Many of the scam attempts we receive regularly are not exclusively targeting furniture professionals in Vietnam but are most probably going around the whole world. We would like to share our experience hoping it will be useful to others. Your comments and experiences in this matter would be a great contribution to make this post as useful as possible for our furniture industry colleagues.

As we have all learnt over the years, online scams, hoaxes and other strategies to get unsuspecting people to pay out money or give out personal details are a common phenomenon. There is quite a bit of literature out there to inform potential targets if they are willing or knowledgeable enough to search for it. However, seeing the increase of suspicious emails that we receive regarding our furniture business, we thought it would be interesting to compile some examples of specific ploys targeting honest and unsuspecting furniture business owners (furniture producers, furniture retailers and traders, etc.).

Hopefully other colleagues in the industry can help us compile an even more comprehensive list of scams targeting furniture professionals around the world.

We will begin this compilation by the most common form of scams, those coming into our inbox on a regular basis but if you are interested in newer scams we are detecting via social networks such as Linkedin, please scroll down to reach this data directly.

1) Internet scams targeting furniture industry professionals: Phishing scams

Impossible not to begin our review with this very common and hugely successful scamming technique. It is called “phishing” to remind us of fishing, meaning that these emails are sent to hundreds of thousands of people with scammers counting on the fact that there will always be some, even if it is a small percentage, that will bite the bait (hence the idea of “fishing”). The “P” in “phising” is there on purpose as most of these scams originated (and are still being massively launched from) in Nigeria and by reading these emails, you would find a huge number of blatant spelling mistakes. This technique is called “Nigerian scams” but also “419 scams” (The number “419” refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud, read more here). This does not seem to be enough anymore to distinguish a professional email from a scam email. Today, these emails are becoming more focused and industry specific, and the spelling mistakes tend to disappear so it can be more difficult to identify the true nature of a furniture buying request email.

It is quite unfortunate for the real and sincere furniture buyers in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, etc. but honestly, the risk is quite big of wasting your time submitting furniture prices or quotations (the best case scenario) or even worse, loosing money if you get dragged into the scam which will progressively ask for increasing amounts of money to make a hugely profitable (so it would seem) transaction taking place…please remember to carry out your due diligence and perhaps some of the methods we mention here can be of use so that you distinguish the real from the fake furniture buyers.

Originally phishing scams relied on the greed of the person receiving the email (i.e.: getting your hands on an inheritance that is not yours, receive a portion of a multi-million dollar dormant bank account that is not yours, etc.), asking for advance fees (for legal documents, etc.) is the usual way they work. In the case of the furniture industry, scammers rely on the difficult situation that many furniture producers, retailers, etc. are experiencing and that makes them willing to strike deals without always taking the necessary precautions.

This is a classical example of a phishing scam, just for those who have not yet heard of them. Most people will be amazed that others can fall for these emails but please remember that a highly-educated and high-level Director of a Brazilian bank (Banco Noroeste), Nelson Sakaguchi (read more here) fell for one of these scams and ended up using hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to his employer  before (and even after) realizing he was being fooled, leading to the collapse of the bank.

etc., etc., in one way or the other, these basic and original “Nigerian scam” or “phishing” emails are all similar.

A specific symptom of “phishing” victims is that they keep on sending increasing amounts of money at the request of the scammers because it is just impossible for them to believe that they are being scammed and also because the end of the road (the proof that they were right to beleive in the promises, the promised contract or huge payback) is within reach (or so it seems but each time an additional, larger payment is required).

Now let us get more specific with examples related to the furniture industry, in Vietnam and elsewhere, location is not relevant.

Example n° 1 of phishing scams targeting furniture professionals:

Spontaneous email from someone claiming to work with the Government in Ghana and wanting buy your furniture

From: Mr.Samuel Okpo <[email protected]>

Dear Madam/Sir,

An open Tender for the supply of your products to the Government of Ghana.Urgently

furnish us in full details about the standard of your product.We will appreciate it more

if you can give us with detail specification/price lists to avoid making a wrong choice of

product.

