Q: Dear sir/madam, Someone in the UAE took money from my sister who is outside promising her a job in the UAE. He later sent her a visa (a visit visa that was edited to look like an employment visa) plus a fake air ticket. After my sister paid all money to this guy, she couldn't depart from the home country since the ticket was fake. The guy now claims that he was scammed by another guy whom he refers to as the real agent. I am in the UAE. Is there anything we can do to recover my sister's money?

Q: Hello all, I am based in the UAE, however, I have been scammed by a CFD trading broker called (........) based in the UK (they claim to be based in the UK). Their site is down now and they have deleted all the communication channels. However, I found that they have hosted the same site on a different domain. I have lost more than $210,000 dollars. The total withdrawal amount was close to $500,000. When I tried to withdraw my funds from the platform, they asked for more funds as tax payment and after I paid those, they kept on bringing new issues and asking for more funds. When I declined their request on WhatsApp and told them that I will report to the police and file cases, they seem unmoved by these. They even told me to go and report them and they don't care. Please let me know the actions I can take against those fraudsters. I really don’t want to let them escape this easily especially with our hard-earned money. Kindly let me know if there is a way to recover my funds.

Q: Hi. My husband and I subscribed to a tourism package with a registered company in the UAE last Sunday. We signed a contract and paid an amount of AED 13999 for the package. We later decided that we want to cancel this subscription and get a refund. The exact clause that describes the cancellation policy is: “Subscription cancellation request received 7 days enrollment/payment date may be eligible to receive a refund after deducting 30% administration charges and cost of the utilized services if any.” It’s only been 3 days since we purchased it and we haven’t used any of their services yet. Their subscription fee is 13999 and we were not informed of a separate administration charge. They are not willing to refund. Isn’t it illegal to deny that right to a customer? Please help us sort this out. We’ve recently moved to the country and have been scammed of all our savings and money through a scam call as well. Thank you in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, My father had hired an agency to handle his company's VAT returns and paid them on time for all the filings. However, the person took his money and fled. Now the office is closed, and he is not answering any calls. Please advise on what can be done.

Q: Hello, We have been scammed by an individual who did not provide the stated service. They took a lot of money and important documents. I have audio recordings of him talking about these things. We had a bad lawyer in Iraq who stole property by forging documents. This man said he had many connections to help us. While it was true that he had connections, he didn’t actually help us. Instead, he cooperated with the bad lawyer, agreed with him, and gave the bad lawyer all our important documents.

Q: I hired an agency to close my free zone company in October last year and paid them already. However, I have now been informed by the FDA that the company has not been closed, and I am required to upload a renewed license (which I do not have), otherwise, I will face a penalty. The agency I hired is not responding to my messages. What can I do?

An interview-format article covering the topic of bounced cheque scams in the UAE. This is from the legal podcast of lawyer Ludmila Yamalova, the founder of Lawgical with LYLAW.

The new law is applicable to all entities dealing with virtual assets that are set up on the mainland as well as free zones, including special development zones. However, it does not apply to the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), which will have its own set of rules and regulations governing all virtual assets entities registered with the DIFC.

This Law promulgates the Federal Penal Code (Criminal Law) of the United Arab Emirates. Crimes and chastisement punishments shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other penal codes.

The provisions of this Federal Decree-Law No. (31) of 2021 Promulgating the Crimes and Penalties Law, known as the "New UAE Penal Code", governs criminal actions in the United Arab Emirates. The New Penal Code repeals the previous UAE Penal Code (Federal Law No. (3) of 1987 Promulgating the Penal Code).