As regulatory bodies from around the globe continue to take stern measures to identify illegal investment-related activities and arrest the transgressors, more and more cases of fraud are emerging. On Monday, the Netherlands’ financial regulator, Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM) has issued a warning against the unauthorized activities of a cryptocurrency boiler room that has been offering investments in the country without complying with the Dutch financial legislation.
The watchdog has blacklisted BTCbrokerz on suspicion of running a so-called boiler room scam, selling nonexistent Cryptocurrencies to investors. Additionally, the company is offering leveraged trading products that reference crypto coins and other asset classes, namely CFDs on stocks, commodities, indices, FX and much more based only on its so-called CRYPTO Exchange .
Boiler rooms use sophisticated tactics to approach investors, offering to buy or sell shares in a way that will bring a huge return. But, victims are often left out of pocket and sometimes lose all of their savings or even their family home.
The AFM released a list of operators which are swaying investors by making false claims while calling for their fake products to be transparent for investors to trade. Today’s warning is the latest initiative in its efforts to clamp down on companies engaging in fraudulent activities.
In an update on its website, the regulator defined boiler room scams as a type of fraud that involves contacting unsolicited customers, often by telephone, offering to sell them little-known shares or exotic financial products. Although the boiler rooms often claim to be authorized service providers with professional websites and forms to fill out, they are in reality swindlers that offer fictitious or worthless shares or products.
Based on this, the AFM strongly advises against responding to any offers of financial or recovery services made by the companies listed above and against transferring money to any account number they might mention.
