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Network of "gray" payment terminals
The criminal group was divided into four divisions.
The first accepted cash collected from terminals. The second searched for new locations to install machines, rented space, and monitored the operation of the terminals. Representatives of the third "department" took cash from the terminals and delivered it to an underground cash desk. The last department laundered criminally obtained funds, legalizing funds through the accounts of controlled commercial organizations.
"Duplicate Work" - A Method of Fraud
Construction without proper control is an inexhaustible source of abuse.
One of the simplest methods of fraud is "duplication of work". For the same work, actually performed once, two or more contracts are concluded with similar, but not literally identical, descriptions of the work. For example, for the preparation of design documentation, its verification, re-verification, preparation for submission to the relevant authorities, obtaining the appropriate approvals, etc. All these stages of development and approval of design documentation are in fact performed by one contracting organization, and according to the documents they are divided between several contractors with very similar subjects of contracts, and the price, of course, is inflated several times.
The involvement of intermediaries does not always make clear economic sense
The classic scheme is overpricing for purchased goods, works, services. There is a lot of room for maneuver here. Starting from falsification or artificial holding of a tender, ending with fictitious acts of acceptance and transfer for "completed" works.
The services of various intermediaries are widely used in business practice. Let's remember, for example, all sorts of customs brokers, licensing and certifying agencies, trade intermediaries, dealers, distributors, etc.
Not always does the involvement of intermediaries make clear economic sense. For example, why does a company purchase equipment of well-known Western companies from unknown regional firms, and not from official representatives? If you do not see the economic sense in involving an intermediary, then perhaps he is not there. But, most likely, there is an overpricing and withdrawal of assets.
Own bill acceptor
The fraudsters installed their own bill acceptor into one of the payment terminals and transferred random amounts to the accounts of fictitious persons by repeatedly passing the same banknote through it. Then, using a service card, they deleted information about the transaction and cashed the money.
Fake commercial offers via email
You receive an e-mail with an offer to purchase goods at an unfavorable price from company X. The letter may include a draft contract or a sample application form for purchasing goods along with a sample bank reference.
Before officially signing the contract, you are required to transfer money allegedly to pay for some services, such as processing various documents (visas, invitations, permits), legalizing or activating a contract in government agencies and ministries, or paying tariffs.
To transfer money, the scammers offer an account opened in the name of an individual.
An example of accounting savvy
The chief accountant, who had worked for the company for over 10 years, transferred money to “her” shell companies, and then physically changed the “payment purpose” column in bank statements by writing tax transfers there (she covered the inscription with proofreader, printed “tax payment” on top and made a photocopy). Over three years, she was able to appropriate thousands of dollars in this way.
The most interesting thing is that these machinations were uncovered completely by accident. A new general director came to the company. One day, he noticed a fax that the chief accountant sent to the insurance company about “attaching” her daughter to the corporate health insurance. The general director did not like this, and he went straight to the specialists. After a thorough study of all the financial documentation, they discovered that payment orders were missing for a number of regularly transferred tax payments. The details are in the reports, the purpose is indicated, but there are no payment orders. Further steps were a matter of “technicality”.
Corporate Debit Cards
A large company issued corporate debit cards to its employees. The cards were credited with certain amounts in advance, intended to pay for travel, entertainment and other expenses. Subsequently, the employee submitted reports on the amounts spent. When he quit, this debit card was confiscated and handed over to the bank.
However, one of the accounting employees decided to give the cards of the dismissed employees a "second life". She did not hand them over to the bank, but continued to transfer advance payments to their accounts, which were then successfully materialized through an ATM. During one of the regular internal audits, the management became interested in why the volume of advance payments for which no reports were provided was so large.
Issuing a fake check
Used by foreigners in their relations with domestic businessmen. When paying for goods, a counterfeit check is written out. If our businessman, after an embarrassing incident at the bank, where they refuse to pay him such a check, finds a foreign fraudster, the latter can brazenly declare that he wrote a real check, you received money on it and want to receive money on a counterfeit one.
