The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) alerts the financial services community and members of the public to a cryptocurrency scam in which the DFSA was impersonated.

The scammers use the name ‘Cryptocurrency Explorer®’. They:

• promise victims that they will be given access to a ‘private key’ so that they can withdraw their ‘recovered funds’;
• state that they cannot release the private key unless the victims pay a ‘gas fee’ to an ‘Ethereum Explorer address’ on the ‘ERC 20 Network’; and
• ask for an ‘additional transaction fee’ after receiving the gas fee. The scammers claim that the ‘additional transaction fee’ is required to ‘expedite the verification process’ of the recovered funds.

In an attempt to make the scam seem authentic, the scammers have fraudulently impersonated the DFSA by:

• sending communications from fictitious DFSA employees with fake email addresses, namely [email protected] and [email protected];
• using fake websites containing the DFSA’s name, namely dfsa-gov.co and dfsa-gov.ae;
• using fake generic email addresses, namely [email protected]; and
• using the DFSA logo without permission.

The DFSA informs you that the:

• emails are false, fraudulent and were not sent by the DFSA;
• email addresses provided by the scammers are not legitimate;
• DFSA does not accept any payments in cryptocurrency;
• DFSA does not collect fees on behalf of ‘Cryptocurrency Explorer’ or any other cryptocurrency exchange or organisation; and
• ‘Ethereum Explorer address’ on the ‘ERC 20 Network’ does not belong to the DFSA.

The DFSA strongly advises you not to respond to any communications regarding this scam, and under no circumstances should you send or give any money to any party connected to the scam.

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 here: 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 through the Complaints function.