ITdistri warning: African IT confidence tricksters land in Europe

July 27, 2010 - PRLog -- One thought that this trick was limited to African countries: IT confidence tricksters are masquerading since a few weeks as European companies – and, mainly, as French companies. The outline of the fraud is known: a company posing as an IT distribution professional contacts by mail or fax another company in another country. It asks for an account opening, to purchase IT products. On first effective delivery (sometimes the second, in order to better lull their victim), a 30-day payment is asked. Once products are delivered, the buyer disappears and sells the products on grey or black market, with a 100% margin.

Until now, fraudsters acted as African resellers (mainly from Ivory Coast), as shows French embassy in Abidjan . Now, they pose as European (more particularly French) vendors, distributors or resellers. They register domain names, which are similar to those of existing companies and created similar websites. They even place their orders as real employees of the existing company. As the companies they masquerade as have positive credit ratings, their victims are fully lulled.

Already ten companies impacted
ITdistri have received last May a mail from a French distributor whose identity has been usurped (Germond, based in Jura – germond-sas.fr instead of germondsa.fr). We have then written a warning for our readers . What we initially thought was an isolated case was in fact a first alert. Indeed, since then, many other cases have arisen, as wrote German channel magazine Channel Partner  and explained interviewed companies:
-   Bechtle (Alsatian mail-order company – real domain name: bechtle.fr)
-   Bestware (infrastructure VAD from Paris – bestware-france.fr instead of bestware.fr),
-   Conectis (cabling and networking specialist based in Northern France – conectis-sas.fr instead of conectis.fr),
-   Cybertek (retailer and distributor covering South-Western France – real domain name: cybertek.fr),
-   Eric Archivage (EDM editor and reseller based in Lyons and Paris – real domain name: eric-archivage.com),
-   Immotique Distribution (cabling, networking and telephony specialist based in Northern France – immotiquedistribution.fr instead of id-alliance.com),
-   NetApp France (French subsidiary of the American network storage vendor – netappfrance.com instead of netapp.com/fr),
-   Newcom Distribution (retail distributor, based near Paris – newcomdistribution.fr instead of newcomdistribution.com),
-   Riso (Lyons-based subsidiary of the Japanese print vendor – riso-france.fr instead of risofrance.fr)

All these real companies are, of course, totally innocent of these frauds. Most have pressed charges against the fraudsters or brought the problem to their legal department, which are working on the case. Fraudsters can indeed be charged for identity theft, cybersquatting and trademark infringement.

According to first elements we could get, fraudsters have registered their websites in Germany, through Cronon registrar (based in Regensburg, Bavaria). All .FR domain names are registered in France under restricted diffusion. Only the victims of the identity theft can ask for end anonymity on the name of the owners of these domain names. Data on .COM domain name registry are more easily available, but are less reliable, thus unusable.

Many countries already targeted…

Until now, German IT companies have been the main victims of the fraudsters. But companies based in Poland, Hungary, Italy, Czech Republic, the UAE and the United Kingdom were also targeted by the fraudsters. Some realized their mistake in time and refused or blocked the shipping. Other lost, depending on cases, several thousands of euros. Sent products were, as far as we heard of, sent from their initial delivery point in France to the United Kingdom and Ivory Coast or Mali: this thus shows that fraudsters are, again, African (most certainly Malian) posing as French companies…

Given the high number of domain names registered and as their trick is exposed in Germany, it is evident that the fraudsters will try to attack massively other European countries in the coming weeks. It is thus utterly important to warn all IT distribution professionals of this new menace, in order to arouse their suspicion.

How to get protected

If an IT vendor, reseller or distributor gets a spontaneous inquiry from a foreign company, it should thoroughly check the inquiry’s form: often, an approximate language is used (one cannot ask the fraudsters to be clever in spelling). This simple fact should make the contacted company suspicious. In case of doubt, the contacted company should then make sure that:
-   the inquiring company is real, through local company house (in France, societe.com)
-   the inquiring company has a good credit rating, through credit insurance companies like SFAC or Coface
-   and, most important, that any contact data given by the inquiring company matches its real data, through a general or local, specialized directory. A good example of a general directory is pagesjaunes.fr for France. Local, specialized directories are often published by local channel magazines. They show more or less complete data in local language. To get information in other languages, contacted companies should use a global directory like ITdistri.com, the only one to publish data on more than 6000 EMEA IT distributors in nine languages (Dutch, French, English, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish).

In case of difference in the address (invoice and/or delivery, especially if delivery address is a freight company), the phone number or the domain name, the contacted company should refuse the sale, warn directly the real company and report the fraudsters to the relevant authorities. The contacted company can also report the fraudster to its favourite channel magazine as well as to ITdistri, who will forward the menace to their readers.

About ITdistri

Created in 2005 on a 15-year experience in IT channel and press, online EMEA database ITdistri gathers information in nine languages on more than 6000 IT distributors in 110 countries in EMEA region. ITdistri helps resellers find new distributors, and IT vendors to expand their EMEA distribution network. Its data is available or sold through press, market or service partners. Currently, about 200 000 viewed pages and 45 000 visits are registered monthly on ITdistri website.

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