The case of 100 containers of cashew nuts exported to Italy being scammed has not yet cooled down, but recently, 5 shipments of pepper, cinnamon, cashew and anise... exported to Dubai (UAE) by Vietnamese enterprises were suspected of fraud. and is in danger of losing everything. Reporter Thanh Nien had a discussion with Mr. Vu Thai Son - Chairman of Binh Phuoc Cashew Association about this issue. *In recent times, there have been continuous incidents of agricultural export enterprises being defrauded, losing goods, and causing huge losses. Why are there so many cases of enterprise fraud such as So? -Mr. Vu Thai Son: Export enterprises are deceived in the main form of having the original bill of lading taken away. The trick is to request that after making a deposit (about 10 or 15%) of the contract value, the enterprise will goods are shipped, the remainder is paid in the form of collection. The buyer often requires the seller to prepare a bill of lading for the consignee or to execute a blank endorsed order (to order/to order blank endorsed), then request the seller to send the original bill of lading to the recipient's bank. buy for collection. The buyer will ask the seller to provide the bill of lading number of the express delivery company (usually DHL, Fedex...) from which the bank sends the bill of lading and set of documents to the foreign bank. In some cases, they deliberately let the bank collect collection in a remote location, the express delivery companies are forced to send it to the domestic postal companies of the host country for forwarding, at which point it is easier for them. misappropriation of documents due to insiders at domestic postal companies. Businesses having their goods stolen even though they still hold the full set of original bills of lading often happens in cases of multimodal transportation such as sea combined with road or rail. This case occurs mainly due to the weak professional expertise of the first shipping agent in Vietnam, not applying the necessary control measures when the shipment is transferred from sea to road or rail, leading to loss of goods. control over shipments. *International fraud using this form of payment alone is too simple, so why do so many businesses still fall into the trap, sir? -When receiving goods from the exporter, the Vietnamese shipping agent will issue a set of multimodal shipping bills (the consignee is required to present this original bill of lading to receive the goods), then the Vietnamese agent will Nam will work with shipping companies to transport goods by sea. Because the goods arrive at the destination port, they will be transferred to another type of transportation (road/or rail) to the delivery location, so the Vietnamese agent subjectively (or with weak skills) thinks that there is no need. Applying control measures when transferring goods, shipping companies should be required to issue a seaway bill instead of requiring the issuance of a bill of lading that must be presented upon delivery. Due to the use of seaway bill, the shipping company will automatically deliver the goods to the person named on the seaway bill, meaning the consignee does not have to present or do any procedures, so the Vietnamese agent loses control of the shipment from the time this point. Because the person receiving the goods for further transportation by rail or road is not controlled or bound by anything, there may be a case where the person delivering the documents colludes with the final consignee to appropriate the goods. exporter. Arbitrarily delivering the goods to the final consignee without the required procedures to present the original bill of lading. *What advice do you have for cashew industry businesses in particular and export businesses in general to avoid being scammed, losing goods, and losing money like the above cases? -For shipments exported through bank collection, exporters should not use a bill of lading with the buyer's name or a blank "to order" bill of lading made to order, but should use a bank order bill of lading. buyer. In case the fraud group gets the original bill of lading, the fraud group cannot take the goods, but must present the bill of lading to the buyer's bank for endorsement to receive the goods. At this time, the buyer's bank will request to ensure the source of payment before they can endorse. If there are signs of fraud or the source of payment cannot be guaranteed, the buyer's bank will refuse to endorse the bill of lading, and the fraudster will not receive the goods. In addition, businesses should not provide the airway bill number of the expedited documents to the buyer, so that the buyer cannot know the travel schedule of the documents and try to appropriate them. For multimodal shipments, the Vietnamese shipping agent should not request the shipping company to issue a bill of lading in the form of a seaway bill, but must request the shipping company to issue a presented bill of lading, personally. receiver. To take goods for further transport by rail (road), the consignee must present to the shipping company the original bill of lading (master bill) that the Vietnamese shipping agent has issued to the shipper. Some Vietnamese shipping agents are also mistaken that if exporting in FOB form, the shipping agent's responsibility for the shipment is only until the goods are delivered to the first carrier, however, according to the provisions of By law, the shipping agent must be responsible until the goods are delivered to the legal consignee. *In fact, most cashew export businesses today always want to expand their customer base, in many cases going through brokers without knowing clearly who the buyer is, leading to fraud. How to minimize risks when exporting through such intermediaries? -For buyers that you do not know well and are new to doing business with, you should choose a payment method of 10 - 15% deposit after signing the contract and payment before delivery. It is necessary to negotiate and ask them to pay in full before delivering the goods, or to put the container into the port and not load it onto the ship, waiting for them to pay you in full before loading the goods onto the ship. Or when the goods are on board, we keep the original documents and do not send them to the customer's bank. After the customer has completed payment, we will send the documents to the customer. Quang Thuan Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper