Suspected scammers back in the picture

From: August 29, 2025

In March, we wrote about a Valentine's Day scam in which Italian scammers had caused hundreds of thousands of euros in damages to suppliers in the Netherlands and Ecuador. We suspect that the same individuals are now operating from Romania. Everything points to preparations for November 1st, All Saints' Day.

The link to Romania has existed for several years. The Italian scam gang often operates from Sicily, but they also regularly use companies in other cities and countries. The "customer" arranges transport themselves, and the goods are often collected from the exporter or handler by Italian and Romanian trucks. After extensive investigation, it turned out that a supplier had actually delivered to end customers in Romania in 2022, while the customer was located in Italy.

The new Romanian company was recently established, the owner is an Italian and there is a connection to Sicily. The communication style and corporate structure are consistent with the practices of the scam gang we are aware of. It is highly likely that several more suppliers will be left with large unpaid invoices in a few months, and of course we want to prevent that.

Advice: conduct thorough customer due diligence, for example, through AgroCheck. This way, you often filter out some potential scammers and save yourself a lot of trouble.

AgroCheck members know where to find us, but we advise non-members to consider an AgroCheck membership. Starting at just $495 per year, you can protect your business against bad debts and unpaid invoices.

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