Fraudsters do not need a real licence to print one. After a broker or wallet loss, a “case officer” often appears with a letterhead that borrows a familiar acronym — MiCA, CARF, a “Panama Financial Crypto Commission”, an “El Salvador Securities and Cryptocurrency Commission” — and a Brussels or offshore street address that looks busy on a PDF. The ask is rarely “please wait”. It is a tax, a verification deposit, an unlock fee, paid in crypto because that is hard to reverse.
Some of those strings are real concepts in the wrong costume. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) for tax reporting between authorities; it is not a private call centre that emails victims. The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA) is EU law, not a freestanding website such as mica.website handing out recovery orders. Names like PFCC on ompanama.org, elscc.org, or invented “crypto ombudsman” shops are the opposite pattern: they exist to look official for one conversation.
A quick check beats a polished stamp. Open the real regulator or EU/OECD page yourself — not a link from the chat. Real supervisors publish registers and warnings; they do not cold-message you to move coins into a “safe wallet”. If the letter demands money before anything is “released”, treat it as a second hit on the same victim list, not a government service.
Start at Get help for reporting routes. Read Fake recovery before paying anyone who claims they can reverse a confirmed transfer.
This article is for general information only. It is not legal or financial advice. Details change. If you have lost money, contact your bank or card issuer and use the routes on the help pages.