Indian High commission raises alarm over cashew import frauds from Tanzania

Holds meeting with Cashewnut Board of Tanzania to avert such frauds ahead of the procurement season

Financial frauds originating from African countries and duping Indian exporters and importers, has surfaced as the newest threat in cyber space.

Last month, the Indian High Commission took up the matter of increasing number of financial frauds affecting Indian cashewnut importers with the Tanzanain government. In an advisory dated 5 June, the Indian High Commission in Tanzania cautioned Indian businessmen against fake cahshewnut exporters from Tanzanai.

In addition, it also held meetings with the representatives of the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania to avert such frauds ahead of the cashwenut procurement season, which is set to begin in September. In an earlier advisory in May, the Indian High Commission, in particular had blacklisted one such company, M/S Acclimatise International Group, which had been duping Indian importers.

A letter posted on the website of Apeda, by the Indian High Commission on May 18, 2015, it said, "We have come across cheating of Indians by a Tanzanian company, M/S Acclimatise International Group. The modus operendi is to operate on the internet and lure Indian businessmen who are in the business of import of cashewnuts...The High Commission has also taken up (the matter) at the higher levels of the Tanzanian government,"

According to Rakshit Tandon, advisor, cybercrime redress cell of Uttar Pradesh Police, in the last three months, his firm received close to 110 complaints by importers and exporters from states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. The mode of operation involves sending promotional emails with attachments to importers. Once the attachments are opened, a malware stealthily compromises the e-mail of the user. Subsequently, the emails of the counterpart exporting firm are filtered out to spam mails, while an email from a domain name almost similar to the original exporter asks the Indian importer for payment in a bank account that belongs to the fraudsters.

"Instances of import-export fraud have risen substantially in the last few months. In most of the instances, the payment diversion has been taking place in countries such as UK, Malaysia and China," said Tandon.

Online financial frauds come in varied forms like auction, credit-debit card , check and lottery frauds, which are together known as 419 AFF (advance-fee fraud) crimes. In India, there are 49 AFF scam rings with 1,610 active members, the fifth highest in the world, according to a report by Ultrascan Advanced Global Investigations released in July 2014.

"In the last six months, we have seen almost a 150% rise in email scams involving exporters and importers. Most of these frauds are seen originating from African countries, with payments made in the UK," said says Mukesh Choudhary, a cybercrime expert.

Last month, the cyber crime branch of Delhi Police arrested two Nigerians for defrauding Indian herbal medicine exporters.