What are the solutions to avoid fraud traps when exporting to Norway?

Fraudulent practices appear, promising to send workers to work seasonally in Korea. Continued warnings on international trade fraud in the agricultural sector.

More than 40 businesses were scammed when exporting to Norway

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy, Commercial Counselor in Sweden, concurrently in charge of the Northern European market, shared that recently there has been a situation of impersonating Norwegian companies to defraud foreign partners.

Giải pháp nào tránh bẫy lừa đảo khi xuất khẩu sang Na Uy?

The more international trade develops, the more businesses are exposed to risks (Illustration photo)

Fraudsters set up websites impersonating real export companies with fake contact information. Taking advantage of the mentality that Norway is a developed country with a strict legal system and reputable companies, some companies, when seeing contracts with attractive terms, rush to execute for fear of missing out on opportunities, and do not carefully check information about partners... Therefore, bad guys have scammed many companies from other countries, especially from developing countries, including Vietnam.

“Norwegian police said they have been notified of 40 cases of fraud in the past and believe the actual number is much higher. In most of these cases, the fraudsters are not in Norway, so the police cannot intervene,” said Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy.

In some cases, the scammers are more sophisticated when they set up a fake bank website, tricking Vietnamese businesses into sending original documents to the address they requested in Norway and having someone track the documents, intercept them to receive the original documents to receive the goods and not make payment.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy noted that some signs to watch out for that could be a scam are as follows: The partner wants to communicate via Whatsapp or Skype; the partner has a payment account at a bank outside Norway; Communication via email is not from businesses but via a public mailbox such as gmail; The VAT code on the website is not 9 characters (the tax code of Norwegian businesses has 9 characters); The company's website has a domain name that does not end with the extension .no; The company's website does not have a Norwegian version...

“These are just signs of possible fraud. When seeing these signs, businesses need to check and verify their partners more carefully,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy shared.

Which solution minimizes risk?

In the context of increasingly developing international trade, risks for export enterprises are increasing. Especially in the context of difficult exports, when receiving new orders, many enterprises have the mentality of having to make the most of them, sometimes ignoring potential risk factors.

Therefore, to minimize the risk of fraud, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy said that when conducting commercial cooperation with Norwegian companies, Vietnamese companies need to verify and evaluate the business, especially for businesses doing business for the first time. For large contracts, direct transactions are required, avoiding transactions only via the internet.

For payment, it is necessary to choose a safe payment method such as opening an irrevocable LC and requesting the bank to check the authenticity of the LC before delivering the documents.

Particularly for large contracts, businesses should hire lawyers to draft contracts tightly. Businesses also need to consider payment guarantees through banks, purchase cargo insurance or use logistics services to minimize risks.

In addition, to reduce the possibility of being scammed, Norwegian police recommend that when exchanging transactions, you should ask your partner to use video conference and save it. Real companies do not mind this issue, while scammers often refuse to contact you in person.

Recently, Vietnamese enterprises have faced many international frauds, the most recent of which was the export of 5 batches of agricultural products (pepper, star anise, spices, etc.) to Dubai - UAE. In 2022, the enterprise was also scammed when exporting 76 containers of cashews to Italy.

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