The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning regarding a fraudulent entity masquerading as a legitimate financial services provider. The scam operation, identified as "finaltolive.com," is falsely claiming to be an authorised firm under the FCA's jurisdiction.
Fraudsters behind "finaltolive.com" have replicated the details of the genuine FCA-authorised firm, Finalto Financial Services Limited, in an attempt to deceive potential investors and clients. This method, known as creating a clone firm, is a common tactic used by scammers to gain the trust of unsuspecting victims by presenting themselves as credible financial service providers.
Deceptive Operation
The fraudulent operation known as finaltolive.com is using misleading details to deceive the public. The scam firm lists its addresses as Midcity Place, London, WC1V 6EA, and Ground Floor St Georges Court, Upper Church, Douglas Street.
It uses the email address h.stevens@finaltolive.com. The FCA has warned that these scammers may provide additional false contact information, such as other email addresses, telephone numbers, and postal addresses, often mixing these fake details with some of the legitimate information of the authorised firm to appear credible.
The FCA cautioned on their site: “If you deal with this firm, you won't have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you have a complaint. You also won't be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if things go wrong. This means it's unlikely you'd get your money back if the firm goes out of business.”
Using Legitimate Company Details
Earlier, the FCA issued a warning against a clone pretending to be the authorized firm Admiral Markets UK Ltd., which operated under the Admirals retail trading brand. This fraudulent operation is at least the fifth clone of a popular broker identified in recent years.
The organization also published warnings about two clone firms falsely claiming to represent legitimate financial services providers Hargreaves Lansdown and Westpac. These fake companies are using the names and details of the real firms to scam people into investing money that is unlikely to be returned. The Hargreaves Lansdown clone uses various names and contact details, falsely claiming the company number and FCA product reference number of the genuine Hargreaves Lansdown PLC.
The FCA issued another warning about a clone of investment firm Spreadex. This fraudulent firm, operating under the website sspreadex.com, is impersonating Spreadex, a regulated spread-betting service provider in the UK.
