China Biz.co.nz

[macca23]

I don't know if this is a scam or it just look like it could be. We have a small business in Australia and was approached by email from a company in New Zealand who said that they could find a buyer for our business overseas. The buyer would then be able to fast track immigration to Australia. We were not looking to sell but thought that this might be a good opportunity.

Buyer pays all the costs that China Biz (China Business Partners) have. We supplied documents (not too personal) and a brief about the area and our business. They said that they have a buyer from China interested and could we supply a contract both in English and Mandarin. They didn't suggest a translation company which is different from scams that we have been told about.

Fair Trading in Australia couldn't help us directly but said be careful about them wanting you to use their translator (costing us money) and then the deal falling through.

I can't find much info except what they protray of themselves (which may be correct or a good scam). I did find one story on one scam website with people both agreeing and disagreeing with no accountability.

What do the great collective know?
Macca

[Frazzle]

I assume that the email you received was spammed to lots of email addresses. Try Googling for phrases from it to see if it was. My own prejudice is that I won't ever deal with any low-life with so few ethics that they're happy to spam thousands of people.

Your Google search may also lead to other forums where the scam (if any) is exposed. If you can't find it on Google, consider posting it here (with any private details erased) so we can get a better idea. Also check it out using the DIY Scam Checker here...

It does sound suspicious to me that a Chinese company would go out of their way to get a biz.co.nz email address. FWIW, here is the WHOIS info for that domain... note that there is no real address given, and the phone number is a mobile. You have no practical way of identifying who "Keun Chang Yim" really is, and therefore no way of identifying who "China Business Partners" really is. But there could very well be legitimate reasons for that.

% New Zealand Domain Name Registry Limited
% Users confirm on submission their agreement to all published Terms
%
version: 4.00
query_datetime: 2010-08-04T18:16:18+12:00
domain_name: biz.co.nz
query_status: 200 Active
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domain_datebilleduntil: 2011-04-04T01:18:49+12:00
domain_datelastmodified: 2010-03-28T09:44:25+13:00
domain_delegaterequested: yes
%
registrar_name: DiscountDomains.co.nz
registrar_address1: P O Box 25-129
registrar_city: Christchurch
registrar_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
registrar_phone: +64 3 961 9554
registrar_fax: +64 3 961 9553
registrar_email: admin@discountdomains.co.nz
%
registrant_contact_name: Keun Chang Yim
registrant_contact_address1: N/A
registrant_contact_address2: N/A
registrant_contact_city: Auckland
registrant_contact_postalcode: 1310
registrant_contact_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
registrant_contact_phone: +64 21 2985418
registrant_contact_email: nor_tek@yahoo.com
%
admin_contact_name: ebusinessworks
admin_contact_address1: N/A
admin_contact_address2: N/A
admin_contact_city: Auckland
admin_contact_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
admin_contact_phone: +64 21 2985418
admin_contact_email: nor_tek@yahoo.com
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You don't particularly want to sell your company, so you can easily say "my way or the highway". No Chinese language contracts... they want it translated to Mandarin, they arrange that themselves. (This also avoids tricky situations where the Chinese contract says one thing, and the English version says another.) You pay nothing up front for anything. They do all the arrangements. They come up with a price and date/time of handover that is agreeable to you. They pay (in advance) for you to consult your own lawyer (not some web-based imaginary lawyer they propose to you). If it falls through, you've lost nothing. If it puts them off... well, you weren't that keen to sell anyway.

[BP6000]

Macca, I too have been contacted by Chinabiz.co.nz asking if we were interested in selling our business to a Chinese national looking to enter Australia under a Business Investor Visa. The initial contact was around four months ago and I was and still am very suspicious. Nevertheless I have negotiated a price and have sent them English and Mandarin contracts. To date they have not asked for any money and have made it very clear that their fees are paid by their client in China. I have been fortunate enough to have the contacts to produce these contracts at very little cost and my attitude has been that IF it is legitimate and it did not cost me a significant amount of money it was worth pursuing. They have had the contracts for only a very short time and I am yet to receive anything back.

How have you progressed?