Terms of Payment: An upfront payment of 80% (T/T) will be made to your account for

production, while 20% will be paid before shipment.

Regards
Mr.Samuel
Accra-Ghana

Some ways to see red flags that should warn you of the potential this email has of being a scam:

* the sender’s email address is [email protected]. A government employee (or serious professional working for a real business) would not normally approach you via a free email account instead of using an email with the domain name of his business. The email adress has a number “10”, this is often symptomatic of email accounts created on free email providers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) by a robot (program or sofware), they use the same prefix and then just add a number as they create hundreds of similar email addresses and accounts. This is because each account can normally only send a limited number of emails and they will need many accounts to spam thousands of potential victims.

The only reason one (professional furniture buyer) would use such an email address (free email like livemail, hotmail, gmail, rocketmail, yahoo, etc.) might be to protect themselves from receiving spam in return if their email address gets shared around and included in spam mailing lists. Most real professionals just use a “throwaway” email address but it is still connected to a real domain belonging to the business (i.e.: “[email protected] or [email protected]), this way then can delete the account if it is heavily spammed later. All consistent leads from the throwaway account are transferred to a more permanent email for future emails related to furniture transactions.

* in this email, the sender seems to be ready to buy your furniture (note that they mention “products” and not specifically “furniture” so they can target across multiple industries with the same template email), despite not knowing much about it or your business. They mention an open tender but, if it really exists, it should mention what kind of furniture they need and for what purpose (libraries, offices, restaurants, etc.), a copy of the tender should be included as well as their specifications, there is none.

* regarding payment terms, they seem too generous to be true, 80% upfront and then 20% upon shipping is not very common but once more, it sounds so good that most furniture sellers will be happy to hear it and eager to learn more, the bait is there.

* regarding means of payment, payments by T/T (telegraphic transfer, bank wire) are ideal for sellers but rarely used by serious and professional furniture buyers who will prefer L/C (letters of credit) to cover their backs at least for an initial transaction.

* it seems you can provide the details of any kind of furniture for any purpose and they will have a look at it, our guess is they will love whatever you send them and the scam will progress from there.

Example n° 2 of phishing scams targeting furniture professionals:

Using a name of an individual or corporation that really exists to make the furniture purchase request seem legitimate and enticing

Another phishing technique, using the name of someone with a position that implies wealth and the ability to import high-end furniture, in this case, the name of a general from Guinea-Buissau is used. You can always look up the name in Wikipedia, like in this case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Indjai ) but this is just someone impersonating this person and using his name to give credibility to this kind of emails.

—–Original Message—–
From: Antonio Indjai
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 4:00 PM Subject: Can you assist in home purchase

Hello Sir
I am General Antonio Indjai from Guinea-Bissau Chief of General Staff, I want to buy a family living home in your country , please let me know if you can assist me.
Waiting for your quick reply.
Thanks.
General Antonio Indjai

Some ways to see red flags that should warn you of the potential this email has of being a scam:
* obviously this sender does not care if you sell furniture or real estate, he is just “phishing” around to see who takes the bait by impersonating this general.

Example n° 3 of phishing scams targeting furniture professionals:

The order for your furniture is approved! Just send us an invoice

Once more, phishing to see who takes the bait, in this case, the order for your furniture seems guaranteed, all you need to do is to send your invoice 🙂

From: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2014 1:44 AM
Subject: Product order

Dear sir,
we have gone through your products and our company
which is based in canada wishes to place an order in
your company. This needs an urgent and careful
attention.
please follow the link below.
[http://wandakoo.de.tf/],to see products and
quantities required for each. we require u to send
us your proforma invoice as soon as possible.
Please do not hesitate to reach us if any problem.
Thanks for your much expected understanding.
Yours Melvin,
For purchasing manager.
Tel: 530 327 9332

Some ways to see red flags that should warn you of the potential this email has of being a scam:
* the English is informal and unprofessional (i.e.:”u” instead of “you”, “Thanks for your much expected understanding”)
* there is a sense of urgency that seems unnatural, to the point that they request a proforma invoice instead of a quotation or price-list without having seen your furniture, this is definitely not a professional request you can trust
* the phone number has no country code though it might still be operational as scammers have an elaborate net of international phone numbers with country codes all redirecting to specific country from which they operate
* the link provided seems very suspicious, better not to click on it in these circumstances

Example n° 4 of phishing scams targeting furniture professionals:

Using fake referrals and other people’s identities

Another enticing email using all the ingredients of a phishing scam, targeting not only furniture manufacturers but potentially (as no specific product is mentioned), all kinds of manufacturers.

