Abu Dhabi - pay to play

[fatbutt]

We've just received a strange mail from ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) providing us with a vendor questionnaire and a generic EOI (Expression of Interest) letter for us to sign and return. This came out of the blue and the fun part is that they want us to deposit $18K that they say is a security deposit to pay for us to come out to Abu Dhabi for a grand meeting of all potential vendors. If we attend then we get our money back.

Sounded like a scam so I responded with some probing questions and after a few responses it seems legit.

Anyone else heard of this as a way to do work in Abu Dhabi?

Note: We do lots of international work but this is the first time I've come across this approach.

[deckster]

Sounds incredibly fishy to me.

https://www.adnoc.ae/en/suppliers/fake-business-pr...

[Simpo Two]

deckster said:

Sounds incredibly fishy to me.

https://www.adnoc.ae/en/suppliers/fake-business-pr...

'all correspondence will always come from an @adnoc.ae email address'.

What address did the OP's come from? (assuming not faked)

[deckster]

Simpo Two said:

deckster said:

Sounds incredibly fishy to me.

https://www.adnoc.ae/en/suppliers/fake-business-pr...

'all correspondence will always come from an @adnoc.ae email address'.

What address did the OP's come from? (assuming not faked)

To be fair I didn't get any further than "ADNOC will never ask for money from a third party in order for that third party to participate in its procurement process or in order to be considered for a business or investment opportunity."

[fatbutt]

[e-mail]

So, very good catch, thanks for that. I'll forward it on to Adnocc