The Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office warns of fraudsters who steal high-quality goods on a large scale under the guise of British companies.

Stuttgart (ots) / September 8, 2017 - Since March 2017, fraudsters have been sending more emails with misleading sender information to medium-sized companies in the metal, automotive and food industries.
They act as major customers and place orders on a large scale under the guise of reputable British companies.

The police describe the procedure as a “fake customer trick”.

How does the trick work?

The transaction is initiated with the help of Email sender addresses, which appear to come from employees of reputable companies in the UK.
The fraudsters use technical terms and industry-standard formulations to underline this impression and create the impression that they are seriously interested in buying. When ordering goods, the perpetrators signal immediate willingness to pay and, if necessary, prove their creditworthiness with fake balance sheets.
The perpetrators use the Internet to commission international shipping companies and have the orders delivered to Great Britain.



This means that deliveries with goods values ​​of sometimes over 100,000 euros end up directly in the hands of the perpetrators: the goods are not paid for.

Be careful in Baden-Württemberg

In Baden-Württemberg, fraudsters have become increasingly common, especially recently.
A total of nine companies in Baden-Württemberg fell for this “fake customer” scam, which has been known since June 2016. These delivered goods worth around 25 to around 300,000 euros to the fraudsters. The total damage is almost one million euros. The State Criminal Police Office therefore recommends the following for customer orders by email from abroad, especially from Great Britain:

  • Verify the customer or their order by contacting them via telephone or email connections that are stored as contact details on the customer's homepage.
  • Do not use the contact information from the email or the reply button for verification.
  • Inform your company's employees about this fake customer trick.
Report this to the police if your company has already been damaged by this scam or if your company has received such fraudulent orders via email.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )