A warning has gone out to shippers and freight companies to exercise extra vigilance against fraud, which is an ongoing global problem. Three recent reports indicate the extent of the scourge. The Namibian Port Authority (Namport) says its offices are inundated with calls from victims of bogus transporters who are still continuing to call customers claiming to have released containers from Namport on their behalf. According to spokesperson Cliff Shikaumbi, the “scammers” are requesting down payments of between N$3 500.00 to N$8 000.00 for this supposedly rendered service. “They have now employed a different strategy targeting towns like Lüderitz, Keetmanshoop, Otjiwarongo and Tsumeb,” he told FTW. In South Africa fraudsters are using sophisticated scams to redirect and hijack cargo, according to Ans Basson of Gemini Logistics in Zeerust. “There are two persons calling themselves Richard Mali and Elvis Mali who phone transport companies or transport brokers representing themselves as employees of certain companies. It could be the same person though, using two names,” she says. Mali contracted Gemini Freight to carry a cargo of groundnuts from Durban to Randfontein on behalf of “Blue Sands” in Gauteng. The scammers provided “a set of documents in the name of Blue Sands and supplied all the supporting documentation including banking detail and in transit insurance documentation that we requested, plus a form which we required to be completed and signed. “Gemini Freight was also asked to supply its documentation for the standard credit check. A person calling himselves “Elvis” is now using this information to falsely present himself as a representative of Gemini Freight,” she says. The fraudsters managed to redirect the load to a warehouse in Rosslyn while it was en route from Durban to Randfontein, where it was picked up by a second vehicle. They went so far as to insure the load in the name of Gemini Freight. Basson has written to the Road Freight Association providing more detail, including police case numbers, and wanted to warn other operators. Identity theft in the United States is described as “a growing scam in the trucking industry”, according to Adrian Gonzalez, host of Talking Logistics. “One of the fastest growing forms of cargo theft is deceptive pick-ups (aka fictitious pick-ups),” he says. Thieves assume the identity of a long-established firm backed by insurance policies, fake drivers’ licences and other documents. “Then the con artists offer low bids to freight brokers who handle shipping for numerous companies. When the truckers show up at a company, everything seems legitimate. But once driven away, the goods are never seen again,” says Gonzalez. Cases of deceptive pickups are growing so fast, that “within a few years, identity theft-related scams are expected to become the most prevalent method of cargo theft,” according to Keith Lewis, vice president of CargoNet.
