Paper Chain It Limited is a U.K based paper manufacturer and wholesaler as it claimed. We contacted the company on the 21st of May this year to enquire about A4 paper. After several phones calls and email messages we started negotiation with Mohammed Yusuf who claimed to be the oversea manager of the company. After both parties agreed on the prices and business terms, we requested for samples of Double A A4 paper, and the company supplied us high quality samples for all their a4 papers from the U.K. Afterwards, we did our due diligence on the company. We contacted the British High Commission- Commercial section, and it confirmed the company to be a U.K paper company.
We therefore decided to order for a 20FCT of a4 paper, which costs $7410 (cost of goods sold plus shipping). The company sent us its corporate account details for payment of 40% of the cost after which the consignment would be placed on transit to Tincan port. On the 8th of August, we paid $2964, which was equivalent to 40% of the CIF. The company thereafter sent us a proforma invoice, tracking details and that of the logistics and transport company (Inland Ex Logistics Company) in charge of shipping of the consignment.
We tracked the ship until it arrived in Ghana, and the company claimed that it would not release vital documents like the bill of lading, shipping document packing list until the 60% balance is paid because Nigerians cannot be trusted.
In short, as at 8th of August 2014, a sum of $7410 has been paid to Paper Chain It Limited, and all the documents sent to us were fake and the container is yet to be seen.
Now, dear nairalanders, your help is required in terms of advice and what we should do next to recover our money and bring this people to justice.
Company full details:
Paper Chain It Limited
Registered no: 07315568
Vat no: 751148444
address: Bristol and West House Post Rd, Bournemouth Dorset BH1 1BL U.K
Website: www.paperschain.com

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kakulus94: Afterwards, we did our due diligence on the company. We contacted the British High Commission- Commercial section, and it confirmed the company to be a U.K paper company

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It is sad to hear this. Unfortunately i felt you guys might have not transacted on international business like this before and may have little knowledge of this. You will have to contact the British High commission again and lodge a compliant backed with reply from BHC you received and all documents sent to you by the company. Am sure BHC will provide you with options and possibly find a way to track the company.

Since you have the address, although it maybe just registered address..you can find people or hire person to check out if it does exist. Also try to speak with your bank if you own corporate bank account and see how you bank can intimate the receiver that the owner of account is fraud.

May i ask? if the tracking details sent you listed the content of your container, size and does that tally with the packing list?

I have experience with importation and i do import over 20 containers annually basically from Asia, USA. Let me give you hint on what i did the first time i am to import from Honk Kong. The worth of the good was over 50K USD...i had the PI sent to me and i had to hire private company at less than 500USD to ensure the company exist including their banking details. I asked questions from my banker if something like this happen what should i do. My bank suggested i asked the company to accept LC (letter of Credit) unfortunately LC is good for buyer and may be some seller may not like it but i did not like it at first cos the stress is just too much but it worth it. Also they suggested i registered with trade unit of the bank so that, they can pursue things for me in case of scam by communicating directly with the receiver bank.

After the company i paid confirmed their authenticity... i was not convince, i had to travel to visit this company and see myself. When i arrived i saw their company and was 80% convinced but inside of me i felt all could be arranged. I made 30% deposit as my PI agreement and i requested for scan of all the shipping documents which was scanned to me. I tracked the vessel and i registered with a tracking company and was able to track the content and it conform with my bill of loading and packing list. I did not pay the balance until the vessel landed and ensure this container is included. I had to pay the balance after the vessel landed and it took them one week to prepare the shipping docs.......i paid extra for courier of the clearing documents. Although i paid demur-rage of around 150K but it pays off than losing millions of hard-earned cash. Ever since, i have deal with the company for years and we have built great relationship and same method was used for all other companies i initiated with. So you should always demand the seller accept LC if you are dealing with them for first time or travel down to see things yourself.

If you track the vessel to Ghana and you cant confirm if the content and BL number tally then is fraud and big scam....Lastly kindly see what advise your bank and BHC can do for you. I wish you success to recover this. Don't forget to put all these details on forums and blogs so google can crawl and take it as scam.

wip7: .

It is sad to hear this. Unfortunately i felt you guys might have not transacted on international business like this before and may have little knowledge of this. You will have to contact the British High commission again and lodge a compliant backed with reply from BHC you received and all documents sent to you by the company. Am sure BHC will provide you with options and possibly find a way to track the company.

Since you have the address, although it maybe just registered address..you can find people or hire person to check out if it does exist. Also try to speak with your bank if you own corporate bank account and see how you bank can intimate the receiver that the owner of account is fraud.

