First of all…lol
I honestly want to enjoin you not to rush through this piece as it will save your ass in the export business. This is because I have been longing to write about this exportation scam but I have no personal or close experience. It is an opportunity I have been waiting for and I thank God I got a grip of it today. This is a true life experience as I will be sharing some screen short with you; so, I enjoin you to pay close attention.
Just on faithful day; I received a call from an Earnbaser about a deal of exportation she got on Tradekey. She told me that the guy want to buy some foods stuff and she is willing to supply her. So, she sent her a message.
Here is a copy of her message:
Dear Sir,
I saw you post on Tradekey requesting for quotes for the supply of some listed items.
I represent my company XXXX XXXXX Limited based in Nigeria and we can supply you the items you need.
If you are interested please provide more details about quantity so we can send the quote.
Awaiting your response.
Thank you,
xxxxx
This was the guy response:
On Sat, May 7, 2016 at 5:42 PM, good agent <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Sir,We are ready to award your company to supply, Wheat Flour , Rice , Sugar.
which I will send you LOI/ICPO where you will have all the details of requirements,but before sending LOI to you, you have to promise me
and agrred to be replyling your mail to me direct and also my
commssion from you is 2%,if this, acceptable do let me know to send you LOI/ICPO for us to get a
start. as you know that am agent.Thanks
Amadou Hassan
Tel.+223 67710984
Skype. madou173
Immediately, she contacted me and I told her to agree with his terms and she did exactly that. So, she send him this message:
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your response.
I agree to your your terms.
Please send the necessary information.
Thanks
The guy’s message:
Dear Sir,
We wish to inform you that attached is a copy of our organisation
letter of intent for your view.
We will like to have your company invoice well stated with your
company’s letter headed paper just like our LOI to your company.As
soon as we have your invoice, it will be forwarded to the contract awarding and
bidding department for acceptance and Approvel before payment and shippment.
Thanks
Amadou Hassan
Skype. madou173
Tel.+223 67710984
Now, I told her to request for BCL because I was suspecting him. So, she did exactly that. This was her message to her:
Dear Sir,
Thank you again for your response and the attachment.
While we are preparing to send the quote as directed I will like to
request for BCL from you to enable us finalise the business.
Thanks and awaiting your response.
xxxxx
After the request for BCL; the guy responded with this mail:
On Mon, May 9, 2016 at 4:14 PM, good agent <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear xxxxx, ——PLEASE NOTE THIS MESSAGE!!!
For the Example,
If your supply contract has received total approval from
our committe and the Director genaral.
You should now proceed to visiting the headquarters of the
organisation in Bamako mali for the authroisation of fund transfer
into your account. You need to present yourself, and the lawyer will
assist you in endorsing the documents that will spell out your company
profiles and contract value to be authorised by the ministry and the
central bank within 2 days of your visit. The organisation can only
act with your mandatory order for the fund transfer .
Another option is that incase you can not meet up to Visit Mali then
you have to find any Mali Lawyer to represent you to
do the process legalizing the Invoice in the court of Law and then
transfer the Fund to your account.
Note that Lawyer chagers will be on your account.
Thanks
Amadou Hassan
Tel.+223 67710984
Skype. madou173
When she forwarded this mail to me. i told her to link me up with him and let me continue from there because I went to confirm the website and they responded to my mail. However, don’t ever fall for a SCAM like this as I will be showing you proof that it’s a pure SCAM. So, she send him this mail to link me up to him:
On 5/11/16, xxxxx <xxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Amadou Hassan,
I am so sorry for not getting in touch since.
I have been busy on another project.
We are very interested in this business and so henceforth because of my
current busy schedule you will be dealing with my colleague Samson who I
have explained everything to. He understands what is required and will
handle every details. You can trust him as well.
He will contact you shortly so deal with him accordingly as he will brief
me on all necessary information.
Please let me know if this is agreeable with you.
Thank you and look forward to a successful business dealing.
Fast forward… I sent him this mail after she linked us up:
Hello Sir,It’s brought to my noticed that you need some of our food products.Sir, could you kindly provide us with BCL?ThanksOluwabiyi Samson
He replied with the same mail (This is a sign that he is copying the mails from s template – that is how scammers do. They already help a template for their victims).
Dear Samson, ———– DO YOU REMEMBER SEEING THIS MESSAGE EARLIER?
For the Example,
If your supply contract has received total approval from
our committe and the Director genaral.
You should now proceed to visiting the headquarters of the
organisation in Bamako mali for the authroisation of fund transfer
into your account. You need to present yourself, and the lawyer will
assist you in endorsing the documents that will spell out your company
profiles and contract value to be authorised by the ministry and the
central bank within 2 days of your visit. The organisation can only
act with your mandatory order for the fund transfer .Another option is that incase you can not meet up to Visit Mali then
you have to find any Mali Lawyer to represent you to
do the process legalizing the Invoice in the court of Law and then
transfer the Fund to your account.
