A warning has been issued by the Chinese Embassy after a Bahrain-based business was defrauded out of more than $16,000.

Burgerland Restaurant owner Jameel Salman ordered 31 metric tonnes of charcoal from a company he found on business-to-business e-commerce website Made-in-China.com.

Despite having "gold member" status, the firm he contacted - calling itself Shijiazhuang Tengge Import and Export - failed to deliver the shipment after receiving payment, so Salman approached the Chinese Embassy for help.

"I wrote a stern letter to this company," Chinese Embassy economic and commercial office third secretary Liu Guipeng told the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

"We told them to continue communication with Burgerland Restaurant otherwise they would be blacklisted and taken to court."

Guipeng said this was an ongoing issue and he warned other businesses to be careful when ordering from online suppliers. "There is an inherent risk when using these business-to-business websites," he said.

"We want to tell people in Bahrain to be careful when using them and to know and research the business that they plan on doing business with before making a deal.

"In a case like this really the only thing that can be done is to go to China and file a case against the company."

Salman said that he had been doing business through such websites "for years without any issue until now".

"They have always been reliable and we were content with the service provided," he said.

"This business was even ranked as gold, which usually means it can be trusted.

"After what happened I am shocked that there is nothing that can be done from Bahrain and other businesses should be aware of this too."

Following the incident Burgerland Restaurant reported the fraud to Made-in-China.com, which subsequently removed Shijiazhuang Tengge Import and Export from its listings.-TradeArabia News Service