Paying customs duties at someone else's expense
The company is asked to pay a customs duty, which is a significant part of the cost of the imported goods, in exchange for a share of the profit from the sale of these goods. During the preliminary analysis of the project, the company's specialists conclude that the goods are available and everything in the deal is clean. For greater guarantee, the recipient of the goods is appointed to be the bank where the future victim is serviced.
The company pays the customs duty and after some time its employees are sent to customs to receive the goods. However, it turns out that at the expense of the paid customs duty, goods were allowed through the border under a very similar contract. Naturally, this contract was also prepared by scammers. As a result, their goods passed through without a customs duty, and the company has a lot of problems.
Prepayment to a “reputable” enterprise
Cautious businessmen are in no hurry to make an advance payment to unfamiliar companies.
In this case, fraudsters with sufficient initial capital buy out a well-known company that has been fulfilling its obligations in good faith. The most important condition for the buyout is the confidentiality of the transaction, that is, the change of ownership is kept strictly secret by the parties.
Convincing the client to make an advance payment, the new owners name companies with which the previous owners have worked for a long time and successfully. Fraudsters even give the phone numbers of partners who are not informed about the change of ownership of the company. Such partners confirm the company's efficiency to the client.
There seems to be no reason to doubt and the client agrees to the advance payment. Then the fraudsters act according to the scheme described below "Using the prepayment system".
For managers with a reputation
One of the most criminal methods, when the head of a company well-known in the business world is persuaded to participate in a seemingly very profitable deal. Since such a director usually values his reputation, he is offered to keep the collected money in the account of his enterprise to prevent fraud. Money is accumulated under the good reputation of the director and his company, and the director is full of desire to fulfill his obligations.
However, at this moment, representatives of a criminal structure come to him and force him to transfer money to the account specified by them. At the same time, all the necessary documents are drawn up so that the return of funds in court or otherwise is impossible.
Then the director is killed (the preferred option is to take him away somewhere far away, but we have not heard of such cases). No money, no director, no one to ask. The clients have lost money, and the naive director has lost his life.
Multiple use of collateral
A fraudulent company offers to carry out joint activities. The money must be transferred to this company not just like that, but against collateral. Representatives of your company are shown this collateral, which many times exceeds the amount you are transferring and is also very liquid.
After the funds are transferred, you wait for the goods. When they do not arrive, you decide to take the collateral. However, it turns out that several dozen more creditors are laying claim to this collateral.
Such a scam rarely works with banks, since banks control the correct execution of the collateral, and employees of simple commercial enterprises usually do not know these rules well.
Therefore, before you formalize the collateral, make sure that it is not re-collateralized.
Forgery of guarantees and letters certifying the reliability of a partner
Domestic businessmen are often very naive when making international deals, often believing inflated guarantees and letters confirming the reliability of a foreign company.
Sometimes scammers use names of organizations that sound similar to world-famous banks and companies. They can create such names themselves by replacing one or two letters.
When dealing with the companies “Pansonic”, “Panassonic”, “Panasonik”, some of our businessmen were initially sincerely convinced that they were purchasing products from the world-famous company “Panasonic”. Then they figured it out, but nevertheless continue to deceive the population, selling fakes with a changed letter in the manufacturer’s name for the “company”.
Creation of a supposedly subsidiary foreign company
Fraudsters can act on behalf of a subsidiary of a well-known foreign company. To do this, it is enough to invent a loud name and register the company under this name.
It can be called, for example, “Bosch Belorashn”, “Dior International”. If the registration authority suddenly objects to the use of the names of well-known companies, then the solution is simple: the name is registered as an abbreviation, which is deciphered in internal and falsified documents. To increase their prestige, these documents are provided to clients for review.
As a result, clients are not surprised if in payment orders for transferring money they are asked to simply indicate: “ABM, regional office”.
After the official registration of the company, the fraudsters fabricate documents indicating their family relationship with the famous company and that the latter acts as a guarantor of their operations.
Practice shows that not all clients are meticulous enough and carefully study the documents provided, and even more so do not contact the registration authorities or the relevant authorities to clarify additional details. Investigations usually begin after the client has already suffered from fraudsters.
