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EU MiCA enforcement boosts scams targeting migrating crypto users
CoinDesk reports regulators in France, the ESMA, and the Netherlands say scammers are impersonating authorities and fake migration notices, including requests for upfront fees to recover stolen funds.
CoinDesk reports that fraudsters have ramped up scamming activity across the European Union as MiCA crypto-asset rules took full effect on July 1, when more than 1,700 unlicensed platforms were required to stop serving EU customers and route users to licensed alternatives.
According to CoinDesk, only 323 companies held valid MiCA authorization at the start of the transition, leaving a gap regulators say up to 10 million users were told to move their digital assets. Scammers are copying the language of real migration notices and using impersonation to push victims to fraudulent platforms before they notice the difference.
CoinDesk also cites regulator concerns in France and at the EU level, including scammers posing as employees of France's Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) to convince victims to pay upfront administrative fees to recover allegedly stolen funds. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) confirmed it is aware of criminals misusing its identity, name, and logo through falsified documents to alarm users that their funds were at risk.
In the Netherlands, the AFM warned that the exchange migration itself is part of the attack surface, urging users to verify any provider against the official ESMA register before transferring assets. The AFM also cautioned that unsolicited messages requesting fund transfers should be treated with suspicion.