We have been contacted by Members who have been defrauded when handling shipments of mangoes from the Indian sub-continent.
Although there are variations in the contact parties the following have remained constant:
- The mangoes all originate from the Indian sub-continent
- The “selling agent” for the mangoes is based in one of the Gulf States usually Dubai or Abu Dhabi
- The European “buying agent” is always based in Belgium
- Documentation is poor
One variation is that in some instances a UK company based in the Northwest of England is involved, in others the UK forwarder, who has been defrauded deals with the Belgian “buying agent”. The matter has been reported to both the Belgian and UK police forces.
We have been advised that this is a European wide fraud with police forces involved in Belgium, Holland and the Netherlands and collectively the sums involved total many millions of Euros/Pounds.
If any Member is approached regarding moving similar shipments we suggest that the matter is immediately reported to Action Fraud, telephone 0300 123 2040
