How to avoid commodity export scams

Commodity export scams are not random — they follow a handful of repeatable patterns, and each one is defeated by a specific control. Once you can name the pattern, it stops working on you. This guide walks through the common ones and the safeguard that neutralises each.

The non-existent supplier

The classic scam: an attractive offer from a "supplier" who does not really exist, designed to extract a deposit or full prepayment that then disappears. The tells are a price too good to be true, pressure to pay fast, and reluctance to be independently verified.

• +Control: verify the business independently — registration, real operations, and export history — before any money moves. The full method is in how to verify a supplier.
• +Control: never prepay in full to an unverified counterparty; use protected settlement so funds release against delivery and inspection.

Document fraud

Here the supplier may exist, but the paperwork is forged or inflated — a fake quality certificate, a bill of lading for goods that were never loaded, or a certificate of origin that does not hold up. The shipment is worth far less than the documents claim, or does not exist at all.

1. 01Insist on independent inspectionQuality and quantity confirmed by an inspector who does not work for the seller — not a certificate the seller produced themselves.
2. 02Verify documents at sourceConfirm key documents with the issuing party (carrier, inspector, authority) rather than trusting the copy the seller emails you.
3. 03Tie payment to verified milestonesRelease funds against an independently verified grade and a confirmed shipment, not against documents alone.

Payment redirection

One of the most costly and least dramatic frauds: an email, appearing to come from your genuine supplier, asks you to send payment to a "new" bank account. The account belongs to the fraudster. Always confirm any change of banking details through a separate, known channel before paying.

Payment redirection works because it exploits a real relationship at the moment of payment. The defence is procedural, not technical: treat any change to payment details as suspect by default, and verify it by voice on a number you already trust — never a number supplied in the same message.

The structural defence

Every one of these scams depends on you paying before something is independently verified. A platform that separates verification from the seller removes the leverage. Commodity Plus verifies suppliers, requires independent inspection, and settles through escrow tied to inspection milestones — so a forged document or a redirected account cannot reach your money. Pair the controls here with the full supplier verification checklist.