BOW WAVE 148

419 Scam Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2002 WavyLine.com	Issue No 148 23 Sep 02
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. 419 Scam E-mails
3. Guest Column: Aldwin Wight of GMSS
4. Klaipeda Port (Lithuania) adopts Green Award Scheme
5. Road Haulage Security
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Our item on haiku verse in the last Issue prompted the muse of the talented Capt. Roger Womersly in Thailand for the Readers of Bow Wave:
:

The hatch did not leak
The day it was hose tested
Alas it does now

When the sounding is
Less than the draft then the ship
Is surely aground

The Chief Engineer
said only a few tons had spilt
But many birds died

Outside Institute
Limits does a polar bear
Have Institute Claws

Once on demurrage
Always on demurrage so
My broker tells me

I thought that PANDI
Was a friendly Club until
It raised my calls

Calling all Chess Players

Reader Ray Hamilton is the Office/Compliance Manager for Senior Wright Ltd, Lloyd's Brokers dealing with ith all classes of non-marine business on a wholesale basis and specialising in construction business particularly.

He has written in with details of the Metropolitan Chess Club, which has been based in the City of London since 1890 and is the only chess club in the City. They run a weekend congress each year which this year takes place over the weekend of October 12 and 13 at the Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2. It has has attracted many of the top British and foreign players in past years. Anyone interested in participating can complete the entry form and send to Ray with the entry fee. Or they can contact him and he will send them a form through the post, or fax. The Club is also looking for companies who might be interested in sponsorship.

Readers who might like to join this club can go any thursday to the Bishopsgate Institute from 6.15 p.m. where various teams in the London and Middlesex chess leagues as well as a variety of internal club tournaments meet throughout the year.

Ray is also a committee member of the Insurance Chess Club, which runs teams against other insurance organisations and other financial organisations i.e. banks, lawyers etc.

Contact him at

hamilton@seniorwright.co.uk

Obtain a form from the site at:

http://metropolitanchess.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

New Readers this week include:

Diana Weir at Bryant,Hamilton & Co in London
Readers at Transmarine Insurance Consultants in Spain Australian Shane Barry
S Hamer of Merzario in the UK
Miami Lawyers Reggie Hayden and Bill Milliken
Harthmuth Sager of Hamburg Attorneys Ahlers and Vogel Alan Polivnick in Singapore
New York Lawyers Terry L. Stoltz and Michael Marks Cohen both of Nicoletti Hornig Campise & Sweeney
Stephen Cropper of Hill Taylor Dickinson in London Average Adjuster Alice Ou in Shanghai

News of Readers

Former Lloyd's List/Informa man Leigh Smith began work last week at Metal Bulletin as Editor-in-Chief.

Contact him at:

LSmith@metalbulletin.com

Humphrey Hill, formerly of Millers and the TT Club, has joined the Marine Division of Willis, the global insurance broker, as a Divisional Executive Director from 16 September 2002.

We understand the appointment reflects the importance attached by Willis to Ports & Terminals business worldwide.

Contact Humphrey at:

hillh@willis.com

Paul Barrett has now left the MTI Network in Hong Kong and has moved to Singapore to be corporate communications manager (Asia/Middle East) for APL and APL Logistics.

Contact him at

paul_barrett@apl.com

A regular flood of messages we received from Readers on the international e-mail phenomenon of 419 messages, those highly confidential business propositions which arrive each day from someone who has funds locked up in an African central bank and just needs a reliable business partner with an overseas bank account. Many millions of dollars are still parted from fools each year using the scam.

Enjoy.

2. 419 Scam E-mails

Many Readers reported receiving these e-mails, usually from somewhere in Africa, all soliciting funds and bank account details against the promise of untold riches. We learned a lot about the subject. This item is kind of a primer on the the subject. The responses divided neatly into official sorts of help and the ...interesting...activities of the anti-scammer vigilantes of this world.

Tony Slinn of Port Construction and Dredging magazine says

"You can send these 'Nigerian Fraud Letters' (known in the trade as 419 letters after the relevant provisions of the Nigerian criminal code) to the UK National Criminal Intelligence Service, which has set up a special division to handle the matter -

The West African Organised Crime Section
(WAOCS), P.O.Box 8000, London SE11 5EN, UK.

Maria Dixon has identified the following resources in the Americas

"The place to send copies of offers received of the type 419 is

Bartholomew,gov>

Alternatively Contact "LA CARTA DE PANAMA" a point of collection working in creating a central website where each and every one of the letters received (and they have hundreds) will be exposed for the public to see, and hopefully learn)

Juan Manuel Handal
"LA CARTA DE PANAMA"
Tel. 011 507 269 3754
Fax 011 507 269 6857
POB.55-0083
Edif. El Virrey, Mez.A
Via Italia, Paitilla.
Panamá, Rep. Panama.

