Vietnamese firms warned about export scams to Canada

The Ben Tre Green Pomelo Cooperative has exported pomelo to canada

Tran Thu Quynh, Trade Counselor, Vietnam Trade Office in Canada, said Canada’s legal system is quite transparent and clear, and Canada’s sanctions are relatively strong. However, given the fact that Canada has accepted quite a lot of immigrants from different countries in recent years, the social structure of Canada has changed in a worrying direction, negatively affecting business activities, including imports and exports.

Many fraud cases involve individuals and business owners from specific ethnic groups. More complicatedly, according to Quynh, some individuals can access and download business registration documents of leading Canadian enterprises, and use their names to scam Vietnamese companies. They mainly make direct calls and send emails (using free email accounts such as gmail and or hotmail), and use Whatsapp and Viber to send Vietnamese companies fake registration documents and even bank accounts and balances, as well as tax payment certificates to prove reputation and place an order with a CIF price-based contract.

When Vietnamese enterprises request deposit transfer for the order, fake Canadian partners ask the Vietnamese exporters to have some certificates, usually bogus ones, and then recommend them to use a lawyer/broker who can help apply for those certificates at a cost of around CAD1,000/certificate. If Vietnamese businesses have doubts and ask to deduct this fee from the contract’s value, the fake partners accept to sign FOB price-based contracts and agree to handle disputes, if any, in Vietnam, pay 50 percent of the contract’s value in advance. The fake partners even send bank confirmation letters (BCL) or standby letters of credit (SBLC), and give banks’ phone numbers to increase trust.

Quynh said that in addition to information verification and coordination with businesses to prevent scams, her office has contacted the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam’s trade department and authorities of the North American country to ask for help with information verification and warn Canadian banks and reputable businesses of impersonation and scams.

The Vietnam Trade Office in Canada’s representative said certificates like Canadian Anti-Terrorist Clearance Certificate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Canada Border Services Agency are all bogus, and importers usually implement and accomplish Canadian procedures themselves.

Some Canadian businesses import goods using the LC (Letter of Credit) payment method and do not accept product quality control done by Vietnamese exporters as a way to refuse to make the remaining payment, so Vietnamese companies should be cautious when applying the Documents Against Payment (DP), Quynh said.