The Canadian Association of Recycling Industries (CARI) has issued an alert after being informed that an email scam targetting US metal recyclers could affect the Canadian scrap industry too.
According to reports, there are at least 11 victims of the scheme to date and the value of lost material is in excess of $3mn, CARI announced in its notice.
In the scheme, individuals place orders via email by posing as representatives of a phony division of Linamar Corporation — a top-tier auto supplier in the US that sells a large amount of scrap aluminum.
The fraudster purports to represent “Linamar Mills River” (which is not an actual division of Linamar), frequently uses the name Axel Schmidt, and sends emails from an address that ends with @linamarmillsriver.com.
The fraudster typically orders scrap aluminum wheels (orders value in the $100-600,000 range) and fills out the billing and delivery information using the address of GF Linamar, an actual Linamar joint venture company located in North Carolina.
According to CARI, because of the name recognition for Linamar, it appears that victimized recyclers do not conduct customer due diligence to check the accuracy of the banking/payment information supplied. As a result they shipped the material but did not receive a payment for the same.
CARI said that the appropriate US authorities have been informed and are investigating the scam. Moreover, it said that anyone who has potentially been a victim of this scheme is welcome to reach out to Linamar to be connected to the authorities.