The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) alerts the financial services community and members of the public to an increase in fraudulent activities by individuals who claim to be regulated or are associated with the DFSA. Such activities often involve Advance Fee scams, also commonly referred to as Nigerian Scams. In such scams, persons arepersuaded to advance sums of money in the hope of realising a significantly larger gain.  The gain is, of course, never realised.In order to prevent any persons from falling victim to such Advance Fee scams, the DFSA would like to emphasise the following:When dealing with Firms or Individuals claiming to be authorised by the DFSA, or associated in any way with the DFSA or the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), ensure 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/Firmhttps://www.difc.ae/public-registerThe DFSA does not charge any fees to the clients of an Authorised Firm or Individual.  The DFSA, therefore, strongly advises you to be very wary of Firms who claim to be charging fees which are payable to the DFSA ; andThe DFSA does not approve transactions made by Authorised Firms or Individuals on behalf of clients.  If you receive a DFSA letter advising you that a transaction needs to be approved by the DFSA and/or advising you to transfer a sum of money for the approval, please do not respond to the communication.  Report the incident directly to us using the DFSA Complaints function on our website:Consumer/ComplaintsIf you have any concerns about the authenticity of a Firm’s regulatory status, or any DFSA correspondence you can direct your concerns to the DFSA using the Complaints function above or by calling the DFSA on +971 4 362 1576.