A "factory" with single-digit headcount - what the records can and cannot say
What follows is a walk-through of a typical situation, anonymised - not a customer's words. In real files, public records rarely hand you a conclusion like "this company has a problem"; what they hand you is a few facts that do not corroborate each other, and that you have to go and ask about.
What we started with
The company name was clean, the website said "our own factory for twelve years", the quote came in roughly 20% under two other suppliers, and they were pushing hard to close. None of those three things is a problem on its own; together they are worth pausing over.
What the public records did show
The registration said the company was six years old and the business scope included manufacturing terms such as 生产 (production) and 制造 (fabrication), but the number of people on the social insurance roll had stayed in the single digits. The registered address was an office building, and more than twenty companies from unrelated industries were registered at the same address.
What the records cannot show
Public records cannot tell you where the production line is, which factories the company works with on a long-term basis, or whether the low price comes from scale or from something else. Those things can only be asked - and being able to ask, and getting an answer, is information in itself.
Turn it into a few specific questions
"Which city is the line in, and can you send a short video of the workshop?", "How many companies are registered at this address - do you rent one room or a whole floor?", "Why are there six people on the contribution roll, and are the line workers outsourced?" None of the three is offensive, and whichever one goes unanswered, or gets dodged, is where to keep pulling.
How we handle a file like this
We will not hand a client the conclusion "this one is a fraud" - public records cannot support that judgement. What we do is check every record that can be checked, mark the ones that cannot be checked as exactly that, and set out the questions that should be asked. The last step is the client's to take, but at least they know what to ask.