The fraud's progress — tenders

It is a fact one and all will agree with me, that despite the most competitive practices, unscrupulous elements sometimes do manage to trickle in, to dupe the innocent.

I don't mean to instill fear on anyone, but it is always advisable to take the necessary precautions when you are engaged in a transaction with a party with no physical contact.

Recently, a new and rising fraud in both e-commerce and even traditional trading has come into fore that has been giving many people sleepless nights. Information on tenders issued across the globe is a regular feature in leading print publications, and e-commerce and the company portals.

There are several agents who act as middleman in the bidding process for mostly overseas bidders. In many cases these middlemen have been found as frauds. These frauds call interested parties and ask for money in lieu of the tender document fee, earnest money and attorney charges. Once they have succeeded in luring the innocent party into the trap, they vanish into thin air.

Thus it becomes very essential to find out all antecedents of not only the company offering the tender, but also of this middleman. I would therefore like to caution prospective bidders to take time and ask them to disclose important information about themselves. Be firm in asking them to provide you the terms of the offer.

It is always profitable to do a little research before arriving at a conclusion. Better be sure than be sorry later.


source : Tradeindia