NEW YORK. – The mounting complaints and concerns of the thousands of Dominicans and other Latinos during the holidays of scams when they ship boxes and packages via seemingly “legitimate” companies most of which lack operating license makes it easy for them to steal te money and merchandise and then vanish, has prompted State senator Jose Peralta to submit a bill aimed at regulating those agencies this week.

Though the denunciations by hundreds of clients against some of those shipping companies (embarcadoras) aren’t new, it’s between November and January when the complaints increase by people who affirm have lost even thousands of dollars.

Among the most recent cases figure the Dominican company “Bendiciones Cargo Express” in Upper Manhattan’s Audubon Avenue with 175th Street, accused of swindling dozens of customers out of thousands of dollars to then vanish without a trace.

The cases with those companies are becoming more irritating, because when the fraud victims go to the Office of the State Attorney General, where they are told that the lack of legal registries prevents them from taking action.

As any other ghost company the shippers disconnect their phones, give out receipts without letterheads or with other names and in some cases even act as intermediaries between a registered company and the camouflaged swindlers.

And although the Dominicans swindled by “Bendiciones Cargo Express” filed a complaint last February, they’ve yet to recover the cash or the packages they paid to ship to his relatives in their country, including food, clothing, medicines, electric appliances, crutches, equipment to treat asthma and cardiovascular ailments and even stretchers.

In other cases many of those who lost their money after paying for shipments are undocumented immigrants, and cannot travel to their countries or file charges in U.S. courts.

In Jackson Heights, Queens the shipper “Vencell” is another company which mysteriously disappeared after swindling dozens of their clients, mostly Colombians.

Peralta said the as many as 30 fraud complaints his office receives daily prompted him to introduce the bill, which if passed into Law would allow customers to easily confirm whether those companies are legal or not.

Peralta added that all companies, to operate in New York, must register and deposit US$1,000 as insurance against defrauding their clients, a sum considered the average value of most of the shipments.

SOURCE: elnuevodiario.com.do