The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday said some fraudsters are circulating forged letters of crude oil allocation with the intent of defrauding unsuspecting buyers or members of the public.

NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru disclosed this while speaking at the presentation of commendation letters to 12 personnel of the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the corporation in Abuja.

He said the activities of the fraudsters had led to distraction for workers of the COMD, who now have to deal with huge turnover of scam mails on a regular basis.

Baru advised members of the public to be cautious and wary of mails from the conmen.

Group General Manager in charge of the corporation’s COMD, Mr. Mele Kyari said the fraudsters send fake crude oil allocation letters using names of senior NNPC officials and urged the recipient to pay certain cash deposits as commission on volume of crude received.

“The gullible individuals end up paying huge sums of dollars into these accounts as commission but the reality is that nobody allocates crude oil on a piece of paper the way the scammers canvass in their dubious letters. Everything about crude sale is electronic and real time. If you have your cargo, the whole world knows,” Kyari was quoted in a statement.

He said the COMD had made available the email contacts of its top officials, thus allowing members of the public to verify such emails.

Kyari also said that the division had embarked on the automation of the direct sale of crude oil and direct purchase of products scheme to ensure transparency of the process.

Azeez