[poirot]

The URL is chinabiz.co.nz, macca23 had inadvertently inserted a space. It's odd that there is no apparent entry page at http://chinabiz.co.nz There is however at http://chinabiz.co.nz/bizsales.html

http://chinabiz.co.nz/contactus.html

Shanghai P.R.C.
Level 29, Shanghai Kerry Centre,
1515 Nan Jing,
West Road Shanghai
Telephone: 8621 6103 7284
Facsimile: 8621 6103 7171
Email: china@chinabiz.co.nz

Auckland NZ
Level 27, PWC Tower
188 Quay Street
Auckland 1010 NZ
Telephone: (649) 363 2780
Facsimile: (649) 363 2781
Email: auckland@chinabiz.co.nz

That address contains a virtual office which can be nothing more than a mailbox and phone/fax forwarding service. If that is the case, for such important transactions as they propose, to purposely give the impression that they have a solid presence in NZ would be a serious lack of transparency in my opinion.

This comment confirms what Fair Trading in Australia warned macca23 about

China Business and Trading Co (Chinabiz.co.nz) are scammers. They tell you they have buyers in China for your business but you have to get the contract translated into Mandarin. The tanslator is a director of the co in Australia which according to them arent trading. Andy Gallay is the name used by the NZ contact. We found out after paying $3000 for the translation but before they could scam any more out of us. There are no buyers in China. Beware!!!!! Their contact no in NZ was (could have moved the business) 00116493632780

As Frazzle said, anyone who lacks integrity to the point of spamming should not be given any consideration no matter what the product or service, the chance of it being a scam is so high as to be probable.

domain_name: chinabiz.co.nz
query_status: 200 Active
domain_dateregistered: 2008-10-21T09:51:17+13:00
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domain_delegaterequested: yes
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registrar_name: Domainz Limited
registrar_address1: Private Bag 1810
registrar_city: Wellington
registrar_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
registrar_phone: +64 4 473 4567
registrar_fax: +64 4 473 4569
registrar_email: china@domainz.net.nz
%
registrant_contact_name: Hui Shu Yin
registrant_contact_address1: PO Box 90692
registrant_contact_address2: Victoria St West
registrant_contact_city: Auckland
registrant_contact_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
registrant_contact_phone: +64 2 10483220
registrant_contact_email: china@chinabiz.co.nz
%
admin_contact_name: Hui Shu
admin_contact_address1: PO Box 90692
admin_contact_address2: Victoria St West
admin_contact_city: Auckland
admin_contact_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
admin_contact_phone: +64 2 10483220
admin_contact_email: china@chinabiz.co.nz
%
technical_contact_name: Domainz Limited
technical_contact_address1: PO Box 1810
technical_contact_city: Wellington
technical_contact_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
technical_contact_phone: +64 4 4734569
technical_contact_email: china@domainz.net.nz
%
ns_name_01: ns32b.ssggrp-wc.com
ns_name_02: ns32a.ssggrp-wc.com

[BP6000]

Thanks for your comments Poirot. From your experience what is the catch of schemes such as these? Have you seen similar "sale of business" scams before?

Our initial contact was by phone, not email. I suppose this is also a common approach of scammers?

[poirot]

Charging exorbitant translation fees with no intention of ever buying a business would be a scam.

A message to all you small Business owners this CHINABIZ PARTNERS IS A SCAM they make money on the tranzlation documents they tell you that you will recieve 10% of the asking price and there is no risk to yourselfs.This is a load of crap they are running this business on mobile phones and posting no address. Dont go near these people.

Homer

We were also taken by this scam last year... I did manage to put together quite a portfolio of information on the principal persons involved in this scam, and believe I have physical land-line phone numbers and addresses in NZ for the principals ... as I didn't have any corroborating testimonies or eveidence from anyone else that has been similarly scammed, the NZ fraud squad / police were reluctant to follow up...

We were taken for about $4000 in translation costs...

Would be very happy to nab these guys and would be happy to pass on the information I have to anyone who believes they have an avenue to do so... or who is in NZ and might be able to get some more interest from the local law...

[Zenman]

Hi all,

That was my "guest" post above...

If anyone has any further info on China Biz you can PM me..

Thx

I too have been stung by these fraudsters. We are in WA. I checked thoroughly including phone calls to Immigration, Small Business Development Corporation, Department of Commerce and everything seemed ok. Got the agreement drawn up at a cost of $3,500 and Translation $2,000, which was to come out of the sale price. I even had a clause written into the Agreement to say if it didn't proceed, we would be reimbursed for the costs. I have copied the Email I got and my response below. I intend to speak to my Lawyers to ascertain if it is worth pursuing. I suggest you all send as many Emails as possible to as many people you know and warn them, they are bound to strike again. If you are interested in joining forces to recover monies, I am happy to coordinate. I wonder how many are out there??

