Commodities Scams in the Works, Please Be Careful | Commodity Brokers

We were motivated in writing this blog about commodities scams due to a recent incident we experience which lead to no monetary loses, just valuable time lost. Here is a scenario that is being practice by scam artist in the commodities business.
They will contact you via Linkedin, Skype or any other social media available where your contact information is available. The contact begins as follow, a seller's representative reaches out to you as an example, seller for sugar, letting you know prices, sample contracts and procedures of seller. Then a day later, a buyer contacts you regarding a request for sugar. You establish a communication between seller and buyer. Then the seller responds very professional to your questions and things are running smooth (so you will think), then when the buyer receives a draft contract, the buyer signs and sends it to you. At this point you may be thinking, wow, I'm about to close on this big sugar deal with a big commission. Then the buyer advices you they need the contract by Wednesday of that week due to some traveling of the seller in which he needs to open up the letter of credit before departing. Then you advice the seller that buyer needs contract no later than Wednesday. The seller advices you that the contract cannot be done until Friday, but he is going to call the seller's office that operates in Italy and Brussels. Once he contacts the seller's office he manages to speak with the secretary in which he has negotiated a deal with her. The deal is, if she receives 300 Euros by the end of the day, she will push the contract and she will send it before Wednesday. The seller's representative will then ask you to split the fee of the 300 Euros, 150/150 Euros each. This is where they try to scam you, they want you to think that you are about close this big deal, with lots of commissions and 150 Euros is nothing and he's being helpful by paying half of the cost with you. The companies that are being use are the following; Lampinton, Ms. Giovanna Pointner (Bank's representative), Credit Agricole is one of the banks mentioned on the ICPO, Mr. Cedric Harmeling as buyer, Elisa Klein from Germany as the buyer's representative, Leon Bouquist claims he has 8 years in the sugar business.
We hope this message gets distribute to all our commodities members in Linkedin and everywhere we meet in order to stop these guys from scamming others that may not be aware of them. Please leave your comments below. Also forward this blog to all your friends involve with commodities and advice them of these scams going around.

How do you know if a seller has product or a buyer's representative is real?

As a facilitator, broker, business partner and any other type of association you may come across when dealing with International trades, how do you know if a seller has product or is he just full of BS? I have come across my share of buyers and sellers that say they are dealing with the end buyer or end seller, just to fall short, once both ends are interested and ready to negotiate. Of course, as a facilitator we do our due diligence to get these ends, to be as real as possible, but we would never know, if these sources are 100%, until we have seen the product and even then, "International trading has a way of magically screwing itself up at some point", during the process.
The purpose of writing this post, was to get some feedback from all of you, that are currently in the trading business and how, has your experience been, when dealing with sellers and buyers that say they are dealing direct with the sources. How do you know?
Our experience has been unique, the business has brought many great contacts along the way, which makes up from all the garbage you deal within the business, in a daily basis. I, believe, I have come to one conclusion and that is, make as many scenarios and outcomes of what can or you want to happen in your negotiations with the buyer or seller, you are representing. Do not take their words, ask questions, ask some more questions and when you are not sure, just keep asking questions. These guys are experts in evading questions, not being upfront and just plain "Scam Artists". Everyone, wants to get to a real source, without caring who they screw along the way, this happens daily in the industry, is part of the business for some people out there. They, make you feel comfortable, you get them the end sources and then, forget you. This is what I'm trying to get out to all of you that work hard in a daily basis and are not seeing the fruits of your efforts, just because of people that act in this way and in my dictionary are just considered, "Scam Artist". Be aware of them, the sooner you realize the way these individuals operate, the more time you will have to deal with the right people.
I leave you with this thought, are you in business to just say you're in business or are you in business to close a sale, get compensated and have your own working business? I am sure, we all are in the second option, we know were we stand!

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Liberty Capital Funding, Inc.
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