Here are some typical ingredients:

* the value and interest for your products is already proven, the order is almost there

* link to a website that is not professional (most experienced internet users will know that yolasite.com is a free blogging/website hosting platform, not really for professional use)

* using the name of a reputed businessman with links to Dubai will only enhance interest of those furniture producers that look up the name as the Gulf Coast region is of course a highly attractive market for anyone involved in the furniture industry.

* better not to open the attached zip file unless you run an anti-virus scan for trojan horses or other malicious files within

 

Example n° 5 of phishing scams targeting furniture professionals:

Highly detailed technical specifications to make the request more legitimate

Some scam emails can contain highly detailed technical specifications that make them seem very credible, at the best, you will waste time preparing an offer, at the worst, you will end up loosing money sending samples, paying fees for entering your tender, paying fees for legal documents necessary for the signature of the contracts that are awaiting you, etc.

 

2) Internet scams targeting furniture industry professionals: Social Network scams

Fake profiles and impersonations abound in social networks. Here are some examples of how people use social networks to trick or scam furniture producers, retailers and professionals working in the furniture industry.

It must be said that we are quite disappointed with Linkedin for not taking action despite some of these scam posts being flagged as such by users. We see the same profile posting the same posts every several months, in the same furniture groups that are followed by thousands of furniture professionals.

Example n° 1 of social network scams targeting furniture professionals:

Linkedin direct personal email after posting a comment on a discussion thread

A perfect example of impersonating someone even though in this case, it is just the photo that has been used and not the name of the person. This email was went after we participated in a discussion thread at “Association of Furniture Sales Professionals”, a popular (19.000 members) group for furniture professionals.

On 07/18/14 3:19 AM, Tony M. wrote:
——————–
Response to your post.

We are seeking for reliable furniture contractors/ suppliers for the furnishing of the 24-local
government council secretariats.

Pls confirm this message with your contact details and furniture models for offices,
examples managerial desks, secretarial desks, filing cabinets and Panels.

Thank you.
Tony Mba
International Consultant
Ministry of Interior
Abia State government-Nigeria.

Despite all the visible red flags (see below), we answered for the heck of it, here is the answer:

Dear xxx,

Thanks for your timely response.

I am happy to know that your company is interested to participate in the on-going project been executed by Ministry of Interior, Abia State government-Nigeria. We are open to have a look at what you are offering and willing to introduce your company to the Contract Awarding Committee of the Ministry, If it presents classic brands with good quality.

It would be of help if you will send your company furniture models and prices via email : [email protected]

This is to enable us submit all the details to the Head of Procurement (tender Board) for onward considerations

Thank you,
Tony Mba
International Consultant
Ministry of Interior
Abia State government-Nigeria
[email protected]
Tel. +234-70-4124-2114.

Some ways to see red flags that should warn you of the potential this email has of being a scam:

* obviously, on a network like Linkedin, the first thing to do is investigate the profile that sent you the message. The first suspicious thing you will notice when visiting this fake profile is that it only has ten contacts which is very strange for an “International consultant” working for the Nigerian government…

 

* you will also notice the Company name attached to this profile doesn’t exist either, not enough effort was taken to make this profile appear legitimate

* final proof is when you “reverse search” the photo of this profile, any search engine with that capability (you upload the photo and you will see where else on the internet the photo appears) will show you that the photo corresponds to a legitimate businessman that has nothing to do with the profile on LinkedIn:

* the last clue comes from their reply, despite having forwarded some information to them, the answer repeats the request for the same information, this is probably an “auto-respond” function that answers your emails without anyone actually reading them. A human scammer might only read your message after you have replied to two of their automated messages, ensuring they only focus on the “fish” that have bit deep into the bait.