May i ask? if the tracking details sent you listed the content of your container, size and does that tally with the packing list?

I have experience with importation and i do import over 20 containers annually basically from Asia, USA. Let me give you hint on what i did the first time i am to import from Honk Kong. The worth of the good was over 50K USD...i had the PI sent to me and i had to hire private company at less than 500USD to ensure the company exist including their banking details. I asked questions from my banker if something like this happen what should i do. My bank suggested i asked the company to accept LC (letter of Credit) unfortunately LC is good for buyer and may be some seller may not like it but i did not like it at first cos the stress is just too much but it worth it. Also they suggested i registered with trade unit of the bank so that, they can pursue things for me in case of scam by communicating directly with the receiver bank.

After the company i paid confirmed their authenticity... i was not convince, i had to travel to visit this company and see myself. When i arrived i saw their company and was 80% convinced but inside of me i felt all could be arranged. I made 30% deposit as my PI agreement and i requested for scan of all the shipping documents which was scanned to me. I tracked the vessel and i registered with a tracking company and was able to track the content and it conform with my bill of loading and packing list. I did not pay the balance until the vessel landed and ensure this container is included. I had to pay the balance after the vessel landed and it took them one week to prepare the shipping docs.......i paid extra for courier of the clearing documents. Although i paid demur-rage of around 150K but it pays off than losing millions of hard-earned cash. Ever since, i have deal with the company for years and we have built great relationship and same method was used for all other companies i initiated with. So you should always demand the seller accept LC if you are dealing with them for first time or travel down to see things yourself.

If you track the vessel to Ghana and you cant confirm if the content and BL number tally then is fraud and big scam....Lastly kindly see what advise your bank and BHC can do for you. I wish you success to recover this. Don't forget to put all these details on forums and blogs so google can crawl and take it as scam.

Absolutely fantastic, I'm highly grateful for your insightful comments. We gave all the documents to an experience clearing agent who confirmed that all were fake. We have reported to Efcc and u.k police. I will report to our bank as you suggested. Thanks so much.

kakulus94: Absolutely fantastic, I'm highly grateful for your insightful comments. We gave all the documents to an experience clearing agent who confirmed that all were fake. We have reported to Efcc and u.k police. I will report to our bank as you suggested. Thanks so much.

Just too sad. u should have done ur homework well. It doesn't stop at business registration confirmation. How about past Bills of Lading, past SGS reports of shipments for verification, references, third party investigation. The seller's copy and paste website reeks of scam. Just too obvious.

Globally, a lot of fraud - intent companies are legitimately registered with bank accounts but with fake information to take in hits like urs and become stale after use. The address could be fake, the telephone number could be a virtual call forwarding +44 series, and probably the ip address masked or diverted. It will take high calibre intelligience officers to unravel this.

Truth is, It doesn't take much to "ask", even if u know, its always safe to "ask". And this is a lesson for anyone else who wants to go into international trade.

Firstly, the CIF price of $7410 for a whole 20ft container is a sham especially at a time when paper pulp, a material used in making A4 paper has gone 30% expensive.

$7410 translates to $0.95 CIF per ream. which legitimate seller will offer u a price that cheap? At a period when prices are $1.6 - $2.0 upwards.

Secondly, when has uk of all places been a export producer of A4 paper? They are end users too. Ur sources should have been within Brazil, Portugal, Indonesia, Thailand and China. Mind u, there are a bevy of scammers too in these countries, but with a vigillant eye u can brush them off ur shoulders.

Thirdly, its wrong... Just so wrong to do 30% advance deposit with a first time seller, when u have safer options of L/C and Escrow or have a third party investigate the company. The best bet would have been to "visit" the company "urself" and transact "directly".

Even the 100% L/C is not so safe cos fake documents, Bills of Lading, inspection reports can be sent to ur bank to effect the payment whereas there was no shipment or u may be taken for a ride on a fake or cloned shipping company website.

Its a good thing for you to report to EFCC, your bank and the foreign bank. Try open a case under the Economic and Specialist Crime which is a branch of the Specialist Crime Directorate within London's Metropolitan Police.

All in all don't be discouraged. My regards.

kakulus94: Absolutely fantastic, I'm highly grateful for your insightful comments. We gave all the documents to an experience clearing agent who confirmed that all were fake. We have reported to Efcc and u.k police. I will report to our bank as you suggested. Thanks so much.

You are welcome. It may take time but you will find the owner of the bank account and since is corporate bank acct..then the UK police and others can easily work this out and yes your banker can pull strings especially if you have good transaction with them and reasonable personnel around. Don't let this pull you down...be focus, positive and every transaction take it as a lesson. Since you wont quit then ..surely you will win!