The described fraud is usually committed by people who actually worked or work in foreign representative offices in secondary positions, but have access to some internal company documents. Based on such documents, they make fairly high-quality fakes. In addition, in representative offices, you can get catalogs and conclude contracts on their behalf with the condition that the contract must be executed by a well-known company, and the money will be sent to the account of the fraudulent company.
Using the prepayment
a) Money is collected from customers in the form of an advance payment under contracts for the supply of specific goods. The collected funds are placed in a bank at interest. At the same time, the company that collected the money does not plan to fulfill its delivery obligations.
After the period specified in the contract, the customers begin to worry and demand their money back. The employees of the fraudulent company make excuses, citing unforeseen circumstances and showing fake documents stating that the pre-paid goods will soon arrive. Attempts to “run into” the swindlers do not yield any serious results, since the latter turn out to have a reliable “roof”. Time is dragged out in every possible way, and interest is accruing in the bank.
b) The collected money is actually used to purchase the goods, the goods arrive and are sold. However, the client is told that the suppliers turned out to be swindlers and that the company that collected the money “burned out”. But since the “money collectors” are honest people, they will give this money back as soon as they can. And indeed, after several “rolls” of the collected money, the amount invested by the client is returned to him. As a result, all the income from the operation goes to the scammers.
There is no talk of paying penalties, since clients are warned in advance that an attempt to achieve non-payment of the penalty will mean non-repayment of the principal amount of the debt.
c) You can “run into” a fictitious enterprise that is not registered anywhere, the director uses a passport in someone else’s name, and the bank account is opened for a small bribe.
The money received in such an account is quickly transferred abroad, where it is cashed. The director himself disappears from the sight of both the client and law enforcement agencies. He usually negotiates with informal debt collection groups in advance.
Massive conclusion of contracts for the supply of goods with limited demand
A wholesale company is confidentially offered a batch of goods that are in limited demand. The company's specialists find out that although the demand is limited, it exists in the absence of the goods. Therefore, the prices for the goods are high and promise high profits. As a result, a supply contract is signed and an advance payment is transferred. The contract specifically stipulates its confidentiality and a large penalty in case of refusal of the supplied goods.
Similar work is carried out with other wholesale suppliers. They also study the market and are convinced that although the goods are not in mass consumption, they are not on the market and they can make good money on them. They also enter into confidential contracts with a large penalty.
Then there are three main options.
The first option. All wholesale buyers throw their goods on the market, which is immediately overstocked, and prices fall sharply. The seller makes money by ensuring confidentiality. Moreover, if the seller is a monopolist in the supply of goods, then at the first stage he himself could have organized a shortage of goods, and, consequently, high prices for them.
The second option. Even before the delivery of the goods, a leak of information about a large number of contracts for the supply of the specified goods is organized. Wholesale buyers begin to fuss in advance in order not to end up in big losses. It is impossible to refuse the delivery, since in this case the large amount of the penalty will ruin them.
At this moment, a kind gentleman appears who agrees to buy the goods at a price that is unprofitable for the wholesale buyer, but nevertheless more acceptable compared to paying the penalty. The deal is concluded and the wholesale buyer saves the bulk of his money, and the supplier earns according to the following scheme:
The scheme does not include the goods. If the operation is carried out correctly, it is needed in one copy, which is demonstrated to all potential wholesale buyers.
Third option. Demand for the goods is artificially organized. To do this, the supplier of the goods agrees with several not very honest companies that they will advertise for a commission fee about their extremely urgent need for the equipment that the fraudulent supplier sells. As a result, the impression is created that this equipment is in demand. And there will certainly be a few naive wholesale buyers who will sign contracts for the supply of equipment even before a contract for its sale is signed.
But even if a contract for sale is signed, it is enough to stipulate the purchase of goods at a competitive price. This price will be the understated price of the fraudulent supplier. At this price, the goods are purchased from the wholesale buyer. As a result, the scheme will look like this:
Compromising competitors
A large-scale campaign to discredit the products manufactured or sold by competitors is being conducted through the media. As a result, the opportunities for the sale of goods by the company that organized the compromise increase.
