The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) alerts the financial services community and members of the public to a fake letter in which the DFSA and a member of its senior management were impersonated.
The scammers issued a fake letter which falsely stated that it was from the “Office of the Administrator” of the DFSA. The fake letter stated that the DFSA had reviewed a “Loan Agreement including the Indemnity Agreement” and classified these contractual arrangements as an “unfair contract”. It further recommended that the “indemnity fee” in the contractual arrangements be “revisited”, and that this “variation can be addressed by applying Doctrine of More Robust”.
A copy of the fake letter can be found here.
In an attempt to authenticate the letter, the scammers also fraudulently used the following without authority:
• the logo, name, address and purported stamp of the DFSA; and
• the name, position held and purported signature of a member of the DFSA’s senior management.
The DFSA informs you that the letter is fictitious and was not sent out by the DFSA. The DFSA also informs you that:
• there is no DFSA office or function of the “Office of the Administrator”;
• the DFSA does not generally review either Loan Agreements or Indemnity Agreements, and does not classify them in any way;
• the DFSA does not make recommendations concerning indemnity fees; and
• there is no such doctrine as the “Doctrine of More Robust”.
The DFSA suspects that the scammers also impersonated two legitimate UAE-based companies in the same scam. The scammers identified themselves as representing those companies, and further used email addresses which were almost identical but not exactly the same as the legitimate email addresses of the two companies.
The DFSA strongly advises that you do not respond to the perpetrators of the scam, and under no circumstances should you send or give any money to any party connected to the scam.
On 5 April 2020 the DFSA issued an alert to consumers warning about an increase in scams and other fraudulent activity since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The original alert can be viewed by going to: INCREASE IN SCAMS DURING COVID-19
The DFSA has a page on its website dedicated to alerts which it has issued about scams. All alerts issued by the DFSA may be accessed by going to: ALERTS
The DFSA has also issued warnings and guidance about the common types of scams perpetrated on consumers. For more information on these scams, please go to: HOW TO AVOID BEING SCAMMED
The DFSA encourages consumers to refer to the list of regulated Firms and Authorised Individuals licensed by the DFSA that is available on the DFSA's: PUBLIC REGISTER
If you have any concerns about the authenticity of any correspondence or documents that purport to be issued by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), DFSA or a DFSA regulated Firm, you should direct your concerns to the DIFC on Tel:+971 4 362 2222 and to the DFSA via the DFSA Complaints function on: COMPLAINTS
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