Real SCO or recycled SCO? A 60-second check

A soft corporate offer (SCO) is a seller's first written offer: product, quantity, price basis, location and procedure. Real ones are useful. The trouble is that once a real SCO leaves the seller, it gets forwarded, edited and re-sent until no one knows who the seller is.

How an offer gets recycled

1. A seller sends a genuine SCO to one buyer.
2. The buyer, or someone in the buyer's chain, forwards it to a few groups "looking for a buyer".
3. Brokers copy it, remove the seller's details, add their own commission and send it again.
4. Within days the same offer appears from many different "mandates" at many different prices.

Serious buyers see the same lot offered ten times and assume it is fake. The real seller never meets a real buyer.

The 60-second check

Look for these six things. If two or more fail, treat the offer as recycled.

1. A recent date and a short validity. Real offers are dated in the last few weeks and valid for days, not "until further notice".
2. A named seller company with a registration number and an address, on letterhead.
3. A corporate email domain that matches the company. A free-mail address on a corporate offer is a warning sign.
4. A named warehouse and location, not "Dar es Salaam bonded" or a blurred name.
5. A signature from a named person with a title, not a pasted image or nothing at all.
6. A realistic price, expressed against the LME. See LME discounts.

Signs it has been edited

• It's a screenshot of a PDF, or a photo of a screen.
• Parts of the page are blurred or covered.
• Fonts or text sharpness change in the company name, price or date.
• "Commission included" or several commission lines for different parties.

What to do with a recycled offer

Don't ask the sender for "updated documents". They don't have any. Ask one question instead: "Who is the seller, and can I speak with them on a video call this week?" A real mandate can arrange that with written authority from the seller. See the mandate checklist.

You can also upload the SCO to our document check, which looks for these signs and for terms that don't add up.