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UAE To Punish Crypto Scammers With Fines & Jail Time
The penalties reflect Article 48 of the Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Combatting Rumors and Cybercrimes.
Cryptocurrency scams (and crypto scammers) are a global problem, and the cost of this problem reached a staggering $14 billion in 2021 alone.
To discourage crypto scammers from targeting unsuspecting investors, the UAE Public Prosecution has recently announced its decision to punish them with fines of up to $136,124 USD (AED 500,000) and jail terms for the following offenses:
- Promoting goods or services through misleading advertisement or using false data.
- Advertising, promoting, brokering, or dealing in any form, or encouraging the dealing in a virtual or digital currency, a stored value unit, or any unit of payment that is not officially recognized in the UAE or without obtaining a license from the competent authority.
The penalties reflect Article 48 of the Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Combatting Rumors and Cybercrimes, and they’re explained in a video the UAE Public Prosecution shared on social media.
The UAE Public Prosecution is on a mission to increase awareness about the latest laws in the country, and it has issued several similar warnings in the past.
Also Read: 3 Best Cold Storage Wallets For Crypto In 2023
In 2020, for example, the UAE Public Prosecution warned that the use of the Internet Protocol for committing a crime or evading its discovery was a punishable offense in accordance with Article 9 of the Federal Law No. 5 for 2012 on combating cybercrimes and its amendments.
The UAE aspires to become a global crypto hub, and it needs a strong legislature to attract innovators and investors alike.
In February 2022, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum approved the so-called Virtual Asset Law, establishing the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), whose purpose is to oversee the regulation and authorization of virtual asset activities in Dubai.
It will be interesting to see how much these new punishments will drop the amount of scams we see on a daily basis.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
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