Driving the con artists out of business

Police statistics show that some 60 percent of the country's transport and logistics companies have become victims of con artists and so-called road bandits.

In the first seven months of the year police recorded more than 30,000 such crimes across the country. Officers estimate that the total loss to the industry amounts to around zł.1.15 billion in 2005 alone and this form of offence represents more than 61 percent of all damage caused within economic crime.

In many instances fraudsters pretend to be a popular carrier and send the customer a set of apparently verifiable documents, such as a Tax Identification Number, bill, bank account, vehicle identity document, or the name of the driver and his passport number, which in fact are fake. All these papers would have been obtained from a real carrier beforehand.

The swindlers act quickly and confidently, making an impression that they completely familiar with the customer's company. They will arrive with a lorry just on time, without delays or complications, load the cargo efficiently, and simply drive it away.

The theft should be signaled to the police, but in fact not much could be done.

Spedycje.pl teamed up with the police force after being contacted by a number of aggrieved logistic companies. The portal wants companies that have suffered from any form of theft or confidence trick to come forward, describe their case and express their concerns and questions about the robbery. The portal is asking firms that are victims of crime to contact them on bezpieczny-transport@spedycje.pl in order to highlight the problem and prevent it in future.