Cargo scam warning

UNCTAD carried out a global government and industry survey on ISPS Code implementation, costs and related financing (available for downloading at www.unctad.org/ttl/legal). A total of 55 completed questionnaires were received from respondent ports, the majority of these being in developed countries.

The TT Club warns of increasingly sophisticated cargo theft methods. The usual form is to have someone officiallooking hanging around the entrance to a delivery place telling the driver that the warehouse is unable to take delivery now but that he should take the load to an “overflow warehouse just round the corner”. As drivers are becoming increasingly aware of this scam, criminals are getting smarter. One attempt involved two container loads of golfing equipment worth US$2m. Phone calls were made to the line, haulier and importer trying to divert the loads from their legitimate delivery point to an address in London. The staffmember who took the calls alerted her supervisor. During a number of subsequent phone conversations, in some of which the callers pretended to be police officers themselves(! ) the attempt was uncovered and theft averted.