MT799 and MT760 are both category 7 SWIFT messages and both pass bank-to-bank — but they are completely different in legal effect. Confusing them is the entry point of most "instrument" frauds in trade finance.
MT799 is a free-format bank-to-bank message. It carries no binding undertaking. Banks use it for things like "Ready Willing and Able" letters, soft pre-advice, or operational chat between trade-finance desks. It commits the sending bank to nothing.
MT760, by contrast, is an irrevocable undertaking to pay under specified conditions. Once issued, the issuing bank cannot revoke it without the beneficiary's consent. It is a binding financial instrument.
In legitimate trade finance, MT799 is sometimes used as a pre-advice — the issuing bank tells the beneficiary bank "we are prepared to issue an MT760 in your favour, subject to receipt of [conditions]". The MT760 follows once conditions are met.
In fraud, MT799 is used as bait: scammers offer to "send MT799" or "block funds via MT799" as proof of capability, knowing victims confuse the soft letter with a binding instrument. Funds never get blocked.
When a legitimate counterparty is asking for an MT799 from your bank as evidence of funds before they will engage, that is a normal commercial request and your bank can issue it once you instruct them. When someone is offering to send you an MT799 to "prove" they have funds, that is far less reliable — anyone can send an MT799 with any text in it.
If you are being asked to pay an "issuance fee" for an MT799 you will receive, do not. Even if a real MT799 arrives, it cannot bind the sender to pay you.
No. MT799 is a message, not a payment. Payments are MT103 (or pacs.008).
Sometimes legitimately — as soft pre-advice that an MT760 will follow. Often illegitimately — as a "proof of funds" that proves nothing.
Typically 50-150 USD per message, plus correspondent charges. The receiving bank does not pay; the sender does.
No. MT799 is bank-to-bank only with no GPI equivalent. You see it only if your bank notifies you that one was received.