An Unpleasant but Real Threat to the Finance Industry.
In considering any new “Funder” we have been forced to implement stricter due diligence procedures and in some cases we engage with an investigation partner in Hong Kong called Current Consulting. www.current-consulting.hk
The CEO of Current Consulting, Bjorn Wahlstrom says:
Over the past few years, we’ve been seeing a dramatic business expansion from scammer groups in Asia. These scams are usually orchestrated out of Southeast Asia, but we see them target companies and individuals across the globe. One of the drivers of this unfortunate development is the ongoing ascent of crypto into the mainstream. On multiple levels, crypto helps create the right conditions for scammers (the FOMO / the high returns / the relative lack of regulation around crypto). Crypto also helps simplify the infrastructure of scams and the money laundering side of things. We see a trend towards Hong Kong when it comes to laundering proceeds, perhaps because of the perceived lack of decisive action from the Hong Kong authorities in the areas of fraud.”
From Connaught’s perspective we have seen a multitude of scammer companies based in the middle east who have taken matters to a new level of deception. Not only do we receive full Terms and Conditions from such companies and they look very authentic but we have also had video conference calls with actual people.
Some basic aspects to investigate on any initial contact which should raise “Red Flags”
- Check their website – does it have your contact named?
- Look at the address on the website and run a trial “contact us” to see if there is any response.
- Call their landline (if any) to see if it is answered
- What is the email address of your contact? Often only a Gmail or Hotmail account and not company?
- Check LinkedIn to see if your contact has a profile and if so look at their contacts and reach out to a few of them for confirmation of the persons authenticity.
These are just the first stages of due diligence needed to identify scammers.
For full in depth investigations and reports, we highly recommend Bjorn Wahlstrom at Current Consulting. bjorn@current-consulting.hk
For more information on any of these articles or if you wish to discuss your finance requirements please contact us.