Just too sad. u should have done ur homework well. It doesn't stop at business registration confirmation. How about past Bills of Lading, past SGS reports of shipments for verification, references, third party investigation. The seller's copy and paste website reeks of scam. Just too obvious.
[/quote] Interesting comments, you demonstrated your sound knowledge of the paper industry. Thank you so much. Advice well taken and lessons learnt. Prospective importers should take a cue from this.
We thought we could cut cost if we avoid travel but it ended up to be a terrible decision. The so called fraudsters are still communicating with us. We donot make them suspicious. They claimed the consignment is still in Ghana and we need to pay trans-loading charges of $1750 so that it could be transfered to another ship coming to Nigeria. The website is still on and the phones contacts are accessible.

kakulus94:
Interesting comments, you demonstrated your sound knowledge of the paper industry. Thank you so much. Advice well taken and lessons learnt. Prospective importers should take a cue from this.
We thought we could cut cost if we avoid travel but it ended up to be a terrible decision. The so called fraudsters are still communicating with us. We donot make them suspicious. They claimed the consignment is still in Ghana and we need to pay trans-loading charges of $1750 so that it could be transfered to another ship coming to Nigeria. The website is still on and the phones contacts are accessible.

Hey,

There is nothing like Trans-loading charges. In the PI sent to you....you agreed one of the ports in Nigeria not Ghana so nothing concerns you with that since you paid for CIF...they are also trying to milk you guys more. You guys can keep the communication on so as to allow the investigator trace them. keep us updated!

kakulus94:

Just too sad. u should have done ur homework well. It doesn't stop at business registration confirmation. How about past Bills of Lading, past SGS reports of shipments for verification, references, third party investigation. The seller's copy and paste website reeks of scam. Just too obvious.
Interesting comments, you demonstrated your sound knowledge of the paper industry. Thank you so much. Advice well taken and lessons learnt. Prospective importers should take a cue from this.
We thought we could cut cost if we avoid travel but it ended up to be a terrible decision. The so called fraudsters are still communicating with us. We donot make them suspicious. They claimed the consignment is still in Ghana and we need to pay trans-loading charges of $1750 so that it could be transfered to another ship coming to Nigeria. The website is still on and the phones contacts are accessible.

This is a pure Advance Fee Fraud.
Transloading charges? Smh
Soon they will come up with Narcotics Clearance, or Naval waterway Security Levy, or just about any useless line to extort more from you.

Don't pay anything to them and don't give them the hint u already know. I hope u have notified EFCC duely as they are strategically in alliance with London Metropolitan Police and can trace and locate them with a bait in collaboration with the banks.

Under legitimate climes, the Incoterm CIF (Cost Insurance & Freight) mandates the seller to deliver at your named port. You have no business paying anything further or above your commercial invoice. The shipper who is the "seller" and the "carrier" which is the shipping company have a responsibility to deliver to your named port. While your responsibility as the buyer and "consignee" is to clear and take delivery of your cargo when it arrives your named port.

They're just trying to rip u off further.

I don't know how far you have gone with the investigations but u can learn more from these sites.

http://www.met.police.uk/pceu/

http://www.sfo.gov.uk/fraud.aspx

http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/

http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/policing-crime

https://crimestoppers-uk.org/

BlackSwede post=/post/26826187:



This is a pure Advance Fee Fraud.
Transloading charges? Smh
Soon they will come up with Narcotics Clearance, or Naval waterway Security Levy, or just about any useless line to extort more from you.

Don't pay anything to them and don't give them the hint u already know. I hope u have notified EFCC duely as they are strategically in alliance with London Metropolitan Police and can trace and locate them with a bait in collaboration with the banks.

Under legitimate climes, the Incoterm CIF (Cost Insurance & Freight) mandates the seller to deliver at your named port. You have no business paying anything further or above your commercial invoice. The shipper who is the "seller" and the "carrier" which is the shipping company have a responsibility to deliver to your named port. While your responsibility as the buyer and "consignee" is to clear and take delivery of your cargo when it arrives your named port.

They're just trying to rip u off further.

I don't know how far you have gone with the investigations but u can learn more from these sites.

http://www.met.police.uk/pceu/

http://www.sfo.gov.uk/fraud.aspx

http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/

http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/policing-crime

https://crimestoppers-uk.org/

Thanks so much for your help. This is why Nairaland is special, you will always find people who have traveled your road before. Keep doing the great work guys.