From: Sent: Wednesday, 10 November 2010 9:18 AM
To: 'Michael Wright'
Cc: 'Prem :China Business Partners'
Subject: Payment


Michael,

A very good ‘copy and paste’ of one of your previous Emails. We discussed fully the arrangement with Prem and he made it very clear that we would not be left out of pocket if “Your” Clients did not proceed.

As to: We too have spent a substantial amount of money on the marketing of the business on your behalf and have no result either, and I would assume you will not be refunding us for that expense...... that’s just the way it goes in business!! No it doesn’t, that is why we had it written into the Agreement and got confirmation in the Emails from Prem. If you wanted to be compensated for your costs, you should have made that very clear right from the start. Prem categorically stated that all your costs would be covered by the Clients – not by us!



Please understand, you are not paying my fees, and you are not my client. I am paid to refer businesses to agents that will achieve a successful visa for wealthy Chinese wanting to migrate to Australia, these are the people I am answerable too.



Furthermore, to ensure that our credibility is not in question we do not take fees from vendors, saying that, this organization has never asked for or been paid a cent by you. I am afraid that is not the Case, you asked us to have the Documentation prepared for Your Clients with the cost to be met by your Clients if the sale did not eventuate and Prem directly requested the payment of the Translation of the Agreement. The payment may have gone to you directly, but you definitely courted the payments – they were as a direct result of your approach to us to offer our Business for sale to your Clients.



Remember, we were approached by you, not the other way around. We spent over $1,000 with our Accountant also, preparing the financials for you to present to “Your” Clients. Another cost we would not have had to pay if you had not approached us. If you put a Property on the Market and the Real Estate Agent does not sell it, it does not cost you a Cent. They also prepare any of the documentation, not the seller, at not cost to the Seller!! We arranged the preparation of the Documentation in good faith and had to pay for it to be translated to Mandarin – this is not a small amount of money – it is in excess of $5,500. Had we been fully informed that we would have to pay this amount from the start, we could have made an informed decision on whether we proceeded with it. We discussed this fully with Prem and he assured us we would not have to pay anything else, but the cost of our Accountant, which is ALL we agreed to. I have spoken to our Lawyers, and they have advised us to tell you to read the Agreement and the Emails carefully as it clearly states that Your Company will pay the costs if the sale does not proceed.

As per my previous Email, we require payment in Seven (7) days or we will commence Legal Action to recover it. You will then also be required to pay the cost of our Legal Action.



This issue has come about because of the stance taken by the Australian Government and it unwillingness to attract Chinese migrants…. The “Keep Australia White Policy” is still alive and well in Australia. When things change I will reopen the file if it’s still available.

This comment doesn’t even warrant a response – it is outrageous and very insulting. It would be interesting to turn the tables and see how it works the other way. Just as a matter of interest, is our Company the first one you have every tried to buy on behalf of Chinese business Migrants? If so, I would have expected you to have known the process inside out before you offered either your Clients or our Business the opportunity. If not, how well have previous Sales gone??

I offered to help if you had specific information as I have direct contacts with both Local, State and Federal Politicians and Government officials – I would think that if you were genuine you would be happy to take up the offer.









--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Michael Wright [mailto:chinabizpartners@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 3 November 2010 8:46 AM
To: Cc: 'Prem :China Business Partners'
Subject: RE: Payment



Dear


Thank you for your email.



We too have spent a substantial amount of money on the marketing of the business on your behalf and have no result either, and I would assume you will not be refunding us for that expense...... that’s just the way it goes in business!!



Please understand, you are not paying my fees, and you are not my client. I am paid to refer businesses to agents that will achieve a successful visa for wealthy Chinese wanting to migrate to Australia, these are the people I am answerable too.



Furthermore, to ensure that our credibility is not in question we do not take fees from vendors, saying that, this organization has never asked for or been paid a cent by you.



This issue has come about because of the stance taken by the Australian Government and it unwillingness to attract Chinese migrants…. The “Keep Australia White Policy” is still alive and well in Australia. When things change I will reopen the file if it’s still available.



Kind regards

Michael Wright





From: Sent: Monday, November 01, 2010 8:19 PM
To: 'Michael Wright'
Cc: 'Prem :China Business Partners'
Subject: Payment



Michael,

As the terms of the agreement with your Company have not been upheld, I request payment of outstanding monies to us within seven (7) days or we will commence legal action to recover these monies.

[Model65]

If you have been scammed by these people, report it to your local Police. If you paid by Credit Card, contact your Bank and have the transaction reversed. If enough people have been affected, their Fraud section will pursue it further, so it is worth doing.

