KazMunayGas Warns Kazakh Residents of Online Scam Threats

International scammers run massive advertising on search engines and social media that directs users to scam websites calling for “profitable investments in KazMunayGas” with promises of high and passive returns.

To make it more convincing, these fake websites mention the names of brand people: the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, heads of national companies and financial institutions, opinion leaders. Scammers use video footage from publicly available official videos of KazMunayGas substituting the original audio tracks. As a result, the visitor is shown a fake video in which a professional voice-over narrator voices outright lies mentioning the company’s name.

The first time users visit a fake website, they are first invited to “take a test” or simply answer two or three preliminary questions that allow the criminals to find out the visitor’s email, nationality and mobile phone number. To make it look plausible, websites display a picture of a professional securities market participant’s licence, allegedly issued by the National Bank of Kazakhstan. An investor calculator script is also used to calculate the “high yield” online.

Keep in mind that there are over 1,500 top-level domains worldwide, including some 300 national domains (many of which are registered and operated by private firms and corporations), and the owners of scam websites are often non-residents of Kazakhstan. Therefore, even if a scam website is revealed, it is extremely difficult to terminate it due to the foreign jurisdiction of the owners of scam websites.

Fake websites are mainly created in international zones (in the .COM zone and others), such as kazmynai-gaz.com, kz-finvesting.com, kz-gaz555.com, butterflyexpect.com, kaz-gaz.org, greyongrey.com, healbrowl.com/logistics, murrindindi.org/info. Fake websites are also created in specific domain zones (such as kazmunaigas.club, tiddley.work, kz.dahod.shop, investor-test.top and a number of others). If you check these domain names, you will find that they are registered in CIS or non-CIS countries.

Besides the websites, at least six scam apps have been identified.

The first fake app, KazMunay Invest, parasitising on the company’s brand, was published on Google Play on 8 July 2022 and had been downloaded by more than 50,000 users by early August. The scammer’s contact details pointed to a website registered in the domain zone of Tokelay (.TK) in the New Zealand islands. It has now been removed from the playmarket. Then came fake apps — KazMunayGas, KazMunayGas Invest, KazMunay Club Invest, KazInvest, KazMunayInvest. However, KMG does not have any official app and there are no plans to develop one yet.

The Company has sent an appeal against all these scams to the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA), the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan. The Nur‑Sultan Police have opened a criminal case. Investigations are currently ongoing. Requests have been sent to block scam websites and apps.

KazMunayGas officially states that it has only one official website — www.kmg.kz. All other websites acting on behalf of KazMunayGas are scam. We urge Kazakh residents and non-residents to exercise caution and to trust only official websites.

Reliable information about the company is only posted on the official website and on official social media accounts.

In addition, citizens of Kazakhstan can contact the Financial Market Regulation and Development Agency at 1459 for advice on protecting their rights and interests as consumers of financial services.