Some time ago, a series of articles appeared in the press telling how bad the Japanese “R” type machines are for tax control and how good the Russian “O” machines are. By inserting two matches under the “O” levers, you can punch out checks on this machine without a mark on the control tape. Nevertheless, tax inspectorates stopped registering “R” machines. As a result, the demand for “O” machines has increased sharply.
Adding unperformed work or services
Such falsifications are made in order to obtain additional income.
Falsifications are carried out by different organizations. Transport organizations usually falsify kilometers or ton-kilometers, builders - the volume of work performed and use incorrect "winding" coefficients, in public catering they falsify the amount of food consumed and drink, and also overstate the quality of the consumed products (especially in the case of paying for a large banquet).
Such falsifications are not always detected. If they are detected by attentive customers, then the blame is usually attributed to negligent workers. After that, such a client is treated with caution and in cases where it is not a pity to lose a picky client, they do him minor dirty tricks (for example, delay the fulfillment of his orders). Bribery of employees of customer enterprises or suppliers. Fraudsters inflate prices and volumes of work performed, and in order for the client's representatives not to reveal violations, they are given a bribe.
Financing Western banks
Western fraudsters often pull off scams. For example, an organization is offered to receive cheap funds (at least $100 million) from one of the Western banks under the guarantee of its assets. Moreover, the deception is carried out quite professionally - messages in the SWIFT banking network, traveling abroad to sign an agreement, etc. After all the documents are drawn up, a representative of the Western company offers to pay only the transaction costs - 2-5% of the loan amount. Then the representative disappears.
And here is another financial scheme. An American, Swiss, any other financial company appears, offering businessmen financing from Western banks under a number of programs. Even a bank guarantee is provided - it is not surprising if it is genuine: it costs about $20 thousand. All you need is to quickly make a Western-style business plan, which representatives of this very financial company are ready to undertake for only $35-50 thousand. While the business plan is being developed and formalities are being settled, the guarantee expires, and money is also needed to extend it. And so on ad infinitum. There are known cases when companies lost hundreds of thousands of dollars this way. There are many schemes, but sometimes it is not difficult to avoid being "caught", since the fraudsters use certain phrases to make their fake documents look credible. But here is an example of a really funny scam (nevertheless, for some reason, many people become victims of such schemes). Strictly once every six months, people come to businessmen with an interesting offer. They introduce themselves as former employees of the secret services and tell a story that now they, allegedly, work for an American government fund that controls the printing of dollars. The offer is as follows: open an account, they say, and deposit $1 million for six months, and then, after a certain time, you will receive a deposit three times the amount. The legend: the American reserve fund is extremely interested in freezing large sums so that dollars are temporarily out of circulation. They show a completely plausible agreement, a bunch of special documents, but everything is so confusing that not every lawyer can figure it out. The scam is as follows: after the entire procedure is completed, the account becomes available to a third party, who withdraws the money, and this nuance is very difficult to camouflage in the agreement.
Legal illiteracy of businessmen
A significant part of fraud is connected with the legal illiteracy of businessmen. We are talking about the so-called legal bombs. Having planted them, fraudsters can then easily not fulfill the contracts due to their invalidity. There are many options here, and all of them still work.
For example, the contract is signed by the director of the company, who, according to its charter, does not have the right to sign such contracts. As a result, the transaction is not executed, is recognized by the arbitration court as invalid, and the fraudsters can use the funds transferred by the counterparties for several months as an interest-free loan, if they do not disappear altogether, if the company is a one-day company that is opened for fictitious persons. The company may have a good history, but then it is sold, the new owners show the partner a notarized copy of the old composition of the founders, and the company in the meantime has already been re-registered to a fictitious person. And even a surety agreement of a well-known bank, if read inattentively, cannot serve as a guarantee. Such a document must have a strict form determined by law. It is enough to change some wording, even without changing its essence, and the arbitration court will release the guarantor from liability due to the nullity of this agreement.
Such "legal bombs" can be found in insurance, lease, real estate, car purchase agreements. They are encountered by those who save on lawyers, and today there are most of them.
