Saf fires legal salvo over bogus website

Another ghost shipping line
with a strong SA connection
has been launched on the
internet, and legal action is
being taken in dealing with
suspected fraud.
Safmarine, the AP Moller
group subsidiary, is aiming
legal depth charges at a
Cameroon-based bogus
website called Safmarine
Shipping Line SA – to
currently be found under
the web address, www.
safmarineshippingline.com
“Reports have come in
from our Portuguese and
Cameroon colleagues of
a fraud involving a fake
company calling itself
Safmarine Shipping Lines
SA,” said a spokesman for
the genuine Safmarine. The
fake company has been
sending chain messages
out to importers regarding
shipments, and producing
bogus bills of lading, proforma
invoices, certificate of
origin notices, phyto-sanitary
certificates, etc.”
Antwerp-based Safmarine
PR and communications
executive, Victor Shieh, said
that the line’s corporate legal
department was handling the
matter with the appropriate
authorities.
This type of spurious web
page has been called the
“Nigerian letter on the web”,
– selling false promises for
money.
They usually accompany
these bogus bills of lading and
pro-forma invoices – which,
like the banking letter scams
which frequently appear in
people’s e-mail in-trays, are
intended to persuade the
unsuspecting corporates
that are targeted to part with
money for payment of these
phoney bills.
But, so far, Safmarine
has received no reports of
customers losing money,
according to London’s
Containerisation International.
In checking this report,
FTW called up a copy of
the website.
It’s not too likely to fool
those in the SA shipping
trade. They should be wise
to wrong pictures (vessels
belonging to other lines, and
a luxury passenger liner, for
example). They would also
be alerted by strange claims,
like: “We’re the global
leader in air freight, carrying
12% of the total worldwide
market, more than twice as
much as the second biggest
organisation. Our operations
are managed from over
150 countries, providing a
personalised service to and
from all key markets.” But
for shippers who are not
too maritime oriented, it’s
probably quite convincing.
It’s all very similar to the
ghost line sailing the SA seas
last year, a swindle which
FTW was able to reveal to the
affected parties, Grindrod, its
subsidiary Unicorn Shipping,
and its bulk shipping
subsidiary, Island View
Shipping (IVS).
This false line, trading
under the name South African
Line (SAL) was touting a
bulk operator’s function on its
website that no-one had ever
heard of, but which claimed
to be Southern Africa’s
largest bulk shipping operator,
shipping between 15 and
18 million tons per annum
globally.