Commodity Export Scams

Small agro-commodity exporters and foreign buyers dealing with Ghana, Nigeria and their neighbours are regular targets for fraud. Some offers are not real: the buyer, the seller, the cargo or the paperwork may exist only on a screen. Independent verification before any payment or shipment is the safest approach.

Common warning signs

The pattern is usually simple. Scammers set up a fake company or borrow the name of a genuine one, then make contact through unsolicited e-mails, social media messages or phone calls. They offer a price well above the market for a seller, or well below it for a buyer, and create urgency so that there is no time for inspection. The US Commercial Service in Ghana, which publishes a list of fake entities, warns that fraudsters run elaborate websites that copy government and international organisation sites, including coats of arms and logos. It also says that a name missing from its list proves nothing, because new fake entities appear all the time or return with small name changes.

Typical red flags include:

• requests for upfront "registration", "inspection", "licence", tax, bank or lawyer fees before a contract is performed; the US Commercial Service says such a request in an export deal is very likely a scam;
• a buyer who insists on paying through an unknown escrow or payment agent chosen by them;
• deals bundled with gold, which US diplomatic missions in Ghana single out for extreme caution because documents are often forged;
• large lots of Ghanaian cocoa beans offered privately, although beans may only be traded under Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) licensing and must be graded and sealed by official inspectors before export;
• forged export permits, certificates, bills of lading or letters of credit that look genuine.

How to check a counterparty

Start with the company itself. Registration can be checked in the official registries: the Office of the Registrar of Companies in Ghana and the Corporate Affairs Commission public search in Nigeria. A registered name alone does not prove the person contacting you works for that company, so confirm through contact details found independently, not those in the offer.

Check documents at their source. A bill of lading can be confirmed with the named shipping line through its official website. The International Maritime Bureau of the ICC notes that most suspect bills of lading in its records are issued by non-vessel operating carriers, and it keeps a register of those carriers. A letter of credit should reach the seller through a bank in the seller's own country, which can authenticate it with the issuing bank; a copy sent by e-mail is not a letter of credit. For quality and quantity, use an independent inspection agency appointed under the contract, not one proposed only by the other side.

Practical takeaway

If a prospective buyer or seller pushes for fees, pre-payments or document "processing" before the order has been independently verified, treat it as a scam until proven otherwise. For export rules on a specific crop, confirm directly with the official body, such as COCOBOD for cocoa or the Ghana Export Promotion Authority and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council for other products. Verification slows a deal down, but it keeps both sides safe.