[Bossman]

Just to let everyone know, I have just received a letter from Asia Business Partners claiming they have buyers for my business and will pay between £200k-£2m. After checking the whois db, I found they are linked with Chinabizpartners.nz. I'm very glad I found this post as I was very tempted to contact them.



Details:
Domain ID1501375-ASIA
Domain Name:ASIABIZPARTNERS.ASIA
Domain Create Date:25-Jun-2010 03:48:49 UTC
Domain Expiration Date:25-Jun-2011 03:48:49 UTC
Domain Last Updated Date:24-Aug-2010 20:50:04 UTC
Last Transferred Date:

Created by:Mesh Digital Limited R150-ASIA (1390)
Last Updated by Registrar:ASIA Registry R6-ASIA (9996)
Sponsoring Registrar:Mesh Digital Limited R150-ASIA (1390)

Domain Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Domain Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Domain Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:MESHDM-160704
Registrant Name:Michael Wright
Registrant Organization:Asiabiz Partners
Registrant Address:Level 29
Registrant Address2:1515 Nanjing Lu
Registrant Address3:
Registrant City:Shanghai
Registrant State/Province:China
Registrant Country/Economy:CN
Registrant Postal Code:200040
Registrant Phone:+86.2161037284
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+86.2161037171
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant E-mail:michael@chinabizpartners.cn

We received a personalised letter, not an email, from Asia Business Partners with an address in Hong Kong. The letter was from the ubiquitous Mr Michael White.

I responded by email because I was curious to find out what, if any scam there was. They claimed all fees were met by the buyers, so I couldn't work out how the scam might work. Since we are a plc and all financial information is publicly available, I didn't have to waste any time or money preparing accounts.

When asked how much I wanted for the company, I gave a pretty ridiculous figure, and surprise, surprise, after a month or so, a rich Taiwanese businessman offered the asking price subject to them being able to get a UK entrepreneur's visa. I told them to send a Heads of Agreement and got my daughter, who is a corporate lawyer with a major London law firm, to read it. There were absolutely no questions asked about the nature of our business prior to receiving the offer - not even a telephone call. The "Heads" was full of inconsistencies, and even the figures didn't add up properly. The last "legally binding" clause said each party was responsible for its own legal costs (including "translation") prior to any sale agreement. I guess this was the sting.

As they say, anything that looks too good to be true, probably is.

We have also recently been contacted by Asia Business Partners, after reading the thread above, we emailed our 'contact' in the company, below is a copy of the email we sent and his (very muddled) response.

If the scam is supposed to be in relation to translation costs, what would happen if we were to employ our own agents?

Send email
Find email Edit contactTo
From: (***@asianbusinesspartners.org)
Sent: November 2010 To:


Hi


You are 100% correct, the only cost that would be injured would be under your instruction such as lawyers, translation, legal’s etc, if you were to do these yourself then no cost would be brought forward, however if you do direct lawyers or translators under your instruction. Further more any cost you incur have no affiliation with Asian Business Partners



Regards
Asia Biz Partners



From:
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010
To: *****@asiabizpartners.asia
Subject: RE: LINK CCTV SYSTEMS LTD



******,

I would wish to receive from you an unqualified statement that we, as the potential seller, will not be involved in any expenditure of whatsoever nature throughout the process.



To include but not restricted to, translation, documentation, legals or any disbursements by you or any other party.

___________________________________________________________

Can anyone comment further, clearly we are very suspicious but if we were to employ our own agents, where is the scam, as Asia business partners would not be receiving any monies upfront from us for translation etc??

Thanks in anticipation for advice anyone can give!

[poirot]

www.ASIABIZPARTNERS.ASIA now redirects to asianbusinesspartners.org which was created only yesterday - asianbusinesspartners.org is a clone of asiabizpartners.asia

Domain Name: asianbusinesspartners.org
Expiration Date: 2011-11-23
Creation Date: 2010-11-23
Registrant Contact Information:
Name: <removed>
Organization: <removed>
Address 1: <removed>
City: <removed>
State: <removed>
Zip: <removed>
Country: TH
Phone: <removed>
Fax: <removed>
Email: <removed>

Asianbusinesspartners.org changed their registry details on November 24, 2010
http://whois.domaintools.com/asianbusinesspartners.org

