At the World Port Center, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and VOTOB (Association of Dutch Tank Storage Companies) signed a cooperation agreement to continue and expand a task force aimed at combating the fraud scheme known as storage spoofing.
With this step, both parties send a clear signal to international fraudsters who target the port of Rotterdam and other seaports with this persistent form of deception.
TCT The Commodity Traders and the Police (Seaport Police District, including the Digital Expertise team) are also part of the task force.
Storage spoofing, or tank storage spoofing, is the collective term coined in Rotterdam for all forms of selling non-existent storage capacity and inventories of raw materials and products at terminals, particularly in the Port of Rotterdam area.
In this form of internet fraud, criminals offer goods via fake websites that impersonate well-known tank storage companies.
Victims include, on the one hand, international traders who are misled and lose substantial sums of money to non-existent deals, and on the other hand legitimate companies in the port area whose names and data are misused.
In some cases, tank trucks even arrive at terminals to collect products that do not exist. The annual damage to traders is estimated at at least €10 million ($11.8 million), as a lower bound based on insight into amounts actually paid (i.e. only the amounts that are known).
In 2025, deals with a total offered value of €2.5 billion ($2.95 million) were reported to the task force. In addition, there is significant damage for companies whose names and data are misused, as well as reputational damage to the port(s) as a whole.
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Willem-Henk Streekstra, Director of VOTOB, said: “Several of our members have been dealing with this for years. With this cooperation, we are providing professional support to reduce storage spoofing. It is good to address this issue so actively together with the Port Authority and other partners.
“Together we can do more than each of us individually. It remains extremely frustrating when your company name is misused and people lose large amounts of money.”
For more information:
Port of Rotterdam Authority – https://www.portofrotterdam.com/en