Example n° 2 of social network scams targeting furniture professionals:

Fake job offers for furniture professionals (producers, retailers, consultants, etc.)

 

Despite flagging this post as spam and the fact that several users replied to the thread with comments such as this one,

other users continue to this day to post their credentials and references in reply to this post. The real problem is when some follow the link this person has posted and then sign-up (leaving personal data) on the jobsite that is linked to. While we do not have reason to doubt of this jobsite, it is clear that the offer this fake profile makes is very misleading and is done for the sole purpose of gaining affiliate revenues (commissions for getting industry professionals to sign-up on that jobsite).

 

Some ways to see red flags that should warn you of the potential this email has of being a scam:

* the profile seems obviously fake:

5 connections is quite limited, even if you consider quality over quantity.

* the photo on this profile is a stock photo that has been used and abused from dating sites to fake testimonials on different sites, it is definitely not a real photo of “Michelle Campbell”

* any ad, post, thread, etc. offering an easy way to get rich or to make money while working at home, immediately should make you wary of a possible scam, so many people would like to earn money like that (either because they are unemployed or would prefer to escape the daily rat race), they will believe any offer pretending to enable them to do so

* this user has posted the same posts of the same nature, tricking user to leave their personal details at this job-site and earning fees for each subscription. While this is not an extremely malicious scam, users are given false expectations of employment (scammer is preying on these harsh times for many furniture professionals) and then will receive emails (from the jobsite) that they really don’t need so the waste of time can be considerable in the long run

 

* for those that know about online marketing (not necessarily one of skills in the quiver of most furniture industry professionals, you will notice that the end of the url that our “friend” Michelle asks us to click on so that we can earn money without even visiting a furniture production site or a contract furniture project,

is actually an affiliate link (see the “aff=LI-AVme” at the end of the url). This affiliate link enables the jobsite (zintro.com) to identify which affiliate (a bit like a “sales agent”) got the new subscriber to sign-up and can then pay them the agreed commission fee for getting a new subscriber. I hope people from zintro.com can read this post and take action on this affiliate whose techniques are highly questionable from my point of view (and other Linkedin users of this Contract Furniture Professionals definitely agree and have asked for him/her to be banned and the posts removed, to no avail).

* use your preferred search engine and look up terms like “Stanley Furniture scam”, you will come across sites like scam.com or hoaxbusters.com (my personal favorite to bust most of the hoax/scam emails I’m not 100% sure about). By clicking through, you will see even more furniture industry oriented scams like this one (http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=132055):

Note: Stanley Furniture  is a very well reputed furniture company that obviously is an innocent victim of this scam. As always, scammers use identities of persons or corporations, and in some cases historical events (plane crashes, deaths of African presidents, etc. in phishing scams) that make them look legitimate and irresistible to their victims (who might use a search engine to check if the person, corporation or event exists).

Example n° 3 of social network scams targeting furniture professionals:

Alibaba direct personal email

Alibaba.com is a very famous business network. There are many serious professionals and furniture factories on this platform however, scammers often use this platform either directly (with profiles created on that website) or indirectly (as the example below, they are impersonating the network and try to make you believe the following email is coming from Alibaba.com=.

This scam is using Alibaba.com’s brand and graphics to make you believe that you need to verify your email address. If you don’t do this, you will miss important leads…

The main purpose of this kind of scam email is to get you to sign in to another website (usually the graphics of that website have been adapted to make it look like Alibaba.com’s email verification page) and leave your email and password there. Once the bad guys have your email and password on Alibaba.com, they can use it to trick other buyers and sellers on that famous website by making them think they are communicating with you. Your identity will be used to commit fraud and scam other furniture manufacturer, furniture producers and furniture buyers.

This email is well designed as the sender’s email seems to be the “Alibaba Service Team” (mailto:[email protected]) but this can easily be faked, the email itself might be fake or even real (the account has been hacked or the address has been replicated using software that email spammers use).