Domain ID:D160747561-LROR
Domain Name:ASIANBUSINESSPARTNERS.ORG
Created On:23-Nov-2010 16:28:34 UTC
Last Updated On:24-Nov-2010 10:04:53 UTC
Expiration Date:23-Nov-2011 16:28:34 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:CR67671509
Registrant Name:Registration Private
Registrant Organization:Domains by Proxy, Inc.
Registrant Street1:DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant Street2:15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province:Arizona
Registrant Postal Code:85260
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.4806242599
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+1.4806242598
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:

http://asianbusinesspartners.org/contact.html

Hong Kong Office
Unit 901, Level 9
Hong Kong Club Building
3A Chater Road, Central
Hong Kong, China
Telephone: +852 3125 7522
Facsimile: +852 3125 7633

Bangkok Office
Level 29, Centralworld
999/9 Rama I Road, Khwaeng
Pathumwan, Khet Pathumwan
Bangkok 10330 Thailand
Telephone: +662 207 2478
Facsimile: +662 207 2626

asianbusinesspartners.org is loading script from asian-translator.com

Domain name: asian-translator.com
Administrative Contact:
OPEN Advertising Limited
Matt O'Sullivan (openadvertising@gmail.com)
+66.0890160077
Fax:
99/34 M5 Soi Khao Noi
Pattaya, Chonburi 20260
TH
Creation date: 02 Sep 2010
Expiration date: 02 Sep 2011

www.asian-translator.com

Welcome to Asian-Translator.com
Phone +66 820 839 945
Office Unity Building, Soi 10 Thepprasit Road, Jomtien, Thailand

Thanks for the reply, although i can understand what you're saying regarding the websites, what I can't understand still is that if we were to employ our own agents for translation etc and didn't use anyone they recommend, i.e. asiantranslator, where would the scam be?? my assumption is that they will use the excuse that the interested parties have 'gone away' as soon as we decline any offers of service for translation etc??

Hope this makes sense!

I received this scam by post yesterday, offering to buy my company for 200k to 2mill.

Not bad considering I am a sole trader with annual turnover less than 20k.

How much do you think I should ask for my business?

I spotted the word scam as soon as I saw the word Asia. Thought I would do some Googling and came across this thread.

Right, I'm off to Trading Standards and the police but dont expect either to be that interested in this. They never are.

We got scammed by this company. Followed through to getting the contract drawn up in mandarin. Cost us around $3000. The company then changed names but we dealt with an Andy Gallay who then changed his name. We searched and found out the interpreter was a director of the company. Asian of course. Very sophisticated scam. The company comes up as a registered coimpany. These scams are alllowed to flourish because their addresses are virtual offices. I reported them to NZ authorities but obviously they havent done anything to stop them

[GI Jane]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We got scammed by this company. Followed through to getting the contract drawn up in mandarin. Cost us around $3000. The company then changed names but we dealt with an Andy Gallay who then changed his name. We searched and found out the interpreter was a director of the company. Asian of course. Very sophisticated scam. The company comes up as a registered coimpany. These scams are alllowed to flourish because their addresses are virtual offices. I reported them to NZ authorities but obviously they havent done anything to stop them

I have worked for Asian Business Partners for over 2 years in Bangkok and I can catorgorically say that the people that work for this company are very honest and work very hard to get a result for our customers. Each agent operates independantly with there customers, who are primarily Asian wanting to Migrate to a Western country.

THERE IS NO SCAM HERE - APART FROM THOSE DISGRACEFUL PEOPLE THAT TRY TO EXTORT RIDICULOUS PRICES FOR THEIR BUSINESS BECAUSE THEY KNOW OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BUY FROM THEM.

We do not get involved in the selling of businesses, we never have, we simply gather the information together and pass it on to people that want to buy, thats it.... read our website.

Furthermore, if our customer wants to purchase a business and its a complicated document in English it is reasonable to ask the seller to supply his information about the business they are selling in our customers language so they can understand it.

We do not give legal advice or translate documents for sellers... read our website. The most we may do is refer the seller to an agency or law firm to assist them, sure some agents have favorites they refer, so what, they are nothing to do with Asian Business Partners.

For the record, my boss does not have, or ever had (as far as I know) an office in New Zealand or China or Australia. we have an office in Hong Kong and a office in Bangkok, thats it.

Racist comment removed by the moderator

[poirot]

There are two subjects that seems to get intertwined in this thread, unless I missed it I don't see any connection between Chinabiz.co.nz/China Biz/China Business Partners, and Asian Business Partners/asianbusinesspartners.org/ASIABIZPARTNERS.ASIA although they each have their own red flags.