"I personally know at least 4 businessmen who've been scammed exactly this way."
Lol. What??? You know "four separate businessmen" who were delivered "stones and sand" in containers?!?! Four!!!?? From some evil foreign country. Not one. Not two. Not three. Bit four! Lol. Yeah, right! Sweet Mother of God. Are you like 14 years old or something? Do you know how foreign trade works? Ever heard of product inspections, export monitoring, supplier audits.
https://www.qima.com/quality-control-in-china - one company of about 40 which offer the same services.
And by the way, we moved pretty fast from OP is a scammer because he is a newbie to ok, maybe he won't scam you on the first few hundred thousand EUR, but if you send him a million bucks you are screwed. Eyeroll.
Since when is personally knowing 4 businessmen who've been scammed the same way something impossible? "Not one. Not two. Not three. But four!" Dude, only four. I did not say four hundred.
I think I found articles from the future related to you on the news, can you connect the dots too, mr FAIR TRADER?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8055549/Woman-receives-box-spending-185-000-buying-coronavirus-face-masks.html
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-fraud/coronavirus-fraud-uk-victims-lose-800000-pounds-in-scams-idUKKBN20T1J4
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/biggest-maker-of-face-masks-in-us-is-warning-of-an-outbreak-of-fraud-2020-03-18
And last but not least, I found an article about avoiding Chinese scams which include the supposedly impossible scenario of receiving a container filled with rocks! Check this science-fiction article out! It's almost as if what I said really does happen - oh, wait..
https://www.ecomcrew.com/how-to-avoid-being-scammed-in-china-the-five-types-of-scams/
Now before you start typing bullshit again, no, nobody has been fucking educated to avoid Chinese scams so there's no point in even trying to tell me how "these scams can be avoided". You know very well how to avoid and how to succeed with a scam.
By the way, thanks for quoting me - you just made me pay attention to something very interesting in the last link from ecomcrew!
Price = EUR 1.90 per piece FOB Shenzhen
Expedited air freight: approx. EUR 25 per kilo for shipping to Europe or USA
Yes, I accept BTC also.
~
I'm Irish. I live in Europe. You'll be given my web site, social media profiles, phone number, etc.
Yeah, you just exposed my real age: 14, dammit.. I thought I could hide it forever but apparently not! Now say "thank you" because I just spent 15 precious minutes of my life just writing this reply for you.
You can just give up now. You're a disgrace not only to all legit sellers but to all of us. This time I'm not saying "escrow or get out". Just GTFO.