The criminal group was divided into four divisions.
The first accepted cash collected from terminals. The second searched for new locations to install machines, rented space, and monitored the operation of the terminals. Representatives of the third "department" took cash from the terminals and delivered it to an underground cash desk. The last department laundered criminally obtained funds, legalizing funds through the accounts of controlled commercial organizations.
"Duplicate Work" - A Method of Fraud
Construction without proper control is an inexhaustible source of abuse.
One of the simplest methods of fraud is "duplication of work". For the same work, actually performed once, two or more contracts are concluded with similar, but not literally identical, descriptions of the work. For example, for the preparation of design documentation, its verification, re-verification, preparation for submission to the relevant authorities, obtaining the appropriate approvals, etc. All these stages of development and approval of design documentation are in fact performed by one contracting organization, and according to the documents they are divided between several contractors with very similar subjects of contracts, and the price, of course, is inflated several times.
The involvement of intermediaries does not always make clear economic sense
The classic scheme is overpricing for purchased goods, works, services. There is a lot of room for maneuver here. Starting from falsification or artificial holding of a tender, ending with fictitious acts of acceptance and transfer for "completed" works.
The services of various intermediaries are widely used in business practice. Let's remember, for example, all sorts of customs brokers, licensing and certifying agencies, trade intermediaries, dealers, distributors, etc.
Not always does the involvement of intermediaries make clear economic sense. For example, why does a company purchase equipment of well-known Western companies from unknown regional firms, and not from official representatives? If you do not see the economic sense in involving an intermediary, then perhaps he is not there. But, most likely, there is an overpricing and withdrawal of assets.
Own bill acceptor
The fraudsters installed their own bill acceptor into one of the payment terminals and transferred random amounts to the accounts of fictitious persons by repeatedly passing the same banknote through it. Then, using a service card, they deleted information about the transaction and cashed the money.
Fake commercial offers via email
You receive an e-mail with an offer to purchase goods at an unfavorable price from company X. The letter may include a draft contract or a sample application form for purchasing goods along with a sample bank reference.
Before officially signing the contract, you are required to transfer money allegedly to pay for some services, such as processing various documents (visas, invitations, permits), legalizing or activating a contract in government agencies and ministries, or paying tariffs.
To transfer money, the scammers offer an account opened in the name of an individual.
An example of accounting savvy
The chief accountant, who had worked for the company for over 10 years, transferred money to “her” shell companies, and then physically changed the “payment purpose” column in bank statements by writing tax transfers there (she covered the inscription with proofreader, printed “tax payment” on top and made a photocopy). Over three years, she was able to appropriate thousands of dollars in this way.
The most interesting thing is that these machinations were uncovered completely by accident. A new general director came to the company. One day, he noticed a fax that the chief accountant sent to the insurance company about “attaching” her daughter to the corporate health insurance. The general director did not like this, and he went straight to the specialists. After a thorough study of all the financial documentation, they discovered that payment orders were missing for a number of regularly transferred tax payments. The details are in the reports, the purpose is indicated, but there are no payment orders. Further steps were a matter of “technicality”.
Corporate Debit Cards
A large company issued corporate debit cards to its employees. The cards were credited with certain amounts in advance, intended to pay for travel, entertainment and other expenses. Subsequently, the employee submitted reports on the amounts spent. When he quit, this debit card was confiscated and handed over to the bank.
However, one of the accounting employees decided to give the cards of the dismissed employees a "second life". She did not hand them over to the bank, but continued to transfer advance payments to their accounts, which were then successfully materialized through an ATM. During one of the regular internal audits, the management became interested in why the volume of advance payments for which no reports were provided was so large.
Issuing a fake check
Used by foreigners in their relations with domestic businessmen. When paying for goods, a counterfeit check is written out. If our businessman, after an embarrassing incident at the bank, where they refuse to pay him such a check, finds a foreign fraudster, the latter can brazenly declare that he wrote a real check, you received money on it and want to receive money on a counterfeit one.
