A Vietnamese business suspected of being scammed, but luckily still got back more than 13 billion VND

The Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that on March 20, the Ministry received a request from a Vietnamese enterprise to assist in resolving a case related to a shipment of imported goods from a partner in the UAE.

The business said that in the first 2 months of the year, it signed 3 purchasing contracts with UAE partners. The total purchase amount is 1,000 tons of PET plastic, the contract value is 665,500 USD, delivered in Hai Phong in the form of CFR (the seller delivers the goods to the ship and pays shipping costs, the buyer must take care of the goods insurance himself). chemistry).

By March 13, Vietnamese businesses had paid their partners 526,257 USD (about 13.4 billion VND). After receiving the deposit, the UAE partner delivered 25 containers of goods to the Vietnamese enterprise.

However, after opening the declaration and importing goods into the warehouse, Vietnamese businesses discovered that the actual weight of goods in each container was only 15-20% compared to invoices and documents.

After discussing to jointly resolve the problem but not receiving a positive response, the Vietnamese business contacted the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Vietnam Trade Office in the UAE to request support in resolving the case. By April 11, the Vietnamese business had received back the full advance payment to the UAE partner and helped the company avoid a loss of 526,257 USD.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade recommends that businesses coordinate with an independent inspection unit when carrying out import and customs clearance procedures for goods. In case a dispute arises, businesses need to urgently contact domestic authorities and Vietnamese diplomatic/trade representative agencies abroad for timely support.

Previously, another incident also happened in the UAE when Vietnamese businesses signed with customers to buy and sell in the form of D/P collection. With this method, the importer must pay the bank authorized by the exporter to receive a set of goods documents to be able to carry out goods receipt procedures.

Vietnamese banks used DHL service to deliver the original set of documents to Ajman Bank and Ajman Bank staff confirmed the successful signing of 5 sets of documents. However, after that, for unknown reasons, the original sets of documents were no longer kept at Ajman Bank, so Vietnamese banks continuously requested Ajman Bank to make payment.

Realizing the delay from both banks and buyers, the export companies checked the shipping line system and discovered that all four containers had disappeared from the port.

When it was discovered that the goods had been taken out of the port, the buyer could not contact them and now the company has also closed its registered office. Therefore, the companies requested Vietnamese banks to call Ajman Bank to return the original set of documents and continuously request inquiries, including through other forms such as email and direct phone calls.

After nearly 3 months, with the coordination and cooperation between the parties, Ajman Bank refunded the businesses, with a total amount of 354,990.42 USD (about 8.3 billion VND) for 4 shipments, over a total value of 355,232 USD.