The SA ghost line – South African Shipping (SAS) – has been sunk. Not literally. But Grindrod – whose subsidiary Island View Shipping (IVS) had most of its web-site lifted to form the SAS bulk shipping web-page, and Unicorn Shipping, whose whole website was copied to link up to a supposed bill of lading (BoL) used in the scam – has been dropping legal depth charges in the US. This followed the FTW investigation being fed information by Marius Louw of ID Verification Systems (another, but not the same, IVS) who revealed that an internet search he had done had identified the information service provider (IPS) for the false Unicorn Shipping web-page as being in Westchester in California, USA. “The registration service was provided by NameCheap.com,” he said, “with WhoisGuard the registrant, administrative and technical contact. “For the southafricanline. com web-page it was the same registrar of the domain – with the difference being that a company sechostweb.com seems to have loaded the website and in some way it is linked to the hosting or design of the website.” Meanwhile, according to Jeremy Miles, chartering and commercial manager for Island View, Grindrod’s US lawyer had been doing a similar search. But he had taken it a stage further – having legally addressed the issue of the offending websites with the US-based IPSs, and having had both sites deactivated. “We have succeeded in having the www.southafricanline.com and www.unicornshippingline. com taken down by the respective ISPs in the USA,” Miles told FTW. But we will need to keep monitoring to ensure they do not reappear in a different guise!” The whole scam is a form of the “Nigerian letter” – selling false promises for money. In it, the ghost line and supposedly associated companies purport to have 60 000-metric tonnes of scrap SA rail lines available for sale. When an interested foreign buyer bites the hook, the line then purportedly books the 2 656 containers onto another shipping line for transport to the buyer’s destination. In the two cases FTW has investigated, one such shipment was supposedly booked on an MISC ship for transport to Italy and the other by Unicorn Shipping to South Korea. In each, the lines do not sail the routes named in the bills of lading, and the voyage numbers and other details are entirely fictitious. But they both had different endings. The sad one of the two was the Italian company shipping in the goods. After investigation by a senior manager, who actually came to SA, the company was duped by its apparent findings and the false bill of lading – and forked out what is believed to be a multi-million rand sum in advance for the shipment. But the second had a happier ending. Direct contact from the suspicious Korean buyer to the genuine Unicorn Shipping in Durban allowed the Grindrod subsidiary to reveal the FTW investigation results – that it was all a scam! No monies were paid. But the purported bill of lading has also been sent to others, according to Miles. “We have had contact from another Korean and a Dutch businessman – both querying this BoL,” he said. “I believe they both have paid over money – but how much, and to whom, is unknown.” Unicorn Shipping very quickly e-mailed these parties, denying that they were in any way involved in such a shipment, and that the whole thing was a scam. Another set of fictitious companies and representatives has also been revealed to be involved after the telephone call from the Korean businessman. “He advised that he had dealt with the Mondial Trade Company at the address: Suite 363, 7th Laan, Pretoria, 2010. “We were told that the deal HAD been done with this company,” said Miles. “But we investigated, and the company name and address just don’t exist.” The Grindrod sleuths have also come up with another interesting angle to the scam – with another US company which, either innocently or otherwise, had got itself involved in the imaginary scrap metal deal. “It appears that a US-based importer/exporter had also put the rail lines up for sale on the internet,” said Miles. His innocence or guilt will probably be established by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Miles told us that the US lawyer has put this complaint, and that of the false web-pages, before the FBI for investigation. “This is possible,” he said, “because all these parties are US-based.” But whether all this legal hustle-and-bustle will eventually reveal the name(s) behind the scam is as yet unclear – but very much hoped for. Any of you FTW readers who feel you may have inside information on the identity of this fraudulent operator – or who may have more to offer on the fictitious scrap metal deal or the false bills of lading – are invited to contact investigative reporter, Alan Peat, at: peat@netactive. co.za
