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Red-flag self-test

Answer ten yes/no questions about the offer you received.

1. 1.Does the seller ask for a bank instrument (SBLC, BG, MT799/MT760), a deposit or an escrow “security deposit” before a signed contract and before you have verified the product?

   YesNo

2. 2.Is the price more than a small discount below the market benchmark (for diesel more than USD 15/MT under Platts; for gold more than 2% under LBMA), or quoted as a fixed “gross/net” discount?

   YesNo

3. 3.Did the offer come with an “allocation letter”, “authority to sell” or “mandate” from a refinery, national oil company or mine?

   YesNo

4. 4.Does the sender use a free webmail address (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Proton) or an email domain that does not match the company name?

   YesNo

5. 5.Does the procedure require a dip test, tank-to-vessel injection, or your funds or instrument before title documents and a bank-to-bank exchange?

   YesNo

6. 6.Is the quantity very large for this seller (over 100,000 MT of refined product per lift, over 100 kg of gold) or a monthly volume bigger than the named refinery's output?

   YesNo

7. 7.Has the seller asked for your company documents (CIS, passport, bank letter or BCL) before sharing any verifiable documents of its own?

   YesNo

8. 8.Are there two or more intermediaries between you and the seller, or does the seller refuse to name the titleholder?

   YesNo

9. 9.Has the seller refused to share redacted past bills of lading, an inspection report number or a terminal name that you can check independently?

   YesNo

10. 10.Is there time pressure (“other buyers waiting”, “allocation expires this week”)?

    YesNo