Some ways to see red flags that should warn you of the potential this email has of being a scam:

Always check the destination url by putting your cursor over the link they ask you to click on (in this case “VERIFY NOW”). You will see the destination is actually http://canadianwatertechnologies.net/admin/login-jsp.html, nothing to do with Alibaba.com

Normally, you would end up with a site looking like Alibaba.com (but with a strange url), in this case, when you click on the “VERIFY NOW”, you can clearly see the site has been hacked (notice the “Hacker inside” on the top left) so you won’t end up giving up your password but most times, unsuspecting users will see an official looking version of a site and enter their login details if they don’t notice the strange and unrelated url.

This technique is commonly used in other domains, unrelated to furniture. By faking bank or paypal user names and emails so that victims leave their bank or paypal login details.

By checking the destination url carefully you should be aware of it but the best way to avoid problems is to connect to the official website (in this case alibaba.com) and then login to your account. This way you will be sure that you will not be tricked.

Example n° 4 of social network scams targeting furniture professionals:

Tradekey direct personal email

Tradekey.com is another business network and professional directory that is growing in popularity. With increase in popularity and subscribed users, it becomes a target and a vehicle for professional scammers.

Here is an email we received after creating a company profile on Tradekey.com business network:

 

This message is quite similar to the one received from an email address pretending to be from Alibaba.com, in this case, Mr. Youssef Abdo is ready to buy some impressive quantities, 10.000 pieces initially and then 50.000 units per year. As it is a standard template, they ask if our price-lists are up to date but we have never published price-lists… As always, a buyer ready to purchase as soon as he receives an invoice, without having asked for a quotation or having seen a furniture sample, is unfortunately to good to be true in the furniture business.

After doing some quick search on the name Youssef Abdo and the company Soluciones Sinergicas QAG, we came acrosss a very similar email:

 

In this case the quantities of furniture to be ordered are different and the “buyer” does mention that he would like to test the product, so it does seem a bit more professional. However, if you just notice that the links on the email (“Reply Now” button for example), all point to a site that has probably been hijacked where you will be asked to enter your login details to Tradekey.com (and then of course, your online identity in Tradekey will be in the hands of scammers who can use it to trick other victims by posing as being from your company..).

Just put your mouse cursor on the link and notice in the bottom left of your screen, the link is pointing to a site called yoursvideo.com and not at all Tradekey.com. Most probably the landing page on this site is designed to look like the login page of Tradekey.com. In this case, the phishing attempt has been discovered as you will see this message if you decide to click-through on any link within the message.

 

Please always remember to check these kind of emails, in a few seconds following the steps above, you can instantly detect that this a phishing scam attempt targeting furniture professionals.

Update 27/11/14: There must be some virus (trojan probably) that infects our email since we just received an email from a metal wire mesh producer in China who received the same email as above and is replying to us, thinking we are the honourable Mr. Youssef Abdo… what is worrying forus is that our email address appears as the sender so definitely this email (the one we received earlier) took over our mailbox address and sent out more emails using our address. Here is the answer from the Chinese wire mesh producer, one more person that believes Mr. Abdo’s inquiry is legitimate:

From: Ann

Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2014 9:21 AM

To: contacts

Subject: Re: metal wire mesh

Dear Youssef Abdo,‍

Have a nice day.

I have received your inquiry for our company.

As your question, please notice the following answer:

1.Is our price list updated or affected by MXN to USD exchange rates : yes, our price update not only with MXN or USD rates but also the material price.

2. Do we have good shipper to handle export to Mexico: Yes, we have a good shipper.

I also like to introduce my company:

XXX XXXXX metal mesh products Co., LTD belonging to XXXXX Group Limited ,is located in Anping ,Hebei,China, Anping is the largest production base of Asia, and enjoy the reputation of the home town of wire mesh products. We can produce metal wire mesh as customer details with good price and quality. Our main product is bar support, hexagonal mesh, chain link fence and welded wire mesh.‍

Could you tell me what you need, then I will offer you best.

Ann

——————

XXX XXXXX Metal Mesh Products Co.,Ltd

WEB: www.XXXXX.com

TEL:+86-311-6618700XXXX
FAX:+86-311-6618XXXX

As we see here, this scheme is not only targeting furniture manufacturers.

