An agent who won't name the factory producing your order is the single clearest signal to walk away — and it's also the one buyers most often talk themselves out of noticing, because the quote looked good.
Signals worth taking seriously
An agent who declines to disclose which factory is producing the order, who discourages or refuses independent inspection, or who can't produce references from other importers is showing the same pattern from three different angles: nothing about the transaction can actually be verified. Add a quote that undercuts the rest of the market by an unexplained margin, and the pattern usually means something is being substituted somewhere in the chain — material, certification or the factory itself.
Payment and communication patterns matter too
A demand for 100% payment upfront, communication that happens exclusively through personal messaging apps rather than any verifiable business channel, and reluctance to put terms in a written agreement are all patterns that remove a buyer's recourse if something goes wrong — not because any single one is disqualifying on its own, but because together they describe a relationship built to be hard to hold accountable.
The test that cuts through all of it
Ask directly for the factory's business license, an independent inspection on the current order — not a past reference — and a written agreement with clear payment milestones. A legitimate agent answers all three without friction; one who hedges on any of them is telling a buyer, in effect, exactly what they're hiding.
None of these red flags require special expertise to spot — they require asking the direct question and paying attention when the answer is evasive instead of specific.