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I represent a substantial Bank in Africa. CFI Awards director
approached my Bank to inform me that we were nominated for an award.
After that I was asked to pay money. I tried to check where CFI are
based in London - no address or company registration number. When I
refused to pay for the award I never received any more calls/emails.
Unfortunately, CFI has done this for close to a decade and uses this pay-for-play methodology to make money. They get in touch with personal emails, even though it is actually spam, and say that you are nominated in a certain category they come up with that is relevant to the recipient. They are pushing to sell a media package that costs a few thousand dollars. You always win the CFI Awards if you sign up for the media package. They do a trick where you do not have to pay for the media package if you do not win (but in reality if you pay, you win every time). The nomination and jury process is actually very serious and professional (which is part of their theater), but in fact it's all about making money. As an investor, I have seen 4-5 of my bigger portfolio companies, including my investment company, all being nominated for the CFI Awards so I could put the pieces of the puzzle together and understand their game. Very deceptive behavior. Beware!
We received a similar email/phone call. I am a senior manager at a local bank in Samoa (Head of Technology). Couldn't even find CFI in the UK Company's Office Register. Dodgy.