KEYS TO FRAUD PREVENTION

Good day,

Bsl aiming to prevent and well guide its customers has continuosly looking for to bring enlightment over safety trading procedures however after exhaustive publications into the issue e.traders keep beliefs they will be rich from day to night. Have a good time reading.
With regargds,
BSL - Best Shipping Logistic - Brazil


Keys To Fraud Prevention:
You might be forgiven for feeling a little dismal about the world of international trading. Opportunities are rife for scammers, and legal recourse for those who are scammed is scarce. Too often scammers are never caught, or if they are, they simply serve their time and go on their merry way, living on the profits of their fraudulent transactions which are often sheltered in so called ‘tax havens’, which provide sanctuary not only from taxation, but also from legal proceedings. In many jurisdictions an entity can open a bank account or a trust which can then not be touched, even if the money is proven stolen in another jurisdiction. Because the cure is sometimes impossible to obtain, prevention is the key to avoiding fraud. Fortunately, legitimate brokers and traders have a wide range of weapons in their arsenal which can be used in the fight against fraud, they just have to make sure that they actually use them.
Know Your Market
In all things, knowledge is power. This is especially true when it comes to commodity trading. A successful trader needs to know much more than how to obtain an letter of credit and contact sellers and buyers, he or she needs to know the industry they are working with inside and out. If you are trading Brazilian sugar, for instance, you need to know and understand the Brazilian sugar industry. You need to be able to answer questions like:
What is Brazil’s production capacity?Who are the major producers?When is the peak season?What are current market rates for Brazilian sugar?
Many get caught out in sugar scams because they are lured by promises of impossibly large shipments for ridiculously low prices. Many times the trader being scammed does not know that the shipment they are being promised is pure fantasy, because they do not understand the market.
For instance, take the following example. A scammer offers 20 million tons of Brazilian ICUMSA 45 sparkling white sugar.
Suzie Trader leaps at the deal, not knowing that shipments of millions of tons of ICUMSA 45 sugar are virtually impossible to obtain for a new buyer. In reality, Brazil produces relatively little ICUMSA 45, and the bulk of it is sold ahead of time to traders who purchase it on the futures markets. Small amounts of Brazilian ICUMSA 45 can occasionally be obtained if there is a surplus after harvest, but new entrants to the market will not be able to secure large shipments in their first foray into the market.
In spite of this being fairly common knowledge which can be obtained with just a little research, many people are scammed out of millions of dollars after attempting to buy several million tons of ‘discounted’ ICUMSA 45 Brazilian sugar.
Know The Price
All commodities have a price, and whilst small fluctuations occur, and discounts can be gained by purchasing in bulk, reputable traders still sell commodities at market rates. If the market rate for sugar is currently 10 cents a kilogram, offers selling sugar for 3 cents should be immediately discarded. Those who try and take advantage of such deals are usually the first ones to be taken advantage of themselves.
Scammers sometimes try to explain away the lowered price by claiming that another sale fell through, or that the material they are selling is ‘excess’. Don’t be fooled by such claims. Every commodity has a market value for a reason - there is a demand for it. If a supplier genuinely has a commodity in their possession which is worth a certain amount there is no way that they are going to contact an hitherto unknown trader and try to sell it to them at a reduced price. Think about it, if you had a car to sell, even if it was a spare car, would you sell a $50,000 machine for $500? No.
Google Is Your Friend
The Internet provides a vast resource for traders. Simply Googling the details of a potential trade can unearth useful and relevant information, and save a trader a great deal of wasted time and potential fiscal loss.
Then there are multiple forums where traders congregate and share tips and information. These places are veritable mines of information, and while none of it should be taken entirely at face value, it will point you in the right direction. These are excellent places to make new contacts and to deepen your understanding and knowledge of trading. Time spent learning more about your field is never wasted time, as even small snippets of information picked up in the course of conversation can prove to be invaluable later on.
Common Sense Is Your Ally
Tales of scams are sometimes as ridiculous as they are sad. In some cases, traders are lured to foreign countries under the pretense of ’seeing the goods’ themselves. Of course, they are also encouraged to bring with them cash to exchange for the goods. Those who take scammers up on these types of offers can quite often end up dead, killed for the cash they trustingly brought with them.
In today’s world, no trade should require you to carry large amounts of cash on your person at any time. The only possible reasons for anyone to do this are illegal ones. Cash is a means of avoiding the prying eyes of the law, and those who wish to avoid the eyes of the law are not the ones you want to be dealing with.
Don’t Be Afraid To Offend Your ‘Friend’
If a potential buyer or seller becomes offended because you background check them, their firm, and their credentials, it is wiser not to deal with them. The scammer will always try to develop a personal relationship with you in order to make you trust them. Your attempts to check them out independently will therefore be tantamount to betrayal of your new ‘friendship’. Remember that this is business, and that your money, your reputation and indeed your life could be at stake.
Those who take themselves seriously as traders do develop friendships and business relationships, but they do not allow them to supersede common sense. A reputable trading partner will not only not mind you investigating and verifying them, they may well encourage it, or provide references. Once again, these references should not be taken at face value, but should be investigated as well. Do the referees actually exist? Did the trades they claim to have undertaken with this person actually take place?
Being a successful trader is not unlike being a detective, and though it may be time consuming to delve into the backgrounds of new trading partners, it is infinitely more time consuming to be scammed.
Get Global
Becoming familiar with the country with which you are trading is also wise. Understanding business practices in the jurisdiction with which you are trading will help you evaluate whether your partner is acting in good faith, or if they are setting you up for a scam. There are variances from country to country.
Being familiar with the practices and laws of your trading partner’s country will also allow you to investigate them more thoroughly. The best way to learn about a country you wish to do business in is to contact your embassy in that country. Embassies are goldmines of ‘on the ground’ information, and they are usually pleased to assist citizens in their dealings with the foreign state.
As has been mentioned in previous sections, in some countries scams aren’t just run by small time scammers, they are run by large organized crime groups who can sometimes own entire banks. In these cases, a little research is not enough, because the corruption runs right up into governmental and commercial ranks. This does not mean that you have no recourse however, it simply means that your knowledge base needs to be wider than the one your potential trading partner provides you with. Contacting your embassy in the country can provide valuable help in avoiding these types of scams, as these crime syndicates are quite often well known.
What’s Their Feedback Like?
Who are you dealing with? Who else have they dealt with? Scammers often pull up stakes once they have defrauded one victim and move on, this means that they often do not have much, if any ‘back story’. If the person you are dealing with claims to be very experienced and well established in his or her field but nobody has ever heard of them before, a large red flag is raised.
A little like Ebay, good traders have lots of positive feedback, an independently verifiable reputation, and a public history. It is always more of a risk dealing with a ‘new’ trader than one who has already proven their reliability and expertise in other areas