Fraud

In recent years, a small number of our exhibitors have alerted us to a scam style business activity.
The global association of the exhibition industry, UFI, asks exhibitors and organisers to:
‘be advised, be vigilant, beware, in any dealings with:

• Expo Guide
• FairGuide.com
• Construct Data Verlag

and other questionable practices

 

To summarise the scam:
Exhibitors are sent a letter and order form for a listing in a directory that the publisher’s claim will ‘guarantee problem-free communication to all visitors’. This is not only an outrageous claim for a company with no affiliation to any organiser or marketing association - there are also significant costs attached to the order – detailed only in the small print.

If you receive correspondence from Expo Guide, Fairguide or Construct Data Verlag, we strongly recommend that you ignore it.

For more advice and guidance on this matter (from UFI), please click here.

 

We have been alerted by the Metropolitan Police in London that details of the ITE Group are being used for fraudulent purposes. This practice is popularly known as phishing (or physhing).

The subject matter of the bogus emails focuses on ITE’s need to recruit overseas agents.

*** ITE does not recruit agents via unsolicited email or fax campaigns ***

Recent information suggests that the fraudsters are requesting newly recruited agents.
Anyone interested will receive a cheque for a large amount of money (this cheque is fake and will bounce) from a fake company who is allegedly a client of the fraudsters.
Victims get to receive a 10% commission for their efforts in processing the transaction, forwarding a cheque worth 90% of the transaction to the fraudsters.
The fake cheque will bounce and the fraudsters disappear. DO NOT exchange personal or company bank account details, or send cheques to anyone recruiting agents via email or fax on behalf of ITE.

The fraudsters often use ITE Fabric Trading Company as their disguise.  This company does not exist.

If you are unfortunate enough to receive any unsolicited correspondence of this nature, we strongly advise that you delete or ignore it.

If you would like to check the validity of any correspondence that purports to be from ITE, please forward it to [email protected].

For more information about ‘phishing’, please visit the Anti Phishing Working Group at www.antiphishing.org

For more details about this specific type of scam (known as 419 advance fee fraud), visit www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/419.htm

A message to all customers,
 
We have recently been made aware that one of our invoices has been used in an attempted fraud.

The invoice was intercepted from an email, the bank account details changed and resent to our customer asking for payment to be made to a new updated bank account.

Our customer avoided falling victim to this fraud by following the guidelines below.
 
Importance of independent verification
In order to minimise the risk of being defrauded, we strongly recommend that you always:
•             Check the payment details on an invoice against your existing records. Independently verify any payment details which are not already on your records through a known and trusted source at the supplier.
•             Independently verify any supplier letter or email that indicates a change of bank account details. Do not assume that the bank account or contact details on the letter or email are correct. Use a known and trusted source at the supplier for verification.
•             If you receive a telephone call from someone who purports to be confirming bank account changes, always make a new call to a trusted source at the supplier using a different line - the fraudster may be able to keep their line open.
•             Send remittance advices to the supplier advising them of all invoices paid and the bank details used. Although this is after the event, it may help to identify payments to a fraudulent account. It will also help your supplier allocate your payments accurately in their records.
•             Consider specific verification of payment details with suppliers if there are particularly large payments to be made.
 
You might also consider ensuring that your accounts department has not recently amended or added new bank details for your suppliers without independently verifying them in line with these principles.
 
Procedures in respect of ITE bank account details
Should you receive any communications in future suggesting that ITE’s bank account details in the UK have changed, please contact us by calling the main switchboard on +44 (0) 20 7596 5000 and asking for the Finance Department, who will advise you if this is correct.
 
We look forward to continuing working with you.