Beijing:
Alarmed by increasing incidents of Indian firms being cheated by their Chinese counterparts, the Indian embassy in Beijing has put out an advisory warning traders from entering into any financial dealings, without doing due diligence first.
"We want the Indian businessmen, specially the small traders from rural areas, should cross-check before depositing money to internet savvy Chinese exporters, who are disappearing after receiving the money," K Nagraj Naidu, Consular Trade and Business of the Indian Business told PTI.
He said complaints regarding 66 cases of cheating have been received by the Embassy this year. The amount involved under these cases of trade dispute was in excess of USD 78,43,000 in 2009, USD 54,01,914 in 2010 and USD 18,82,119 in 2011 (Jan-July 15).
As the bilateral trade between the two countries crossed USD 61.7 billion, several unauthorised Chinese businessmen are trying to take advantage of the liberal business climate advertising cheap imports on the internet to attract the Indian traders, specially targeting traders from rural areas, he said.
"We have been receiving numerous complaints from Indian merchants about some Chinese traders not responding after receiving hefty advances. When we check through the Chinese authorities many of the addresses are proving to be false," Naidu said.
To counter the menace, the embassy so far had put out two advisories on its website.
The embassy has requested the Indian banks, to spread the advisory, especially among the rural branches in India.
The advisories, displayed on the website of the Indian Embassy Beijing, highlighted several modus operandi adopted by the Chinese companies to dupe the Indian traders.