Information for Suppliers & Customers

NOTICE TO CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLIERS

There is an active email scam involving sales and purchase orders originating from F. Garcia, but are counterfeit.

While our company cannot prevent this type of criminal and fraudulent activity, we want to promote awareness to our customer base and suppliers of these crimes. We are working with police to investigate these fictitious email contacts. We urge everyone to take preventative measures so you do not become a victim of this criminal activity.

THE EXTORTION HAPPENS IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER:

  • According to the FBI and multiple institutions, the scam has several variations, but basically works like this:
  • Swindlers set up fake websites and domain names to seem almost exactly to those of real companies. They do this to “spoof” email accounts and also use telephone spoofing techniques to make calls appear legitimate and from the correct area code.
  • Next, the criminals—imitating company employees—email quotes for products and requests for products to the targeted customer or vendors. They create forged documents and telecommunications with official logos and company employee names associated with the company.
  • Afterwards, the criminals email a price indication or purchase order to the customer or supplier which seem authentic—even appearing to be an official letterhead or logo and containing the name of the organization’s management or procurement department employees. The price indication, payment requests, or purchase order instructs to an address not connected with the real company.
  • After sending payment to the criminals or shipping the product(s), the customers or suppliers never receive their product or payments, which cannot be retrieved once sent.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Be very careful and take great caution verifying you are dealing with a real employee of the company and reviewing all documentation! Look out for the following characteristics of fake emails:

  • The email or communication has misspelled words, grammatical errors and incorrect sentence structure.
  • The sender’s email address or website link do not end in @fgarciafoodexport.com (F. Garcia’s official website/email). Hovering over the email address may reveal the sender’s email address if different from that displayed. Examples of web and email addresses used by scammers are www.ffgarciafoodexport.com and info@ffgarciafoodexport.com, but other web or email addresses may be used.
  • The message requests payments or shipments of products to non- F. Garcia addresses.
    The telephone number is not associated with F. Garcia.
  • The message may include an attachment designed to appear from an official request for payment, quote or F. Garcia purchase order. It can include an authentic logo copied from our website or contain other graphics or artwork appearing legitimate. It may also include a fake signature appearing to be real.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU SUSPECT FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY:

  • When uncertain about the validity of a communication, do not click on any links or take any action to execute the payment or order requests.
  • Before answering the email, making payment, or executing the order, verify its authenticity by contacting F. Garcia Wholesale & Export, Inc. at info@fgarciafoodexport.com or 305-863-8006.
  • Please also forward the questionable email, along with any related documents, to info@fgarciafoodexport.com
  • Alert law enforcement of the attempted scam against your company.
  • File a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

WHAT F. GARCIA IS DOING:

  • We are notifying customers and suppliers of this type of dishonest activity, and alerting them on guidance how to recognize it.
  • Requesting hosting servers to disable these domain names used for criminal activity.
  • Making official reports to law enforcement and providing evidence to them.
  • This information on our website is to assist and prevent all customers and suppliers from falling victim to these criminal activities and hoaxes.

F. Garcia Wholesale & Export, Inc. understands this may be part of a global criminal network of illicit activity. We accept no liability for executed payments, services, or goods shipped based on fake emails, communications, purchase orders, or any other type of documentation pretending to be from F. Garcia Wholesale & Export, Inc. Our company will not reimburse, pay invoices, damages, or expenses to any victim conned by the extortion and illegal activity.

F. Garcia Wholesale & Export, Inc. values its customers and vendors; therefore, we have the responsibility to alert them and the general public about these criminals. Please understand our company is helping with the investigation of this illicit activity with law enforcement.

MORE INFORMATION:

The FBI has posted an alert with details how this scam is executed and has also provided a privacy notification, which everyone should review.

Published September 8, 2022