Scam playbook
Clone firms & fake refinery sellers (fake Gazprom, fake majors)
A fake corporate identity dressed as a real one: a lookalike domain, a registered company with a near-identical name, cloned letterhead and stamps, and 'officers' who don't exist. The genuine company is a victim too: Gazprom Export, LUKOIL/LITASCO and others publish official warnings naming their clones.
How it works
- 1.The fraudster registers a near-identical company name (sometimes a real legal entity in another country) and a lookalike domain.
- 2.Offers arrive 'from the refinery' at prices slightly below market, with allocation letters, export licences, and corporate seals that photograph well and verify never.
- 3.Payment or performance-bond instructions route to accounts with no connection to the real company.
- 4.When checked against the real firm's registry entry, named officers, or official domain, nothing matches.
Red flags
- Email domain that is not the company's official one (extra letter, different TLD, hyphenation).
- A 'subsidiary' or 'authorized seller' the parent's official site never mentions.
- Prices meaningfully below market from a major that doesn't sell spot to strangers.
- Company registration that exists, but in the wrong country, with the wrong directors, or registered weeks ago.
What the real version looks like
Majors and refiners publish official domains, registered entities, and fraud warnings. A real seller survives three checks: the registry entry matches the claimed entity, the officers match public records, and the domain matches the official site. Clones fail all three.
This page describes a general fraud pattern for educational purposes. It is not an accusation against any specific person or company. A clean check is not a clearance, documentary KYC and licence verification still apply.