Paying customs duties at someone else's expense
The company is asked to pay a customs duty, which is a significant part of the cost of the imported goods, in exchange for a share of the profit from the sale of these goods. During the preliminary analysis of the project, the company's specialists conclude that the goods are available and everything in the deal is clean. For greater guarantee, the recipient of the goods is appointed to be the bank where the future victim is serviced.
The company pays the customs duty and after some time its employees are sent to customs to receive the goods. However, it turns out that at the expense of the paid customs duty, goods were allowed through the border under a very similar contract. Naturally, this contract was also prepared by scammers. As a result, their goods passed through without a customs duty, and the company has a lot of problems.
Prepayment to a “reputable” enterprise
Cautious businessmen are in no hurry to make an advance payment to unfamiliar companies.
In this case, fraudsters with sufficient initial capital buy out a well-known company that has been fulfilling its obligations in good faith. The most important condition for the buyout is the confidentiality of the transaction, that is, the change of ownership is kept strictly secret by the parties.
Convincing the client to make an advance payment, the new owners name companies with which the previous owners have worked for a long time and successfully. Fraudsters even give the phone numbers of partners who are not informed about the change of ownership of the company. Such partners confirm the company's efficiency to the client.
There seems to be no reason to doubt and the client agrees to the advance payment. Then the fraudsters act according to the scheme described below "Using the prepayment system".
For managers with a reputation
One of the most criminal methods, when the head of a company well-known in the business world is persuaded to participate in a seemingly very profitable deal. Since such a director usually values his reputation, he is offered to keep the collected money in the account of his enterprise to prevent fraud. Money is accumulated under the good reputation of the director and his company, and the director is full of desire to fulfill his obligations.
However, at this moment, representatives of a criminal structure come to him and force him to transfer money to the account specified by them. At the same time, all the necessary documents are drawn up so that the return of funds in court or otherwise is impossible.
Then the director is killed (the preferred option is to take him away somewhere far away, but we have not heard of such cases). No money, no director, no one to ask. The clients have lost money, and the naive director has lost his life.
Multiple use of collateral
A fraudulent company offers to carry out joint activities. The money must be transferred to this company not just like that, but against collateral. Representatives of your company are shown this collateral, which many times exceeds the amount you are transferring and is also very liquid.
After the funds are transferred, you wait for the goods. When they do not arrive, you decide to take the collateral. However, it turns out that several dozen more creditors are laying claim to this collateral.
Such a scam rarely works with banks, since banks control the correct execution of the collateral, and employees of simple commercial enterprises usually do not know these rules well.
Therefore, before you formalize the collateral, make sure that it is not re-collateralized.
Forgery of guarantees and letters certifying the reliability of a partner
Domestic businessmen are often very naive when making international deals, often believing inflated guarantees and letters confirming the reliability of a foreign company.
Sometimes scammers use names of organizations that sound similar to world-famous banks and companies. They can create such names themselves by replacing one or two letters.
When dealing with the companies “Pansonic”, “Panassonic”, “Panasonik”, some of our businessmen were initially sincerely convinced that they were purchasing products from the world-famous company “Panasonic”. Then they figured it out, but nevertheless continue to deceive the population, selling fakes with a changed letter in the manufacturer’s name for the “company”.
Creation of a supposedly subsidiary foreign company
Fraudsters can act on behalf of a subsidiary of a well-known foreign company. To do this, it is enough to invent a loud name and register the company under this name.
It can be called, for example, “Bosch Belorashn”, “Dior International”. If the registration authority suddenly objects to the use of the names of well-known companies, then the solution is simple: the name is registered as an abbreviation, which is deciphered in internal and falsified documents. To increase their prestige, these documents are provided to clients for review.
As a result, clients are not surprised if in payment orders for transferring money they are asked to simply indicate: “ABM, regional office”.
After the official registration of the company, the fraudsters fabricate documents indicating their family relationship with the famous company and that the latter acts as a guarantor of their operations.
Practice shows that not all clients are meticulous enough and carefully study the documents provided, and even more so do not contact the registration authorities or the relevant authorities to clarify additional details. Investigations usually begin after the client has already suffered from fraudsters.
