News

Food consultancy company The Acheson Group (TAG) have blogged about the current risk of corporate "identity theft" scams in the US food industry.  You can read the full blog here.  TAG provide generic mitigation advice in their blog, and promote their own consultancy services for more detailed advice.

The fraud is being focused, in particular, on Food Facility Registration information and import IEEPA refunds. Both are seeing an increasing trend of communications to food manufacturers and importers, in which the scammers are posing as government or registrar representatives to solicit secure company and personal information. This information is then used by the scammers to falsely claim government payments and refunds. 

Both the FDA and the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) are have issued warnings to the food industry.  This mirrors the trend seen around the globe, with increasingly sophisticated corporate-level fraud involving ghost companies, falsified trade documentation and traceability trails.

Thanks to FAN Advisory Board member Quincy Lissaur for flagging this warning to us.

This report from Coalition for Fisheries Transparency members the Environmental Justice Foundation and Open Seas finds that UK consumers may unknowingly be buying seafood linked to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and human rights abuses.  The report highlights that the frequency with which catch certificates are checked has fallen dramatically following the UK’s exit from the EU.  It points to the high volume of UK imports originating from countries which are seen as high risk of IUU fishing and catch traceability fraud, including consignments likely to be Russian catches routed via 3^rd countries in order to avoid sanctions.