Saville Stern, COO, RapNet presented a webinar for GemAtlas live from Israel, on December5, which was attended in large numbers by the gems and jewellery industry, globally. Mr. Stern offered valuable advice on ‘Safe Diamond Trading’, in lieu of the increasing number of complex cybercrime attacks occurring in the diamond and jewellery industry, all around the world.

In a gripping presentation, Stern explained the types of frauds the industry is falling prey to with specific factual examples, and how to stay alert.

Talking about what he called “social engineering”, Mr. Sternwarned members of the trade to be alert about people picking up information about their targets from social media, like e-mail addresses, spouses’ names and activities. Opening an email with a line like “I hope you enjoyed your holiday in Goa”, criminals make people think they somehow know the person, who pretends to be from a specific organisation they usually deal with. The idea often is to get the target to click on a “Trojan” link that gives access to the victim’s computer, including tracking typed keys. This gives them access to bank passwords and anything else they may want to use.

Criminals often get into e-mails, keeping track of professional dealings. Once there is mention of certain words like “invoice”, “order”, etc, the criminals’ programmes signal to them it’s time to intercept. They can capture e-mails for orders, etc, which never get to the other end. Then they use a very similar created e-mail address and continue the conversation with the party. They send very authentic looking invoices with a request to change the usual payment account for some fabricated reason, like audits taking place, etc. The remittance requestsare usually to accounts that are offshore.

Explaining how the criminals manage to get away in most instances, Stern said there is a trend to carry out the operation in three different international jurisdictions. This makes it almost impossible to be caught. So, the targeted buyer would be in one country, the seller in another, and the bank account created in a fictitious name often in a third country. The bank accounts are most often in countries like Nigeria, China, etc, which do not have very strict KYC and other compliance laws.

Another common fraud in the industry is carried out during shipping. Once the criminal has access to your order information like the tracking number, etc (having access to your computer), they contact logistics companies and change the delivery address with some excuse.

Criminals may also gain access to bank log-ins and passwords through “phishing”, and wipe out money therein.

In his absorbing presentation, Stern explained how one can be aware, and employ safe practices to prevent being scammed.

A GemAtlas spokesperson stated, “We are very grateful to Mr. Saville Stern for his valuable advice on the modus operandi of cyber criminals, which will go a long way in raising the red-flag for members of the trade before they fall prey to scammers”.

Link to view the Webinar: https://www.gematlas.com/home/webinars?Id=31 

About GemAtlas: GemAtlas is a B2B portal exclusively for the global gems and jewellery industry. The company was incorporated in 2013, and has since been acting as an important facilitator of business for its members from the gems and jewellery trade and allied sectors, as well as a “think-tank” for important industry issues.

About Rapaport: Established in 1976, the Rapaport Group is an international network of companies providing added-value services that support the development of fair, transparent, efficient, and competitive diamond and jewelry markets.