jinan Haifeng" and now they cannot contact the other party and are very anxious.

Once the incident broke out, many sellers realized belatedly that the service provider was actually their "acquaintance."

Some said that they had cooperated with the service provider before, but the communication had always been smooth. More people were glad that they had escaped a disaster: "There is such a thing, I almost bought from him." Other sellers lamented that the circle was too small and the service provider was also their "WeChat friend."

People familiar with the company said that this service provider has certain qualifications in the cross-border circle. It was established in 2015 and was originally a cross-border e-commerce seller. Later, it gradually developed cross-border e-commerce service business.

"Jinan Haifeng" suddenly disappeared, and some people speculated that he might have run away with the money, but soon someone came out and said that the other party's boss was "in jail", and it was the Shenzhen police who went to arrest him. A seller who was also cheated out of 20,000 yuan in service fees also revealed that the service provider had been arrested.

After many contacts, "Taozi" also got the same answer from people close to "Jinan Haifeng".

Recently, this incident has caused quite a stir in the cross-border circle. Sellers' "distrust" and "guardia" towards service providers have increased, and they are indignant saying: "The service provider industry really needs to be rectified."

In response to this incident, some people suggested that the victimized sellers should unite and report to the police. The larger the amount, the longer they will be detained. Now some victimized sellers have "banded together", exchanged information, and also tried to find a solution.

The company has been listed as an "abnormal household" after failing to file tax returns for three months

In fact, there were early signs of the disappearance of "Jinan Haifeng".

Qichacha showed that the company was already an "abnormal household". It is reported that if a taxpayer has the obligation to file a tax return but fails to file a tax return for all taxes for three consecutive months, the tax collection and management system will automatically identify it as an abnormal household and stop using its invoice collection book and invoices.

From this we can understand that the operation of "Jinan Haifeng" had already shown abnormalities at least a few months ago.

Not only that, the company's legal person Zheng Xuguang has 6 affiliated companies (two of which have been cancelled), among which Jinan Xiongba E-Commerce Co., Ltd., which is 100% owned, was listed on the "abnormal operation" list by the Jinan Licheng District Market Supervision Administration in July 2022 for "failure to publicize the annual report within the prescribed time limit" less than a year after its establishment.

In order to avoid pitfalls, sellers tend to cooperate with companies that have been established for a long time and are large in scale when choosing service providers. These companies have strength, reputation, and experience, and cooperation is more secure, but there are always exceptions, and "Jinan Haifeng" is that exception.

Jinan Haifeng was established as early as 2015, which obviously "beats" many service providers in terms of establishment time. However, consistent with the above-mentioned insiders, it was not a service provider in the early days, but a seller. Its business scope included arts and crafts, clothing and accessories, hardware products, office supplies, daily necessities, etc. In 2019, its business scope changed to add intellectual property agency services, industrial and commercial registration agency services, as well as accounting, auditing and tax services.

In order to understand the truth of the matter, Yien.com tried to contact the company through various means, but found that the phone was turned off. As of press time, text messages and WeChat messages had not been responded to or approved.

Although the reason why the company's boss was "put in jail" is not yet clear, it can be found from the seller's few words that the service provider's business scope also involves account buying and selling, which makes it difficult not to associate it with the group of service providers that recently "disappeared".

Service providers are repeatedly tested on the edge of the law, and batches of them are "put into jail"

As early as last month, the media reported that a large number of service providers in the industry had lost contact. Service providers have always been the most active group in the industry. They can be found in communication groups, social media, forums and other places where sellers gather. Now many of them have disappeared.

According to sources, there are many reasons for their "disappearance", one of which is "account trading". According to incomplete statistics, in Shenzhen alone, the number of service providers that disappeared is as high as three digits.

Not long ago, Yien.com reported that a Shenzhen service provider who mainly engaged in the sale and purchase of Amazon store accounts was arrested by the police. It is reported that when the market is good, they can earn 600,000 to 700,000 yuan a month. The huge financial temptation is also the reason why the service provider cannot give up this high-risk business.

From the "Jinan Haifeng" incident, we can see that this time the attack is by no means limited to Shenzhen, so the total number will definitely be higher.

In the cross-border circle, the buying and selling of accounts is common. The simple buying and selling of accounts is legal as long as it does not involve personal identity information and both parties reach an agreement. However, if service providers resell accounts, it may involve "illegal reselling of citizens' personal identity information", which is expressly prohibited by law.

It is reported that gray market service providers usually purchase other people's identity information and business licenses at low prices, then register accounts /stores on the Amazon platform, and finally sell them to other sellers at high prices for profit.

Amazon also clearly stipulates that it is strictly prohibited to use other citizens' identities to register legal entities and open stores, and in 2020 it established a special department (ACCU) to crack down on such gray industry service providers.

When it was first released, it caused an earthquake among service providers. A large number of service providers disappeared, and a group of them were "locked up" at that time. Many sellers were implicated, and newly registered accounts triggered a second review and video verification, and all the accounts purchased from these service providers were also "dead".

Therefore, here, Yien.com would like to reiterate to sellers the importance of operating in compliance with regulations, because once these irregular/illegal operations of service providers are discovered, sellers will eventually suffer the consequences.

Moreover, this type of account also hides great risks, for example, account association, mid-term change or cancellation of business license, complaints or other operations by unscrupulous service providers, etc.

Selling accounts