The National Bank of the KR warns of new cases of fraud through transfers: how Companies of the KR are being deceived under the pretext of investing in joint projects
Recently, cases have become more frequent when under the pretext of investing in the economy of Kyrgyzstan, fraudsters from other countries deceive our entrepreneurs. This was reported by the National Bank of the KR.
The scheme works as follows:
1. “Investor” contacts a partner in Kyrgyzstan and offers to invest funds in a joint project. The amounts are in the millions and even billions of dollars or euros.
2. Copies of the documents allegedly confirming the transfer of funds are sent to the Kyrgyz partner.
3. A person goes to the bank, shows documents for transfer, but does not receive money. And the bank cannot help in any way, because in fact, no one sent the transfer.
4. In the process of negotiations on investing funds to a local business, the so-called “investor” as a prerequisite can inform the local partner about the necessity to use other systems (for example, TELEX, RTGS), other than the SWIFT system, or requires a mandatory presence of the additional SWIFT gpi service (SWIFT Global Payments Innovation) or connecting to SWIFT through Alliance Lite2, or additional details, such as IBAN for transfer of funds.
Fraudsters may say that there were difficulties with the transfer or that money was sent, most likely but got stuck on the way.
5. A businessman interested in the implementation of the project is told about the complicated banking system in the Kyrgyz Republic and is offered to deal with the receipt of funds by himself/herself.
What do false investors offer?
Instead of receiving investment funds a company or businessman can lose their own funds. They are offered not to wait for the bank to sort out the transfer, and to transfer part of the funds to a partner in Kyrgyzstan in order to start a project.
They can say that for a successful transfer of funds, it is required to draw up additional documents, and for these purposes, it is necessary to send a small amount — 500 US dollars, 1 thousand euro and etc. For a company, the money seems to be small and businessmen are taking the bait.
In fact, there is no transfer, thus, the bank cannot issue the funds. Then local companies and their representatives apply to the National Bank with a request to assist in receiving transfers. But in this case, the National Bank is powerless.
During consideration of such requests, cases of pseudo-investors sending copies of incorrect payments (simply stated, fake ones), complicating the process and logic of sending a transfer are identified. As a result, questions arise in the honesty of the “investors”.
What does the most popular system SWIFT say about this?
Since, basically, in such schemes of pseudo-investors the terminology and topics around the SWIFT system are often mentioned, the National Bank is in constant contact with the SWIFT company and consults on issues of information security and fraud in the SWIFT system.
In this regard, the SWIFT company has informed the National Bank, that in recent years, SWIFT has periodically received requests from the users of different countries regarding cases of contacting clients of banks and banks themselves of various companies representing themselves as investors and promising to conclude the large contracts or investments for significant amounts.
At the same time, such pseudo-investors put forward as a prerequisite of concluding the transaction for corporations or banks to use the SWIFT Alliance Lite2 interface or the SWIFT gpi service.
Based on the analysis of such cases carried out by SWIFT, they were qualified as fraudulent actions against corporations or banks of SWIFT users.
It is important to know:
«The lack of the Alliance Lite2 interface or the SWIFT gpi service for user cannot serve as an obstacle to the implementation of any transactions through SWIFT, including investments», the NBKR warns.
If potential partners insist on this, this situation should certainly be qualified as suspicious. In any case, the conclusion of any contractual obligations of significant amounts must be preceded by a procedure for studying a partner, his business reputation, financial reporting and etc., in accordance with the norms of the national legislation and international practice.
Currently, almost all banks of the world use the SWIFT cross-border payment system for settlements. In this regard, Kyrgyzstan is not an exception. SWIFT protects data from unauthorized access, guarantees the completeness of transmitted messages, as well as their delivery and ensures the availability of the service for users 24/7.
How to recognize fraudsters?
The impossibility of the large foreign bank to send a transfer by the SWIFT system must already be suspicious. After all, the disconnection of the financial and credit institution from the system may indicate the problems of this bank in the field of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing or violation of banking activities or fraud.
It is important to be attentive while choosing partners, especially when it comes to large amounts. If an unknown fund, company, or businessman suddenly offers you to pour millions of dollars and euros in the economy of the country, then this should be alarming. It is worth studying carefully a potential partner in order not to take the bait of fraudsters.
The National Bank recommends being more attentive to the process of studying and choosing your partners, especially in case of agreements on large amounts of “investments”, as well as conditions of the concluded agreements.
Banks around the world use SWIFT precisely because the system is as secure as possible and provides all of its participants with access to the around-the-clock high-speed networks for transferring banking information. If you cannot receive the transfer in the bank, then claims should be addressed to a potential partner, because:
-there is no interest in delaying the issuance of an incoming transfer for Kyrgyz banks. It is more profitable for them to issue money and earn a commission on this;
-if there are problems with transfer on the way, only the sender and sending bank can investigate the problems. Kyrgyz bank and the National Bank will not be able to help with this matter in any way.
Source: Tazabek
