RED FLAGS FOR SCAM LEASE OFFERS.

It is an unfortunate fact that a high percentage of the business deals appearing on the internet are not genuine but are fraudulent scams of one sort or another. Those of us in the business community hoping to secure real transactions have to take appropriate precautions.

Elementary “Due Diligence” includes

1)Testing your correspondent against the fraud blacklist web sites, for instance:

http://www.bnm.gov.my/microsites/fraudalert/index.htm

http://www.petrofinder.com/carbon/carbon_list.php

http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/

http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud

https://ferm-rotterdam.nl/en/blacklist/

2) Make sure the person/business entity exists in a reliable jurisdiction and in the case of a company is properly registered under the regulatory authority and is subject to an acceptable Company law, annual external auditing and filing. Individuals should always be asked for a passport copy. Be aware that there are many instances of “identity theft” A few phone calls may help to establish if the person really is who he claims to be. Don’t be taken in by females who are equally capable and therefore suspect.

3) ADVANCE PAYMENT SCAM; Unless you have done comprehensive due diligence on the lessor company don’t have anything to do with lessors asking for PRE-PAYMENT for any reason, including Pre-advice, Transmission charges etc. DD includes checking the registration and credit rating, regulatory authority listing such as FSA how long the company has been in existence.

4) IDENTITY THEFT; lessor pretends to represent a bank, insurance company or other financial institution ; test this claim by telephoning the named entity and see if the email address is a private domain or one of the free advertising mailers such as gmail, yahoo, hotmail, AOL etc.

5) CORPORATE RE-FUND GUARANTEE ; expose this fraud by asking for the company registration and annual report, passports of all directors and paid up capital; When the fraudster gets your money they close the company. leaving no recourse for the prospective lessee.