3) Internet scams targeting furniture industry professionals: Brand impersonation scams

These are scams that did not target us directly but that are prevalent on the internet and that target directly furniture professionals, using and impersonating famous furniture brands.

These scams target unsuspecting furniture buyers by pretending to supply either furniture from famous and well reputed furniture brands or by other means like fake account receivable statements (the victim expects to receive money from clients -accounts receivables- of the furniture brand and then pocket a commission before sending back the balance to the furniture brand). Some scammers also use fake job offers from famous furniture brands in order to get victims to pays job application processing fees, of course, once the fee is paid, there is no job available. These scammers even send fake checks to their victims to make them believe all is fine and that they can send back a small fee.

Example n° 1 of furniture brand impersonation scams targeting furniture professionals:

Ashley Furniture, a reputed brand systematically impersonated by scammers

This reputable company has had its identity used so often in numerous scams that it even had to publish a warning on its own site:

Disclaimer: http://www.ashleyfurniture.com/Feedback/OnlineScam.aspx

 

Example n° 2 of furniture brand impersonation scams targeting furniture professionals:

Thomasville Furniture, a reputed brand systematically impersonated by scammers

Another reputed furniture company in the UK has also been misrepresented by scammers trying to trick furniture buyers into irresistible deals and fake furniture purchases. This is now a well-known scam called “door-to-door furniture scam”

Article from the Shrewsbury Lantern about door-to-door furniture scams (http://shrewsbury.net/?p=3335)

 

4) Internet scams targeting furniture industry professionals: Other scams

We would like our readers to contribute their experience here, we will gladly add your feedback here to make this post as useful as possible to our colleagues and hopefully, avoid disappointments in the future for some of us.

There are many varieties of scams going on at any given time, it seems that Craiglist is  a platform frequently used by scammers to trick private furniture buyers.

One last word of advice, if you want to be aware of your brand being misrepresented on the internet, just use a simple alert function available in major search engines so that you receive an email every time your brand is mentioned on the internet. For bigger furniture corporations, an e-reputation strategy is recommended and can be done either in-house or through a service provider.

If you know of a scam targeting either furniture professionals or furniture buyers, please do comment on this post or send us an email so we can include it in this post.

Example n° 1 of other kinds of scams targeting furniture professionals:

Elaborate e-mail with download form within a quotation request

Once more it seems like the need is urgent and that your products will be purchases as soon as you submit a quotation. This scam is a bit more elaborate as you will be invited to use a download window to obtain the precious PDF document with the furniture specifications….this window asks for your name, email address and password. Many victims might enter their email and password here and then become the object of identity theft..

The email body goes something like this (note how they use the identity of a real and reputable business to create interest BUT the email address ending in dane.gov.co is already looking phoney):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUXHABITAT DUBAI

Dubai Media City Arenco Tower
P.O.Box 450047 Dubai,
United Arab Emirates
Tel.: +971 44 32 79 72
Fax.:+971 44 32 79 71

Please Quote Urgent.

Please quote your best price for the supply work of the following item for our current project as attached in PDF sheet. Please specify the price with delivery charges.

Download The Document below to View Items Requesting & list the Price in next E-mail.

Where you can’t comply please specify.

Looking forward for the soonest reply.

Thanks.

Best Regards,

Mr Mohammad Al Murr
LUXHABITAT &copy; 2014
Date: 2014/09/17

 

IF YOU TRY TO ACCESS THE QUOTATION REQUEST DOCUMENTS, YOU WILL BE TAKEN TO A WINDOW WHERE YOUR PASSWORD DETAILS ARE REQUESTED:

NEVER, EVER enter your real email and password here or you can face serious issues in the future. If you have, then change your password asap. Another scam targeting furniture professionals…

 

Update 27/10/2014: Other emails that are coming in every day…

Once more, the use of a fake email (or free email service), the claim of an imminent order from somebody that has never interacted with you and an attached document (never open it) should make you wary and allow you to trash the email with the blink of an eye.

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