Before paying someone to run your online shop, taking a shop-opening course, or doing "no-inventory" selling, ask whether more money will be demanded later and where the sales will come from

Cost

Free. Before paying, get three things: a written contract, the other company's full name and the conditions for a refund. Pay only the company named in the contract, and don't transfer money to a personal account. The hard part is holding back from paying on the spot when they show screenshots of "students earning over 10,000 CNY a month."

What you get

The Guangdong Higher People's Court (广东省高级人民法院) ruled on a shop-management scam. Jiang (蒋某), Xu (徐某) and others, 55 people in all, set up several companies in Guangzhou, Nanning and Hangzhou. The court found that they "knew full well they had neither the ability nor the technical conditions to run e-commerce shops for others." Even so, under the name of running Taobao shops they lured 7,711 victims into buying and upgrading "service packages." They took in more than 52,994,000 (5299.4万) CNY in all. The two ringleaders were convicted of fraud and sentenced to 14 years and 13 years 6 months. The court said the scam was designed "seamlessly," and that "many victims were cheated again and again." In 2025 the Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department broke the "no-inventory" cross-border e-commerce scam into four steps. Step one: post messages on social platforms such as "no experience needed" and "no stock to hold." Step two: add you as an "operations coach" and have you download a designated platform. Step three: after you open a shop you soon get a first order. The other side has you pay the cost price of the goods first, saying the buyer's payment is frozen on the platform and will be released after delivery. Then the back end produces a large number of orders to keep you adding money. Step four: when you want to withdraw, they say "account abnormal" or "system maintenance" and ask you to pay an unfreezing fee or handling charge. In the case, a Ms. Zhang advanced more than 900,000 (90余万) CNY bit by bit, and 3 days later the website could not be opened. On the fake-order side: a shop-management company organized fake group purchases for merchants to boost rankings. The market regulation authority fined it 100,000 (10万) CNY, the platform withheld its 50,000 (5万) CNY deposit, and the court upheld the platform's withholding. In 2026 the Supreme People's Court listed it as a typical case, saying in its own words that "fake transactions and fake-order reputation boosting are acts clearly forbidden by law." The State Administration for Market Regulation also announced a case in 2025. A company sold "one-click move" and "one-click dropshipping" software that scraped product listings from other platforms and put them up for sale, and was fined 530,000 (53万) CNY. The administration reminded businesses that they "must not carry out illegal acts such as 'copying another store’s listings wholesale (搬家盗店)' or 'no-inventory operation.'" The way out is in the Civil Code: a contract you were tricked into signing by fraud can be revoked by asking a court or an arbitration body. You must ask within 1 year of the day you learn you were cheated. After revocation, the money the other side got from it must be returned (nationwide)

Notes

Stop whenever you see "no experience needed," "no stock to hold," "low investment, high return" or "guaranteed profit." Also stop when you are asked to advance goods money into a platform they designate. Before paying, check the other side's license and penalty record on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (国家企业信用信息公示系统). Write the services and the refund terms for falling short into the contract. Keep chat records, the contract and transfer screenshots. If you have already sent money, call 110 (China's police number) or 96110 (China's anti-fraud hotline) right away to ask for the payment to be stopped; see §8.2 (stopping payment after a scam). If the other side really did the work and the result was just poor, it is mostly a contract dispute, to be handled by negotiation, complaint or a lawsuit. Revoking a contract means a lawsuit; the ordinary first-instance procedure must by rule be concluded within 6 months, though it can be extended, you pay the lawyer yourself, and even after a judgment the other side may long since have run off. For anyone taking money in the name of a franchise, first check the filing as in §12.5 (before joining a franchise, check the Ministry of Commerce filing). The main beneficiary is yourself.

Evidence grade

B : Supported by research but without a precise number, or based on small or single studies.

Sources

1. Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court (2023). Typical Cases of Guangdong Courts Cracking Down on and Governing Telecom and Online Fraud Crimes [in Chinese] (Case 3: fraud case of a criminal group of 55 people, including defendants surnamed Jiang and Xu). https://www.gdcourts.gov.cn/gsxx/quanweifabu/anlihuicui/content/post_1388464.html
2. Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department (2025). Prevention Tip: Beware of Scams in Cross-Border E-Commerce Without Inventory! [in Chinese]. https://gat.jiangsu.gov.cn/art/2025/2/13/art_89956_11491354.html
3. Supreme People's Court (2026). The Supreme People's Court Releases Typical Cases on Regulating Platform Operations in Accordance with the Law and Protecting Consumers' Legitimate Rights and Interests [in Chinese] (Case 3: a service contract dispute between an outsourced store operator and a platform, names withheld). https://www.court.gov.cn/zixun/xiangqing/507691.html
4. State Administration for Market Regulation (2025). SAMR Announces Five Typical Cases of Online Unfair Competition [in Chinese] (Case 1). https://www.samr.gov.cn/xw/zj/art/2025/art_0d043840ec9445a689496bcf30c94820.html
5. National People's Congress (2020). Civil Code [in Chinese] (Articles 148, 152 and 157). https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202006/t20200602_463888.shtml

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 12, tip 24. This section describes legal rules, mostly mainland China’s. It is general information, not legal advice; for your own case, talk to a lawyer. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer