Direct answer

Late delivery is a contract case — a cloned website, a borrowed factory tour and a vanished USCC is a fraud file.

Treat as fraud when the counterparty never had capacity or intent: stolen chops, a shell that matches a famous factory’s photos, personal accounts for ‘company’ wires, or disappearance after the deposit. Civil recovery still needs a defendant and assets. Criminal complaint (fraud / contract fraud) is fact-specific and not a faster collection tool. Preserve evidence before you confront. Advance-payment recovery is the civil related pages. Do not pay a ‘police fixer’. Public-security handling varies by city.

The classification screen

4 questions before you choose the route.

This page identifies the right question and evidence. It does not determine the legal outcome on a reader’s facts.

01

Deceit facts vs mere delay?

Photos, USCC, personal account.

Label
02

Who can you still sue?

Shell vs LR vs account holder.

Defendant
03

Preserve chats and SWIFT now?

They vanish.

Evidence
04

Criminal overlay realistic?

Local PSB, not a slogan.

Criminal

Working rule: Map the regulated role before marketing or launch in China.

What changes the answer

The signal ledger.

These facts move the question beyond a label and into a product, money-flow and control analysis.

Signal
Ask the operating question
Why it changes the route
Every unpaid PO is fraud
Cash-flow default.
Wrong label.
Pay a recovery agent up front
Second sting.
No.
Confront on WeChat first
They delete the group.
Notarise first.
Prepare before you escalate

Bring a compact evidence docket—not a pitch deck.

Give a compliance team or counsel the operating facts that reveal the perimeter.

01Website vs licence vs factory visitIdentity.
02Personal vs company accountWhere money went.
03Notarised chatsDeceit representations.
Common confusions

Questions people ask before they build.

Short answers for orientation. The right result can change with the service model and current rules.

Will the police recover the money?

Sometimes, slowly, if they take the case. Civil preservation is still the usual lock.

Is a trading company automatically a scam?

No. Many lawful traders exist. Fraud is the deceit pattern, not the middleman form.

Primary authorities

Reviewed sources support orientation, not a fact-specific assessment.

PRC Civil Procedure Law (NPC)
Supreme People’s Court
PRC Company Law (NPC)
National laws database (NPC)