Note that Lawyer chagers will be on your account.Thanks
Amadou Hassan
Tel.+223 67710984
Skype. madou173
So, I told him if he can recommend any Mali lawyer because I don’t have one. He told me it will cost $6,500 only and I have to pay 70% before winning the deal and will balance the 30% later.
HOW DO I KNOW IT’S A SCAM
The first signal was the repeated mail and the second one was the lawyer involved with the outragious fee accliamed. See what a friends blog wrote about this type of scam:
If you placed your company details on a B2B board, it’s likely you will be contacted by a West African scammer passing off as a company, consultant, contractor, agent or organization.
Or perhaps you contacted one of the numerous adds placed by these scammers. They will offer you the chance to bid on a contract for a very large order of your product. Their ads claim the desire to purchase products such as mineral water and juices, cosmetics, T-shirts, soap, wine, farm machinery, chemicals just to name a few.
I’ve seen many postings from Benin Cameroon Nigeria and Togo on B2B trade sites such as Alibaba, Tradekey, Indiamart etc.., and they where nearly all scams. In Cameroon’s case 100% where scams regarding product offered.
The tendency has been for Benin scammers to do the Import fraud, and Cameroon scammers doing Export fraud offering various non-existent commodities.
The IMPORT fraud…
If you respond, they will refer you to a bogus aid or governmental organization with various bogus acronyms such as WAIDCO/ WADECO/ WAADA/ BAFDAC/ BEFDAC/ BFDA/ WARC/ NAFDACBJ / SAFDACC .., They also make up names like Contract Awarding Committee, contract committee board, CONTRACT AWARD BUREAU, NCAC – National Contract Awarding Council, Bidding Commission etc.., the list is endless. They may ask you for samples to be sent via courier. You will win the contract after a few correspondence. They often promise that you will be paid 100% prior to shipping in order to gain your confidence.
The thieves use fake web sites and documents including passports and I.D. cards as part of this fraud. Many also don’t have domains and websites and use free email addresses which are chosen to match their supposed company name. Please read: Identifying Obvious Scam Websites
Then comes the purpose of the scam.
You will be asked to pay various never-ending fees for a (fake) barrister to represent you in their country, product registration, import license, health certificate etc.., all accompanied by realistic looking documents. If you pay, a request for a new document will follow for an even higher fee. These can be a few thousand dollars to upwards of $30,000. As with all advance fee fraud, if you balk at paying, they may lower the fee by offering to pay part of it themselves.
Payment may be requested via Western Union or Money Gram, but also through bank transfers. Such payments are extremely risky since once you send the money you cannot get it back even if you are scammed. Please read: www.never-wire-money-to-strangers.tk
They will sometime send a forged check with instructions that the product must be shipped urgently. By the time the bogus check bounces, they have received the merchandise. Please read: www.fakechecks.org
Sometimes they will ask that you send expensive gifts such as laptops, mobile phones etc.., supposedly to be given to directors of the bidding committee or others, as an incentive to win the contract. Such demands are common with West African scammers.
source: http://westafricaimportexportscam.blogspot.com.ng/
TYPE OF SCAMS TO LOOK OUT FOR
Bank Transfer (Scam Mail)
Scam mail originated in Nigeria but now emanates from many other African countries. Often, victims of this scam receive an introduction letter via email .In this letter they are usually told a story about a wealthy person (for example a rich businessman or government official) who has died. The letter asks the receiver to provide a bank account where the deceased’s money can be deposited safely, and promises to give 20%-30% of the total money as compensation. To see an example of this scam mail, please click here.
Credit card
Be very careful if a business partner you meet through the internet informs you that they can only send you payment by check or credit card…If you accept these payment methods you are running a risk that the checks have been forged, or the credit card numbers stolen, and ultimately you may have to bear the loss. There are many credit card number generating programs available online which also generate fake addresses and pins numbers which conform to the banks algorithms.
Pro forma Invoice (to get your personal information)
Some fraudsters may ask for a pro forma invoice when they do business with you, and then after you provide this, they may attempt to withdraw your funds, and purchase samples using your good name and business reputation. Your stolen identity may even be used to help con the fraudster’s next victim!
Free sample fraud
We often find cases where a fake importer writes to many hundreds of companies asking for free samples to be sent to them with the fake promise of big sales once they have inspected the goods, in reality these are usually aimed at easy to resale electronic items such as mobile phones, laptops and personal audio electronic produces which they then resell at their local market. While we encourage discount samples to be sent to potential buyers, the buyer should be requested to pay for shipping and most of the cost of the item.
I hope this helps someone. Please, drop your experience, comments, suggestions or stories fro others to learn.