Luxembourg’s Financial Regulator Warns Against... Its Own Clone Website

Friday, 26/09/2014 | 19:45 GMT by Victor Golovtchenko
  • Clone wars are going to a new level as new unknown entities are creating websites imposting as official regulators which are further relaying the message of allegedly regulated exchanges accepting deposits.
Luxembourg’s Financial Regulator Warns Against... Its Own Clone Website
CSSF Logo

Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), has issued an announcement warning the public of the clone website, www.lfcota.org, claiming to be the "Luxembourg Futures Commodities Options Trading Authority”. The clone website boasts that it is the official regulatory authority for futures and options markets of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

According to the warning issued by the CSSF, there is no such authority in existence in the country. The regulator goes on to deliver an additional message warning the public of an entity named Luxembourg Futures Commodities Options Exchange.

The latter claims to be located at 104 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg (www.lfcoex.lu) and to be supervised by the aforementioned imposter authority. The CSSF stresses that the so-called Luxembourg Futures Commodities Options Exchange has not been authorized to offer financial services in/or from Luxembourg.

The open account option on the latter's website has been deactivated as of the time of publication of the article.

Clone websites usually imposter as a regulated entity to illegally solicit customers to open accounts with them and deposit funds. Countries outside the developed world are the usual targets for such schemes, as normally, the chargeback option on their credit cards is not activated due to abusive behavior by card owners.

With the recent trend of clone websites popping up all over the globe and being especially active in China, this new strategy could advance this worrying trend even further, undermining the trustworthiness of brokers. The next level of the “clone wars” between worldwide regulators and the unknown entities has started, as 'there are plenty of fish in the sea'.

A couple of months ago, Luxembourg’s financial regulator drew the attention of Forex Magnates to two binary options White Labels which had already been shut down - Royal De Bank and Futurmarkets.

CSSF Logo

Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), has issued an announcement warning the public of the clone website, www.lfcota.org, claiming to be the "Luxembourg Futures Commodities Options Trading Authority”. The clone website boasts that it is the official regulatory authority for futures and options markets of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

According to the warning issued by the CSSF, there is no such authority in existence in the country. The regulator goes on to deliver an additional message warning the public of an entity named Luxembourg Futures Commodities Options Exchange.

The latter claims to be located at 104 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg (www.lfcoex.lu) and to be supervised by the aforementioned imposter authority. The CSSF stresses that the so-called Luxembourg Futures Commodities Options Exchange has not been authorized to offer financial services in/or from Luxembourg.

The open account option on the latter's website has been deactivated as of the time of publication of the article.

Clone websites usually imposter as a regulated entity to illegally solicit customers to open accounts with them and deposit funds. Countries outside the developed world are the usual targets for such schemes, as normally, the chargeback option on their credit cards is not activated due to abusive behavior by card owners.

With the recent trend of clone websites popping up all over the globe and being especially active in China, this new strategy could advance this worrying trend even further, undermining the trustworthiness of brokers. The next level of the “clone wars” between worldwide regulators and the unknown entities has started, as 'there are plenty of fish in the sea'.

A couple of months ago, Luxembourg’s financial regulator drew the attention of Forex Magnates to two binary options White Labels which had already been shut down - Royal De Bank and Futurmarkets.

About the Author: Victor Golovtchenko
Victor Golovtchenko
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