Warehouse of more than 47,000 smuggled products discovered, operated through foreign software

(Chinhphu.vn) - The inspection team determined that this was a transit point for a series of orders placed through many different TikTok accounts, with goods imported from the e-commerce site 1688.com (China).

Market Management Team No. 1, Quang Ninh Province Market Management Department conducts warehouse inspection

According to the Department of Domestic Market Management and Development ( Ministry of Industry and Trade ), on July 8, Market Management Team No. 1, Quang Ninh Province Market Management Department inspected a warehouse located in the premises of Dong Tam Trading Joint Stock Company, Mong Cai 3 Ward, Quang Ninh Province.

At the time of inspection, the authorities discovered a total of 47,127 violating products in the warehouse, including 16,166 smuggled cosmetic products with a total value of about 1.1 billion VND; 15,511 smuggled goods worth about 80 million VND and 15,450 products of unknown origin, worth about 65 million VND. The total value of the violating shipment is estimated at up to 1.245 billion VND.

Through inspection of the warehouse management system, the inspection team determined that this was a transit point for a series of orders placed through many different TikTok accounts, with goods imported from the e-commerce site 1688.com (China). The warehouse management software was programmed in Chinese, developed and managed by Chinese people, and was not integrated with the domestic management system.

The warehouse staff only had to print out the available bills of lading to send to the delivery unit. The software system recorded the transaction from February 15, 2025 with a total amount of about 12 million yuan. However, because the data was entirely in a foreign language and there was no mechanism to link with the domestic e-commerce system, it was not possible to retrieve the identities of the related TikTok accounts, as well as the total amount of goods sold or the profits earned.

This is a typical case showing that smuggling methods are increasingly sophisticated, hiding behind social networking platforms and cross-border software systems to avoid being traced. The method of operating "anonymous" warehouses, connecting multiple accounts and controlling remotely is posing a big challenge for authorities in inspecting and monitoring e-commerce activities.

Market Management Team No. 1 has temporarily detained all the goods to continue investigating and clarifying the violators. The incident also raises urgent requirements for controlling warehouse management technology, improving the capacity to monitor digital platforms, and coordinating between market management, cybersecurity, and customs in the context of increasingly complex cross-border e-commerce.

Anh Tho

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/phat-hien-kho-hang-hon-47000-san-pham-nhap-lau-van-hanh-qua-phan-mem-nuoc-ngoai-102250709104134292.htm