Elaborate web sites soliciting export and import business offer
get-rich-quick deals. Some include full texts of bogus ICC non-circumvention
and non-disclosure agreements. Other phoney references to watch out for are
"ICC Regulations 400,500 and 600" and "ICC Prove and Move Rules".
No such ICC documents and rules exist. Their appearance on web
sites should be seen as indicating a possible scam. They may in some cases be
used to lend credibility to fraudulent transactions.
Traders are well advised to familiarize themselves with ICC
rules and mechanisms that are used every day in the conduct of trade, for example
the rules governing letters of credit. The current version of Uniform Customs
and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP) is known as UCP 500. UCP 400 is out
of date and UCP 600 has yet to be issued.
ICC First Director Martin Wassell, said: "For years, incautious
investors and traders have fallen victim to fraudulent proposals involving paper
documents quoting non-existent ICC rules, and often they have been cheated of
large sums. Now it appears that the Internet is being used as a vehicle for
these schemes. The terminology changes constantly, but the risk is always there."
An added difficulty is that the documents wrongly quoting the
ICC are not necessarily designed to defraud unwary investors. In some cases
legitimate traders innocently quote the non-existent rules, having copied the
reference from correspondence they have received or from other web sites.
ICC’s London-based Commercial Crime Bureau, part of ICC
Commercial Crime Services, keeps close track of all types of documentary fraud
and issues warnings as soon as it detects new methods of parting th
e gullible
from their money. Any investor wishing to check out a dubious proposal is advised
to contact the CCB or ICC in Paris.
ICC Commercial Crime Bureau
ICC Commercial Crime
Services