Electronic communication is not totally secure despite a seemingly bug-free transition into 2000, warns The International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC). E-mail systems may help in reducing communication costs but they can still lead to substantial losses at the touch of a button. The latest issue of ITIC's Claims Review reports the case of a charterer who had invited tenders for a long-term charter. A shipbroker sent his principal's bid via an industry message system to the charterers' mailbox in the U.S. using an address code for the charterer. Unfortunately, the American system interpreted the code as a mailing list and the bid was circulated to a number of other owners. The principal did not secure the bid, claiming it was undercut as a result of its inadvertent publication.