The site for the US Secret Service task force dealing with 419 is

http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml

Chris Mead writes:

The link below is from the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society's Urban Legends page. The proprietors of this web site run a well-documented resource to which I have often referred for information concerning various e-mail scams and mass mailings. I have found their work to be reliable and well-researched. The e-mails to which you refer are catalogued on the snopes web site as the "Nigerian Scam," although you will see if you read the forwarded page, and the supplement with additional examples of the scam, that the e-mail can originate in any of a number of third world nations. Hope this helps. It's at least pretty darned interesting reading. So are the other pages. It's a terrific site. I've referred a number of e-mails to these folks, and they've never let me down.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/nigeria.htm

Tony Scorer sent in a link to the US self-help "419 Coalition":

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

Phil Behenna of InterAsset sent in this rather jolly collection of vigilante type responses

http://www.scamorama.com/

Tony Flanaghan also forwarded a collection of anti-scamming efforts which seem to originate in darkest Ohio:

http://www.geocities.com/jaccountinfo/BabayokoScam.html

One Reader made this suggestion:

In your morning's clutch of emails , you have probably got at least one virus , and one African "offer" . Keep the infected attachment
temporarily , and send it to the African proposer with the comment 'we are most interested in your confidential offer , and further details are enclosed in the attachment which please open immediately' . Voila ! Thereafter delete from memory the said infected attachment . a brief sense of relief is to ensue , albeit similar to swatting a mosquito.

3. Guest Column: Aldwin Wight of GMSS

Light over the Horizon

Since 9/11 the shipping industry has been in some turmoil faced with the prospect of pending security regulations. The previous decade has been bad enough from a regulatory point of view with OPA 90, the ISM Code and STCW. Now added to all these was the prospect of severe mandatory regulations that would add further cost and potential delay to an industry already facing tight margins. In the ensuing year IMO has been driven from all sides. The Atlantic has been divided. The contestants have ranged from a rampant and wounded US, initially hell-bent on protecting The Homeland at all cost, to a cynical and lagging Europe more acquainted with the day to day effects of terrorism. From those prophets who see every container as a potential weapon of mass destruction, to the hard bitten old salt, who has seen it all before. Whilst the one has proselytised the other has prevaricated. Somewhere in the other world were all the problems come from no doubt the issues have been heard of. (Meanwhile in Africa..!) For the shipping or port operator it has been a hard twelve months even trying to follow the debate. Comment, advice, pamphlets are in profusion but clear regulations and practical procedures have been few. Maybe with the last IMO Inter-sessional Maritime Security Working Group, just concluded, there is light on the horizon for the shipping industry at least.

With the draft SOLAS Chapter XI and both parts of the emergent ISPS Code the implications are becoming clear. Yes compliance will take some managerial action on the part of companies but this need not be as horrendous as first thought. In essence all that is needed is a sound initial assessment, some clear security regulations woven into the existing manuals, ship and port facility plans and training. The timeframe is clear with the IMO Diplomatic Conference in December, acceptance of regulatory amendments 1st January 2004 and compliance by 1st July 2004. The practical elements are also beginning to emerge. There is some debate to come, particularly on technical and communications aspects, and no doubt there will be a variable implementation but the parameters have been sensibly set in draft by IMO.

What we are all seeking is the goal of a cost effective and practical compliance that does not add a financial burden nor commercial cost through disruption. It should however achieve an increase in security awareness and heightened security profile in an industry that is the key to the global economy and therefore should shoulder the responsibility. At very least compliance will ensure a passport to US ports and some protection in the less savoury parts of the world. The maritime world is no longer apart from all other industries in not having to address the issues of security and the signs that it should were there long before 9/11.

http://www.gmssco.com

(further articles will appear on)
A working resume of the ISPS Code.
An update on emergent US maritime security regulations. The practical problems of port security.

4. Klaipeda Port (Lithuania) adopts Green Award Scheme

We learn from Rotterdam that Klaipeda Port's new rules of application of port dues were approved by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, while the port authority and associations were closely involved in drafting the rules.

Klaipeda Port is the first Baltic incentive provider of Green Award, the worldwide operating independent certification system for extra clean and extra safe seagoing vessels. The participation of Klaipeda Port indicates that this port grants premiums to Green Award vessels.

Klaipeda is a transit port, connecting transportation corridors between the East and the West. It is the most northern ice-free Baltic seaport and is the most important crude oil port of the Baltic States. In 2001, the number of tankers calling Klaipeda Port exceeded 600. The average amount of port dues paid by tankers of 20,000 dwt is about 20,000 Euros. At Klaipeda Port, the Green Award vessels receive 5% premium incentive based on vessel dues.

"A Green Award ship", say its sponsors, "meets high, but manageable technical and managerial requirements. An increasing number of ports and nautical service providers recognize the value of Green Award and offer special rates and other advantages to Green Award vessels.Nowadays 160 vessels have been certified. these vessels represent 11% of the relevant world tanker fleet that carry 25% of all sea borne oil. Since 2001 the Green Award certificate is also available for dry bulk carriers."
Find out more at:

http://www.greenaward.org

5. Road Haulage Security

An exhibition and conference took place on this week on 18th September on the subject of security for trucks. This was held under the auspices of the UK's Road Haulage Association in Brimingham at the National Motorcycle Museum. We will ask Reader Frank heinrich Jones for a summary of how it all went. In the meantime Readers may be interested in the intelligence relating to this form of crime which is posted to the RHA site.

http://www.rha.net/public/rha/groups/security/

6. And Finally....

Man thanks to Reader Trevor Jones for this stream of stand up consciousness:

Managers are like slinkies . . . not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

"I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and think, 'Well, that's not going to happen."

"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing."

"The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going."

Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to.

"According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman are their eyes. And women say the first thing they notice about men is they're a bunch of liars."

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

"All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism."

Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents?

In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Doctors can be frustrating. You wait a month-and-a-half for an appointment, and he says, "I wish you'd come to me sooner."

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 7500 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

Thanks for reading BOW WAVE