Scams in International Textile Business

Post date: Jul 08, 2019 6:23:18 AM

In the month of June , we had an attempted Scam , so we thought of sharing this information to all our business partners so they can be aware in their business as well.

We usually have set of Vietnam Suppliers for Various Spun Yarns . On beginning of June , we have booked couple of containers of spun Yarns with the TT payment terms with a factory based in Central Vietnam. We have received the contract copy from factory with bank details of a local Vietnamese bank from their official email id and all was ok.

After few days, we received an email from same email id with a revised contract copy stating that the bank has been changed to "Barclays Bank PLC " based in Leicestershire with beneficiery name as the "Shipper Name".

Very important points to be noted :

  1. Contract is exactly looked similar as per the previous contract we received from factory including contract number , date etc.,

  2. Item described also same with same price

  3. All emails looked extremely genuine.

But , we had a doubt that why a Vietnamese factory should have a account Leicestershire. We immediately contacted the factory by email as well as by Phone whether this is correct or not. We got a reply from factory by email , yes the bank account change is genuine and you can transfer the money. But by phone factory confirmed that this scam/spam and the revised contract has been sent by some scammer. They immediately requested their IT people to check their email security and we have also checked on our side. We both couldn't find any irregularities or breaches in the email security.

On further analysis , we found out they used a technique called “From” Spoofing and more details can be found in this website. ( Disclaimer : for Academedic knowledge only , we owe no responsiblity in the link you click. Thanks. )

Good thing is since we have contacted shipper directly by phone/whatsapp we avoided sending money to this bank account.

However it still remains a mystery :

    1. How a scammer able to receive the contract copy and all other relevant details.

    2. How a scammer can receive funds at a Leicestershire bank with beneficiery name same as a vietnamese company?

Sadly, even now, we have no answer to these questions.

So, friends , let this be a learning to all of us and please be aware of such scams and double check when we are sending payments to avoid. We publish this on goodwill and for awareness.

Thank you.

TEXCORP INTERNATIONAL, PT

INDONESIA