The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) alerts the financial services community and members of the public to an Advance Fee scam misusing the name of Gulf Merchant Bank Limited.  Gulf Merchant Bank Limited is licensed by the DFSA to provide financial services in or from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).The perpetrators of the scam:• target members of the public (victims) pretending to be employees of “Gulf Merchant Bank”• advise victims that they are the beneficiaries of an account held with “Gulf Merchant Bank” in their name;• provide victims with a false “Gulf Merchant Bank” Statement of Account in the name of the victim, giving the false impression that there are funds held in an account in their name; and• solicit payment of an advance fee from the victim to facilitate the transfer of the funds to them.The perpetrators of the scam provide the following false website and contact details:
Website: www.gulfmerchlltd.com/customers.htm
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Tel:  0702 407 7980
Tel:  0871 251 8458
Tel/Fax: 0870 490 9879
Tel/Fax: 0700 594 7625
The website and contact details set out above are false and have no association whatsoever to Gulf Merchant Bank Limited or to any other Firm in the DIFC.The DFSA strongly advises you not to deal with any person connected with the website and contact details above.The DFSA has a page on its website dedicated to Alerts in relation to scams. All Alerts issued by the DFSA may be accessed by going to:Your-Resources/dfsa-alerts The DFSA has also recently issued warnings and guidance about the common types of scams perpetrated on consumers. For more information on these scams, please go to:HowToAvoidBeingScammedIf you have any concerns about the authenticity of a Firm’s regulatory status you should direct your concerns to the DFSA Complaints function by accessing the complaints portal on the DFSA website or by calling the DFSA on Tel +971 4 362 1 500.Please be aware that Gulf Merchant Bank Limited is concerned that the Advance Fee scam the subject of this Alert has misused its name on an unauthorised basis.  Please refer to the following alert made by Gulf Merchant Bank Limited in relation to this issue –http://www.gulfmerchantbank.com/fraud-alert-notice.html