Crewel warns of fraunds

Crewell, a popular resource on job hunting among seafarers, warns  of fraudsters acting under  its name. The Crewell  reps  posted in  social media the  information concerning a man, introducing  himself as a  OOO Crewell agent,  who offered the brokerage services  in job searching   for $500 reward.

According to company, a fraudster represents himself as Sergei Frolov and makes the calls using  a following  telephone  number +79969138941. He advises  to sign  a job searching agreement and pays to the  “assistant”  $500 as a fee. Crewell assures that it has nothing to do  with  this man  and  calling to be vigilance. “The  fraud actions can be  made  on behalf  of  any major  and goodwill company. Please, before sending  the  documents  or  even pass money for employment services,  search a  company profile  and directly come into contact with it.”

A pattern for employment service agreement on behalf of allegedly OOO Crewell can be  found in Internet. Dmitry Ivanov, a lawyer at the Baltic Territorial Organization of  Seafarers' Union of Russia (SUR BTO), has examined the  document  and concluded that it was a useless piece of paper, confirmed  by many  law bloopers.

So, the  document starts  with a phrase (sic): “OOO Crewell, hereinafter referred to as “AGENCY”, acting under the  Charter, MIA License  No. 1820160123 and  the Certificate of Compliance No. 0502607 issued by  the Ministry of Transport  of  the Russian  Federation, of  one  part,  and a citizen to pay $500  as a fee for a ship employment  after concluding and  signing the  agreement  between a seafarer and  an employer, in case  of unreasonable  seafarer's deny, the employer may  pass the  agreement  into court   and  exact  a payment unreasonably.”

“Only this sentence  at the  contract  beginning should  be  alerting for every sensible person,” Dmitry Ivanov explains. “I don't  want even to  put an  emphasis on the  absolutely  illiterate  phrase containing, as you can see,  several mistakes. But it does not  contain any information about  contract  participants. The parties  should be  named in a contract. Every lawful  service agreement starts with it.”

 A seafarer, searching  for a  job through  the agency, should worry about   another sentence  in the Agency Liabilities  section of  the  agreement. For example, “To familiarize a SEAFARER  with the  collective labour agreement, covering a ship...”.

“The  phrase “the  agreement, covering a ship” uses  in a conversational speech. The  such term doesn't  exist  and  its usage in a official document isn't   appropriate.”  -  the SUR BTO's lawyer draws the  seafarers' attention to this detail.

An unclear sentence presents  in an Amending and Termination section. According to it, “the   AGREEMENT  terminates  in case  of immoralities  and bad habits.”

“It isn't  clear what  the fail representative does mean, ” Ivanov continues. “What kind of  immoralities and  bad habits? Everyone  is able  to  interpret  such vague words  in his/her own ways based on the personal experience, views, education or lifestyle. Dispute  settlement  is  an evidence uncovering amateur-made  document. Under  this section, the agency proposes  to settle   disputes in an Arbitration Court.

“For  information, Arbitration deals with  disputes between  legal entities.  The  parties  of  above  mentioned agreement are legal entity and individual. And  reference  to arbitration settlement is  a foolish thing.

”Usually  a lawful and correct  document  has a name, payment details, address  and telephone  number of  a legal entity  and a name, passport data and  telephone  number of individual. But it is  a cherry on the  top. There are no the  above listed details in  the  agreement, which Sergei, self-described as an affiliated company,   advises to sign. Moreover, he doesn't  show  his surname.

Such details  and  sometimes the  worst   mistakes should   fuel concerns  if someone sells a job hunting agreement. Usually people, who are unrelated with shipping  or  law, make such things, but a man of education and interest has little  difficulty  to  catch it out.

Besides,  the  same  cases are common  in a ship employment. Different  means are being used: emails, phone  calls and social media. With employment  assistance, the  fraudsters can  offer the commercial advanced training  courses  and document  restoration. Besides,  under requirements to pay  visa costs and  travel to shipboard, they can hide the money extortion.

The  problem has an international nature.  For  example, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration  has warned seafarers  of the fraud emails. The letters had been sending  on behalf of major cruise companies such as Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and  Disney Cruise Line. The  criminals promised seafarers to provide employment  on ships.

The Seafarers' Union of  Russia reminds that the Maritime Labour Convention  has announced  the  employment fees for  seafarers are out  of law since 2006. Remember  that any offer  of  assistance   in   a seafarer's employment  on a paying basis is  a crime.