Email Fraud Alert received from: Neil
I recently received an email with this subject line: confirmed order and I am concerned that it could be an attempt at defrauding me. Let me know in the comments section what you think, please.
The full contents of the suspected fraudulent (phishing / scamming) e-mail appear below:
Greetings to you trusting this mail finds you well. May I take this opportunity to re-introduce myself as the Head of Procurement department of a privately owned drilling company in Zimbabwe. I am under the employ of Drilling International Limited situated in Mash-West province of Zimbabwe. Exact location details and more information about the company can be found on our website: www.drillinginternational.com I hold a position of Chief buyer and at my capacity I am in a position to facilitate and/or recommend a contract between us and a potential supplier.
We are currently contracted to drilling in the Kalahari Botswana region of Africa. Our small challenge at the moment is in the sourcing (especially across borders) of spares parts, consumables as well as hired machinery. Having a supplier closer to the region will help improve efficiency, service and delivery times on our part. We have securities in place and a logistics company that will be working on our behalf to collect and bring shipments to us or any prefered destinations. Due to the above reasons we are now pushed to the situation we are in.
We are trying to establish a business relationship with a South African based company that can be able to source / outsource a variety of products from there on a contract basis. Currently we have been depending on contracted companies in Zimbabwe that have been sourcing goods on our behalf but have not quiet met our delivery times (as
expected) more than a few times. It is partly for this reason that we are now pledging for a company in South Africa to consider our proposal, and we propose as follows:
1) You willing to work/do the outsourcing for us, I will send you an inquiry for whatever we might have as a need and you quote and confirm availability of the requested.
2) If the prices quoted are agreeable and accepted we will request that you send us your Proforma Invoice and we will fly through our representative to you for verification, payment and logistics from your premises. This literally means we will pay for the Order and pick up from your premises once you confirm payment.
3) Once goods have been paid for and picked up from your premises it becomes our total responsibility (logistics) to get the goods to us or our prefered destination.
4) Payment shall be made to your account via EFT from FNB South Africa and goods will only be taken / released once funds have been cleared in your account.
The above being something you would be willing to consider as previously discussed in our telephone conversation I have attached to this mail a Confirmed Order of Drill Bits that we urgently require. You will notice that in the Order I have indicated the maximum price (inclusive) that we are prepared to pay as a way to speed up the process. Under normal circumstances though I should have sent you an RFQ (Request For
Quotation) but due to the urgency of the Order I have taken that liberty trusting that you will understand and hoping we can start to build a foundation and see best possible way forward. At the same time we can take this as a test order to see how we can establish and engage with each other. Prices will be subject to negotiation in future to suit us both parties.
I trust the above meets your favourable considerations and so hereby await your response in the shortest possible time thanking you in anticipation.
Amos Moyo
Chief Buyer
Drilling International Limited
Industry Road
Karoi
Zimbabwe
Cel: +263 78 448 7463
Tel: 064 7929
Fax: 064 7928
Email: info@drillinginternational.com
Website: www.drillinginternational.com
The above email was sent by “Amos Moyo” from this email address: info@drillinginternational.com
I, Neil, have the following thoughts/comments on this suspected fraudulent email message from “Amos Moyo”:
This case is very similar to how is was scammed in 2014. Please be careful.