Cold calls, false promises: The UAE forex scam that won't stop

Do you know how many zeroes are in dirham one-hun- dred-and-fifty-thousand?" The voice on the phone is mocking, almost amused. "Did I force you to invest the money?

- MAZHAR FAROOQUI

"Yes, you did!"

"Then come and take it, you #%&!"

The conversation spirals into a barrage of expletives and threats.

The once-persuasive broker now sounds menacing, his words thick with hostility. Khaleej Times has an audio recording of the three-minute call, capturing how a man who once promised riches now hounds his client with verbal abuse.

But it wasn't always like this.

When Imran Zaman, a civil engineer in Dubai, first heard from DuttFX in September 2024, it wasn't threats but charm that filled the airwaves. The "relationship manager" was friendly, almost familiar. The conversations started with market insights—volatility in the wake of US bank collapses, golden opportunities in commodities, and whispers of massive dividends. Saying no wasn't easy.

And so, Imran invested. Then he invested more. Until he had lost Dh180,000.

He wasn't alone. Shishir lost Dh80,000, Nalini Dh52,000, Pravin Dh45,000. There are many more. Most of them took bank loans or maxed out their credit cards, lured by the promise of a "highly secure trading environment".

Yet, none of them had ever set foot in a DuttFX office. Not because they didn’t want to—but because no such office exists in the UAE. The same is true for other companies like EVM Prime Support, which operate solely through websites and cold calls.

Keralite Mohammed Ayeshan, who lost Dh36,500 to EVM Prime Support, was led to invest purely based on phone conversations. His “relationship manager” convinced him to make an initial deposit of $1,000 (Dh3,673). Over time, he was pressured into adding more funds, lured by the illusion of smooth trading and small early profits.

"I kept adding funds as instructed, believing I could recover my money."

Ayeshan said he borrowed on credit cards, hoping to recover losses. But the losses only deepened. His relationship manager instructed him to reverse trades, which only made things worse.