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22 Dec 2011, 12:12 pm

Arab-Anglo Finance Falsely Claims to be Authorised by the DFSA

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) alerts the financial services community and members of the public to a scam facilitated by a firm called “Arab-Anglo Finance” (Arab-Anglo) and a person using the name, “Mr Benny Gunawan”, who claims to be the Remittance Coordinator of Arab-Anglo.The scam falsely informs consumers that Arab Anglo provides access to funds, thereby targeting consumers who may be in need of lines of credit. Unsuspecting consumers are informed that access to the funds requires registration with the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority (DIFC). Unsuspecting consumers are requested to pay registration fees to the DIFC and advised that the DIFC will grant them a Letter of Credit. False DIFC documents, bearing the DIFC letterhead, are used to legitimise the fraudulent activity. Examples of the false letters can be viewed here.The DFSA informs you that neither the DFSA nor the DIFC loans money to consumers or provides access to lines of credit and does not levy fees to access funds.The DFSA, therefore, strongly advises you to be wary of Firms who charge fees in advance of providing lines of credit or access to funds.Furthermore, the website of Arab-Anglo:• states that Arab-Anglo has offices in Abu Dhabi and in the UK. These claims are false. The DFSA has found no evidence that such offices exist at the locations specified in the website; and• claims that Arab-Anglo provides financial services including mortgages, insurance, and personal finance advice. According to the UK Financia Conduct Authority (FCA) Register (which can be found online at https://register.fca.org.uk), Arab-Anglo is not and never has been authorised or registered by the FCA to provide regulated financial services in the UK. Moreover, the name of Arab-Anglo is on the FCA’s alert list of Unauthorised Firms/Individuals at:http://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/protect-yourself/unauthorised-firms/unauthorised-firms-to-avoidIf you receive an invitation to access large sums of money on terms that are “too good to be true” then you are encouraged not to respond to the notice and to report the incident directly to the DFSA using the DFSA Complaints function on our website:Consumer/ComplaintsWhen dealing with Firms or Individuals claiming to be in contact or associated in any way with the DFSA or the DIFC, please ensure that you check the DFSA’s and the DIFC’s Public Registers to confirm the authenticity of the Firm. These Public Registers can be found at:Public-Register/Firmhttp://www.difc.ae/browse-directory

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