MEA cautions commerce ministry against rising cyber frauds against exporters

The external affairs ministry has cautioned the commerce ministry against rising cyber frauds against Indian exporters that are causing a spike in bilateral trade disputes. This has prompted the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to issue an advisory to exporters to put in place adequate security protocols to ward off such frauds.

Cyber frauds are the latest in a series of adversities from a Covid-induced fall in shipments to an acute container shortage and a drastic cut in official benefits to hit exporters this fiscal.

In a trade advisory for export organisations, traders and regional authorities, the DGFT said, “The ministry of external affairs has informed that email spoofing/phishing cyber frauds are causing increased bilateral trade disputes. Though this is registered as a cybercrime in the respective jurisdictions of the country, the authorities cannot do much to reverse the transaction. The victims end up being the Indian exporters who after supplying the goods, have neither the goods in their possession nor have received payment for it.”

The Directorate has also said that after examining the matter, it found that such issues can be largely tackled by implementing security protocols such as sender policy framework, domain keys identified mail and domain-based message authentication reporting and conformance.  It has also asked its regional authorities to sensitise exporters through outreach programmes.

The exporters should have better passwords and they could confirm bank details by another channel such as a secure voice line.