The described fraud is usually committed by people who actually worked or work in foreign representative offices in secondary positions, but have access to some internal company documents. Based on such documents, they make fairly high-quality fakes. In addition, in representative offices, you can get catalogs and conclude contracts on their behalf with the condition that the contract must be executed by a well-known company, and the money will be sent to the account of the fraudulent company.
Using the prepayment
a) Money is collected from customers in the form of an advance payment under contracts for the supply of specific goods. The collected funds are placed in a bank at interest. At the same time, the company that collected the money does not plan to fulfill its delivery obligations.
After the period specified in the contract, the customers begin to worry and demand their money back. The employees of the fraudulent company make excuses, citing unforeseen circumstances and showing fake documents stating that the pre-paid goods will soon arrive. Attempts to “run into” the swindlers do not yield any serious results, since the latter turn out to have a reliable “roof”. Time is dragged out in every possible way, and interest is accruing in the bank.
b) The collected money is actually used to purchase the goods, the goods arrive and are sold. However, the client is told that the suppliers turned out to be swindlers and that the company that collected the money “burned out”. But since the “money collectors” are honest people, they will give this money back as soon as they can. And indeed, after several “rolls” of the collected money, the amount invested by the client is returned to him. As a result, all the income from the operation goes to the scammers.
There is no talk of paying penalties, since clients are warned in advance that an attempt to achieve non-payment of the penalty will mean non-repayment of the principal amount of the debt.
c) You can “run into” a fictitious enterprise that is not registered anywhere, the director uses a passport in someone else’s name, and the bank account is opened for a small bribe.
The money received in such an account is quickly transferred abroad, where it is cashed. The director himself disappears from the sight of both the client and law enforcement agencies. He usually negotiates with informal debt collection groups in advance.
Massive conclusion of contracts for the supply of goods with limited demand
A wholesale company is confidentially offered a batch of goods that are in limited demand. The company's specialists find out that although the demand is limited, it exists in the absence of the goods. Therefore, the prices for the goods are high and promise high profits. As a result, a supply contract is signed and an advance payment is transferred. The contract specifically stipulates its confidentiality and a large penalty in case of refusal of the supplied goods.
Similar work is carried out with other wholesale suppliers. They also study the market and are convinced that although the goods are not in mass consumption, they are not on the market and they can make good money on them. They also enter into confidential contracts with a large penalty.
Then there are three main options.
The first option. All wholesale buyers throw their goods on the market, which is immediately overstocked, and prices fall sharply. The seller makes money by ensuring confidentiality. Moreover, if the seller is a monopolist in the supply of goods, then at the first stage he himself could have organized a shortage of goods, and, consequently, high prices for them.
The second option. Even before the delivery of the goods, a leak of information about a large number of contracts for the supply of the specified goods is organized. Wholesale buyers begin to fuss in advance in order not to end up in big losses. It is impossible to refuse the delivery, since in this case the large amount of the penalty will ruin them.
At this moment, a kind gentleman appears who agrees to buy the goods at a price that is unprofitable for the wholesale buyer, but nevertheless more acceptable compared to paying the penalty. The deal is concluded and the wholesale buyer saves the bulk of his money, and the supplier earns according to the following scheme:
The scheme does not include the goods. If the operation is carried out correctly, it is needed in one copy, which is demonstrated to all potential wholesale buyers.
Third option. Demand for the goods is artificially organized. To do this, the supplier of the goods agrees with several not very honest companies that they will advertise for a commission fee about their extremely urgent need for the equipment that the fraudulent supplier sells. As a result, the impression is created that this equipment is in demand. And there will certainly be a few naive wholesale buyers who will sign contracts for the supply of equipment even before a contract for its sale is signed.
But even if a contract for sale is signed, it is enough to stipulate the purchase of goods at a competitive price. This price will be the understated price of the fraudulent supplier. At this price, the goods are purchased from the wholesale buyer. As a result, the scheme will look like this:
Compromising competitors
A large-scale campaign to discredit the products manufactured or sold by competitors is being conducted through the media. As a result, the opportunities for the sale of goods by the company that organized the compromise increase.
