Most supplier fraud is not sophisticated. It fails a registry lookup, a bank-name match and a video call. Here are the seven checks, in the order that kills the most deals earliest, and what each one costs.
Two free checks kill most fraud: the national company registry lookup, and matching the bank account name to the registered company name. Never pay a personal account, a third-country account, or a name one word off the registered one. Banking details that change mid-negotiation mean compromised email until confirmed by voice on a number you already had. Ask for a live, unannounced video walkthrough and request a view they did not plan. Recorded footage cannot follow an unscripted request. Real producers are precise on measurement and cautious on price. Intermediaries posing as producers are the reverse. Pre-shipment inspection runs about USD 150-300 and is worth it on any first order above roughly USD 10,000. Commission it yourself so the report is not one the supplier controlled. Full advance by bank transfer leaves total exposure. Prefer a staged structure or payment released only on confirmed delivery. Run the registry and bank-name checks even on a platform that pre-verifies suppliers, including Afrikoni.
Free, five minutes, and it ends more conversations than everything else combined. Every major African jurisdiction has an online registry with at least a name-and-status lookup. Country Registry Public search Nigeria Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Free name and status search; certified extracts payable Ghana Office of the Registrar of Companies Online search; UBO disclosure required under Act 992 Kenya Business Registration Service (eCitizen) Account-based search South Africa CIPC Account-based; low per-search fee What you are matching is not just existence. It is the exact legal name, the registration number, the status (active, not dormant or struck off), and the incorporation date . A company incorporated three months ago quoting you a 40-foot container of cocoa is not necessarily fraud, but it is not the established exporter the pitch described either. Where beneficial ownership
This single check catches the most common fraud in African B2B trade, and it costs nothing. The pattern: the company is real, the goods may even be real, but the proforma invoice asks you to pay a personal account, an account in a different country, or a company name one word off the registered one. Any of the three is a stop. Personal account. No legitimate exporter needs your payment in a director's personal name. There is no tax, audit or FX reason for it. Third-country account. A Ghanaian exporter asking for payment to a UAE or Hong Kong account is asking you to give up every recovery route you had. Near-miss name. Look for the pattern where the beneficiary is one character or one word off. That is compromised-email fraud, and it usually means the supplier is a victim too. If banking details change mid-negotiation, treat it as compromised until you have confirmed it by voice on a num
Photographs prove nothing; they are traded, bought and reused across listings. A live, unscripted walkthrough is expensive to fake and cheap for you to ask for. Ask, on an unannounced call, to see: the production line running, the raw-material store, the finished-goods store with your product visible, and the loading bay. Then ask them to pan to something you did not name — a wall, a doorway, the yard. Recorded footage cannot follow a request it did not anticipate. The signal is not production quality. It is whether the space is theirs. Trading companies are legitimate — a broker who says they are a broker is fine to work with. A broker who claims to be the factory has already told you they will misrepresent other things.
A real exporter answers these in seconds, because they answer them weekly: What is the HS code for this product at six digits? (Correct classification for their own goods is baseline competence — see why the code matters on every document .) Moisture content, bean count, free fatty acid, grade — whatever the standard measure is for that commodity. What certification do you hold, issued by whom, expiring when? What is the lead time for this quantity, and what drives it? Which Incoterm is that price on? An intermediary posing as a producer will be vague on measurement and precise on price. Real producers are the other way round: precise on measurement, and cautious about price because they know their input costs move.
Ask for two buyers in your own market who have taken shipment in the last twelve months, and contact them independently — search for the company yourself rather than using the contact details you were handed. Ask a specific, verifiable question: what did the last shipment weigh, when did it arrive, and did the documents match. A fabricated reference gives warm generalities. A real one gives a date and a complaint, because every real shipment has one. Also ask for evidence of the export itself — a previous bill of lading with commercial details redacted, or a phytosanitary certificate. A first-time exporter is workable; a first-time exporter who claims to be experienced is not.
For a first order above roughly USD 10,000, yes. Pre-shipment inspection by SGS, Bureau Veritas, Intertek or Cotecna typically runs a few hundred dollars, and it does something the other checks cannot: it verifies the goods, not the counterparty. Check Cost Time What it proves Registry lookup Free to ~USD 10 5 min The legal entity exists and is active Bank name match Free 2 min Payment is going to the company you vetted Live video walkthrough Free 30 min The premises and stock are theirs Reference calls Free 1–2 h They have shipped before, and how it went Pre-shipment inspection ~USD 150–300 2–5 days Quantity and quality of the actual goods Full factory audit USD 1,000+ 1–3 weeks Capacity, QC systems, ownership Order the inspection yourself, from your own account, and have the report sent to you directly. An inspection the supplier commissioned and forwarded to you is a document they con
Every check above evaluates a counterparty. This one asks a different question: if I am wrong about all of it, what happens to my money? Structure Your exposure if the goods never ship 100% advance by bank transfer Total. Recovery means litigation in the supplier's jurisdiction. 30% deposit, 70% against documents The deposit. Standard practice, and usually acceptable on a repeat relationship. Letter of credit Low, but banks pay against documents, not goods — a compliant document set for the wrong goods still triggers payment. Payment held until delivery is confirmed Low. Funds only move on confirmed delivery, and are returned on a substantiated dispute. A supplier who refuses any structure other than full advance on a first order is telling you something. A supplier who accepts a staged structure has told you something too.
Suppliers listed on Afrikoni are personally onboarded before they appear — business validation, product review and a direct conversation — and the verification status is shown per supplier rather than as a site-wide claim. Formal KYB with sanctions screening and beneficial-ownership disclosure is the next phase as the platform scales; we say which one backs a badge rather than implying the stronger one. Orders placed through the platform are protected: the supplier is paid only after the buyer confirms delivery, and funds are returned on a substantiated dispute. Disputes resolve within 14 days, and high-value cases route to physical inspection plus independent SGS verification before any release. During private beta the trade team finalises each payment and shipment directly with the buyer while automated rails roll out — worth knowing before you plan around it. You can browse listed sup
Nigeria — Corporate Affairs Commission public search Ghana — Office of the Registrar of Companies Kenya — Business Registration Service (eCitizen) South Africa — CIPC SGS — pre-shipment inspection services Bureau Veritas — inspection and certification Intertek — inspection and testing US OFAC — sanctions list search EU Sanctions Map