The SA ghost line – South
African Shipping (SAS) – has
been sunk.
Not literally.
But Grindrod – whose
subsidiary Island View Shipping
(IVS) had most of its web-site
lifted to form the SAS bulk
shipping web-page, and Unicorn
Shipping, whose whole website
was copied to link up to a
supposed bill of lading (BoL)
used in the scam – has been
dropping legal depth charges in
the US.
This followed the FTW
investigation being fed
information by Marius Louw of
ID Verification Systems (another,
but not the same, IVS) who
revealed that an internet search
he had done had identified the
information service provider
(IPS) for the false Unicorn
Shipping web-page as being in
Westchester in California, USA.
“The registration service was
provided by NameCheap.com,”
he said, “with WhoisGuard the
registrant, administrative and
technical contact.
“For the southafricanline.
com web-page it was the same
registrar of the domain – with the
difference being that a company
sechostweb.com seems to have
loaded the website and in some
way it is linked to the hosting or
design of the website.”
Meanwhile, according to
Jeremy Miles, chartering and
commercial manager for Island
View, Grindrod’s US lawyer had
been doing a similar search. But
he had taken it a stage further
– having legally addressed the
issue of the offending websites
with the US-based IPSs,
and having had both sites
deactivated.
“We have succeeded in having
the www.southafricanline.com
and www.unicornshippingline.
com taken down by the
respective ISPs in the USA,”
Miles told FTW. But we will
need to keep monitoring to
ensure they do not reappear in a
different guise!”
The whole scam is a form of
the “Nigerian letter” – selling
false promises for money. In it, the ghost line and
supposedly associated companies
purport to have 60 000-metric
tonnes of scrap SA rail lines
available for sale.
When an interested foreign
buyer bites the hook, the line
then purportedly books the 2 656
containers onto another shipping
line for transport to the buyer’s
destination.
In the two cases FTW has
investigated, one such shipment
was supposedly booked on
an MISC ship for transport to
Italy and the other by Unicorn
Shipping to South Korea. In
each, the lines do not sail the
routes named in the bills of
lading, and the voyage numbers
and other details are entirely
fictitious.
But they both had different
endings.
The sad one of the two was
the Italian company shipping in
the goods. After investigation by
a senior manager, who actually
came to SA, the company was
duped by its apparent findings
and the false bill of lading – and
forked out what is believed to
be a multi-million rand sum in
advance for the shipment.
But the second had a happier
ending. Direct contact from the
suspicious Korean buyer to the
genuine Unicorn Shipping in
Durban allowed the Grindrod
subsidiary to reveal the FTW
investigation results – that it was
all a scam! No monies were paid.
But the purported bill of
lading has also been sent to
others, according to Miles.
“We have had contact from
another Korean and a Dutch
businessman – both querying this
BoL,” he said. “I believe they
both have paid over money – but
how much, and to whom, is
unknown.”
Unicorn Shipping very quickly
e-mailed these parties, denying
that they were in any way
involved in such a shipment, and
that the whole thing was a scam.
Another set of fictitious
companies and representatives
has also been revealed to be
involved after the telephone call
from the Korean businessman.
“He advised that he had
dealt with the Mondial Trade
Company at the address: Suite
363, 7th Laan, Pretoria, 2010.
“We were told that the deal
HAD been done with this
company,” said Miles. “But we
investigated, and the company
name and address just don’t
exist.”
The Grindrod sleuths have
also come up with another
interesting angle to the scam –
with another US company which,
either innocently or otherwise,
had got itself involved in the
imaginary scrap metal deal.
“It appears that a US-based
importer/exporter had also put
the rail lines up for sale on the
internet,” said Miles.
His innocence or guilt will
probably be established by
the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI).
Miles told us that the US
lawyer has put this complaint,
and that of the false web-pages,
before the FBI for investigation.
“This is possible,” he said,
“because all these parties are
US-based.”
But whether all this legal
hustle-and-bustle will eventually
reveal the name(s) behind the
scam is as yet unclear – but very
much hoped for.
Any of you FTW readers
who feel you may have inside
information on the identity of
this fraudulent operator – or who
may have more to offer on the
fictitious scrap metal deal or the
false bills of lading – are invited
to contact investigative reporter,
Alan Peat, at: peat@netactive.
co.za
SA ‘ghost line’ sunk
31 Oct 2008 - by Alan Peat
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