Some time ago, a series of articles appeared in the press telling how bad the Japanese “R” type machines are for tax control and how good the Russian “O” machines are. By inserting two matches under the “O” levers, you can punch out checks on this machine without a mark on the control tape. Nevertheless, tax inspectorates stopped registering “R” machines. As a result, the demand for “O” machines has increased sharply.
Adding unperformed work or services
Such falsifications are made in order to obtain additional income.
Falsifications are carried out by different organizations. Transport organizations usually falsify kilometers or ton-kilometers, builders - the volume of work performed and use incorrect "winding" coefficients, in public catering they falsify the amount of food consumed and drink, and also overstate the quality of the consumed products (especially in the case of paying for a large banquet).
Such falsifications are not always detected. If they are detected by attentive customers, then the blame is usually attributed to negligent workers. After that, such a client is treated with caution and in cases where it is not a pity to lose a picky client, they do him minor dirty tricks (for example, delay the fulfillment of his orders). Bribery of employees of customer enterprises or suppliers. Fraudsters inflate prices and volumes of work performed, and in order for the client's representatives not to reveal violations, they are given a bribe.
Financing Western banks
Western fraudsters often pull off scams. For example, an organization is offered to receive cheap funds (at least $100 million) from one of the Western banks under the guarantee of its assets. Moreover, the deception is carried out quite professionally - messages in the SWIFT banking network, traveling abroad to sign an agreement, etc. After all the documents are drawn up, a representative of the Western company offers to pay only the transaction costs - 2-5% of the loan amount. Then the representative disappears.
And here is another financial scheme. An American, Swiss, any other financial company appears, offering businessmen financing from Western banks under a number of programs. Even a bank guarantee is provided - it is not surprising if it is genuine: it costs about $20 thousand. All you need is to quickly make a Western-style business plan, which representatives of this very financial company are ready to undertake for only $35-50 thousand. While the business plan is being developed and formalities are being settled, the guarantee expires, and money is also needed to extend it. And so on ad infinitum. There are known cases when companies lost hundreds of thousands of dollars this way. There are many schemes, but sometimes it is not difficult to avoid being "caught", since the fraudsters use certain phrases to make their fake documents look credible. But here is an example of a really funny scam (nevertheless, for some reason, many people become victims of such schemes). Strictly once every six months, people come to businessmen with an interesting offer. They introduce themselves as former employees of the secret services and tell a story that now they, allegedly, work for an American government fund that controls the printing of dollars. The offer is as follows: open an account, they say, and deposit $1 million for six months, and then, after a certain time, you will receive a deposit three times the amount. The legend: the American reserve fund is extremely interested in freezing large sums so that dollars are temporarily out of circulation. They show a completely plausible agreement, a bunch of special documents, but everything is so confusing that not every lawyer can figure it out. The scam is as follows: after the entire procedure is completed, the account becomes available to a third party, who withdraws the money, and this nuance is very difficult to camouflage in the agreement.
Legal illiteracy of businessmen
A significant part of fraud is connected with the legal illiteracy of businessmen. We are talking about the so-called legal bombs. Having planted them, fraudsters can then easily not fulfill the contracts due to their invalidity. There are many options here, and all of them still work.
For example, the contract is signed by the director of the company, who, according to its charter, does not have the right to sign such contracts. As a result, the transaction is not executed, is recognized by the arbitration court as invalid, and the fraudsters can use the funds transferred by the counterparties for several months as an interest-free loan, if they do not disappear altogether, if the company is a one-day company that is opened for fictitious persons. The company may have a good history, but then it is sold, the new owners show the partner a notarized copy of the old composition of the founders, and the company in the meantime has already been re-registered to a fictitious person. And even a surety agreement of a well-known bank, if read inattentively, cannot serve as a guarantee. Such a document must have a strict form determined by law. It is enough to change some wording, even without changing its essence, and the arbitration court will release the guarantor from liability due to the nullity of this agreement.
Such "legal bombs" can be found in insurance, lease, real estate, car purchase agreements. They are encountered by those who save on lawyers, and today there are most of them.
