Many Vietnamese businesses fall into international fraud traps

Many Vietnamese export enterprises suffered great losses due to falling into international fraud traps.

Fraud from service fees to fake documents

This morning, November 30, the Trade Promotion Agency (Ministry of Industry and Trade) held a meeting with the system of Trade Counselors abroad. According to Mr. Hoang Minh Chien, Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Agency, there are still many enterprises that are not familiar with the customs and business habits of the importing country, do not fully understand the dispute resolution process, many enterprises are not familiar with the international dispute resolution method, and many Vietnamese enterprises have fallen into fraud traps or gotten into legal problems recently.

Specifically, Ms. Tran Thu Quynh - Vietnam Trade Counselor in Canada shared: On average, we receive reports of 10 fraud cases each month related to the request of local businesses for some fake certificates. The number of cases increasing in Canada stems from the rather massive immigration policy. Every year, from the Middle East, India, and Pakistan, about 500,000 people/year immigrate to Canada, especially in 2023, the number of immigrants increased to more than 1 million people. When the export situation is difficult, businesses are "thirsty" for orders and tend to be subjective when seeing orders from Canada, thereby creating loopholes in the approach and drafting of contracts.

According to Ms. Tran Thu Quynh, foreign immigrants access the profiles of Vietnamese enterprises on government websites, then proactively contact them. They forge bank and organization seals and then require Vietnamese enterprises wishing to sign contracts to follow self-imposed procedures, while introducing law firms to assist in speeding up these procedures and charging several thousand USD. Believing in such enthusiastic guidance, there have been many cases of Vietnamese enterprises being scammed out of fees in this form.

Ms. Duong Phuong Thao, Vietnam Trade Counselor in Italy, also informed: Recently, the Vietnam Trade Office in Italy has supported the settlement of many cases of businesses being scammed, in which the common case is that buyers in the host country collaborated with international fraud groups to falsify documents, including payment documents, then proceeded to appropriate all original documents to take the goods and sell the goods. "Recently, we encountered a case where an Italian company defrauded imported seafood products of 2 Vietnamese companies. The form of fraud was also applying the D/P payment method with false information, the buyer used fake documents to appropriate and sell the goods, so far we have not supported these 2 businesses to get back the lost goods", Ms. Duong Phuong Thao said.

Fake train schedule

Mr. Pham Thanh Hai, in charge of the Vietnamese trade office in South Africa, said: Every year we receive 6-7 cases of Vietnamese businesses being scammed in South Africa. This market often provides Vietnamese businesses with products such as green beans with shells, corn flour, corn kernels, chemicals used in the food processing industry, fresh fruit... each order averages from 20,000 - 60,000 USD (equivalent to 500 million - 2 billion VND). Small-scale Vietnamese businesses often find South African suppliers through websites and what attracts them is the very cheap supply price.

Because the value of the shipment is not large, the transaction is not guaranteed by an international bank. Vietnamese enterprises deposit 30% of the order value immediately upon signing the contract and pay 100% upon receiving a scanned copy of the documents via email. According to the verification of the transaction, most of the business partners in South Africa are real, registered and have bank accounts, so when sending information to Vietnamese enterprises, they have complete information.

However, the problem is that they do not have the goods but only use images to deceive, then they fake the certificate of origin of the goods, plant quarantine papers, they even provide a website for buyers in Vietnam to track the shipping journey, but it is also a fake website, can look up information but is not real. Therefore, the buyer is completely deceived and transfers the entire purchase amount to the partner in South Africa.

To avoid being scammed, commercial counselors recommend that businesses be extremely cautious and carefully research partner information through trade representatives. In addition, they need to be wary of procedural requirements that differ from international practices or contract templates that have many loopholes.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/nhieu-doanh-nghiep-viet-nam-sap-bay-lua-quoc-te-18523113016284968.htm