Dukascopy is a cryptocurrency bank that is based in Switzerland, and they have apparently become such a success that other companies want to attach themselves to their name.
They even will become the first regulated bank to launch an initial coin offering (ICO), beating out Japanese Mizuho Bank by one day. GCG, a forex trading company, recently announced to the public that they are the authorized firm for the bank, which is entirely untrue, according to Dukascopy.
The crypto bank published an announcement on February 27th to address these claims, saying that there is no association between any entity of Dukascopy Group and GCG Asia, despite what the letter says. The warning states,
“GCG Asia is fraudulently using Dukascopy's name and logo for attracting clients/investors, without Dukascopy Bank's permission. We are taking actions against this dishonest organization. We invite to extreme caution toward such organization basing its promotion on a lie.”
Last month, Dukascopy Bank partnered with Bitstamp, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Europe. The partnership will require Bitstamp to support Bitcoin transactions for Dukascopy. The Bitcoin will be sent to the customer’s accounts, where they will be converted into US dollars, which can be traded on the Swiss FX Marketplace.
There have been multiple cases of alleged clone firms that have done exactly what GCG has done here, claiming that they are associated with a well-known firm to serve as a representative of their reliability. In August, investors were warned about this possibility by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regarding investment firm Fair Oaks Capital Ltd. Fair Oak Crypto, a fraudulent company, user registration data of firms that the regulator already authorities to scam potential victims, saying that they were a representative of Fair Oaks Capital.
The FCA was forced to issue another warning about scammers that were portraying themselves as a firm that the FCA themselves authorized. Good Crypto, the firm in question, was providing “false details or mix[ing] these with some correct details of the registered firm,” which connected them to Corporate Finance this time.
