How to Steer Clear of Dubious Freight Forwarding Scams

Dec 14
05:16

2019

Nancy Whitman

Nancy Whitman

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Scams are happening everywhere. We need to be really careful when we are dealing with any type of service. Especially on the internet. This is the same when we are hiring freight forwarders.

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There are a couple of fake freight forwarder scams that you need to be careful about. Scams that can cost you your goods or even a lot of money for paying for a service that wasn’t delivered. There are even some shippers that have lost their goods,How to Steer Clear of Dubious Freight Forwarding Scams Articles and that needed to pay for the service before shipping could take place. This is why you need to make sure that you know everything about fake freight forwarding scams.

Freight forwarders with virtually identical names

This is the most common scam that you can find with freight forwarding companies. The similar name scam. Where the fake forwarder is creating a name that is really similar to the real and recommended freight forwarder. Normally there are just one or two names that are different.

Then, you are getting confused about which of the forwarders you should use, ending up using the wrong one. Meaning that you are going to trust a company that isn’t even a legit service for importing and exporting goods. You need to make sure that you are using the right freight forwarder when you are finding two different forwarders with similar names.

Stolen website scams

Another really common scam that is hard to spot is when a freight forwarder website is stolen or hacked into. Then, you are signing up and paying a website that you think is legit. You have done all your research and thought that you have done everything right to avoid being scammed.

However, you didn’t consider that the site might have been stolen or hacked. Make sure that you are checking the quality of the site, make sure about spelling mistakes, or anything that might let you think that the site might be stolen. You can also contact the website to ensure that they received your inquiries and payment.

Holding your goods on the bill of landing for ransom

Something that is happening way too often. Holding your goods on the bill of landing for ransom. Meaning that they are withholding your goods until you are paying a ransom for it. This normally happens with freight forwarding service providers (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney) that have a scammer working within the company, or that have created a fake company with fake goods.

They might not even have your good, but they are claiming that they are going to keep the goods until you have paid a bill of landing fee before they can release your goods. This is normally a fake because they can’t just hold your goods without having a good reason.

Being really careful not to be scammed

It is important to make sure that you aren’t going to get scammed when you are hiring a freight forwarder online. There are many scams that are going on, on a daily basis. And, if you are making sure that you know what the scams look like, you will be able to prevent it from happening to you. There are scams everywhere, even when it comes to freight forwarding services. Especially those that are online.

Scam alert. Real scams that are organized by online scams where you might think that you are using a legit freight forwarder (for air freight and sea freight) for importing or exporting your goods. With this guide, you will know for sure that no matter what, you are aware of the scams and how you can avoid it from happening to you. Something that can happen to anyone.