The Short Answer
Ghost factories, swapped samples, split shipments, phantom certifications. The anatomy of every scam and the operational counter-measure.
Most sourcing failures are not bad luck — they are structural. A supplier who never owned a factory, samples produced by one factory and production by another, paid certifications that do not pass destination inspection, and 'quality' problems that emerge only after final payment. This essay walks through ten recurring scams we have intercepted for clients over the last decade, and the operational discipline — on-ground visits, staged payments, pre-shipment inspection with sampling plans, document chain-of-custody — that makes them structurally impossible.
By Fortune Editorial · Fortune Sourcings Editorial