The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has published a warning on its website this Thursday that fraudsters are impersonating officers at the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC ).
The nature of this scam involves fraudsters soliciting investors for fees to settle fake compensation claims. Namely, firms under CySEC’s supervision are contacted by someone claiming to be a CySEC officer, appointed representative, or something of the like, reaching out often via email.
The emails themselves appear to be quite genuine. They carry the name of CySEC, the address, official stamp and logo of the Cypriot regulator, as well as an illegal copy of CySEC officials’ signature.
As highlighted by the DFSA, the scam includes: “false promises being made to assist investors with compensation for potential damages in connection with dealings they have had with sanctioned firms (typically Online Trading firms offering speculative investment products).”
Through the scam, fraudsters solicit personal information from investors such as telephone records and in some cases, calls them via telephone in relation to their email correspondence regarding the scam.
However, the Dubai regulator urges the public to consult CySEC’s previous responses to this scam, where the Cypriot regulator states that it:
- does not request any personal data, financial or otherwise;
- has no authority or jurisdiction to collect fees for any purpose from individual investors, nor does it have authority to appoint anyone to do so on its behalf; and
- does not authorize, verify, monitor, or is in any way involved in class actions, and compensation.
Scammers Continue to Target CySEC
This scam concerning CySEC has been targeting victims for months. In November, the regulator posted a warning regarding such a scam, where fraudsters were impersonating the watchdog.
As Finance Magnates reported, the agency was alerted to an individual using the name Christos Sofroniou trying to get recipients to pay legal fees to take part in fake aid programs for the recovery of potential losses.
