The French financial market supervisor, locally known as Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), issued a warning against the services of unauthorized automated forex trading robots, which often lure victims with lucrative offers.
French Regulator Cautions against FX Trading Robots
Unregulated companies mainly target French overseas departments and territories with unrealistic returns of 5 to 15 percent per month or up to 400 percent yearly. These companies often sell subscriptions of licenses to their trading robot that can reach several hundred or thousands of euros.
"Interested investors are invited to open an account with a broker designated as an exclusive partner. The broker is not authorized to offer this type of service to the French public. Deposits and withdrawals are made only in crypto-assets," the regulatory warning stated.
The warning came as the AMF received several reports in recent months from overseas investors and institutions against fraudulent trading robot software offering investment opportunities in the forex market. These platforms usually run promotional campaigns on social media and messaging groups, often hosting physical promotional events.
These schemes also impose heavy fees on early withdrawals, thus discouraging inventors from exiting the fraudulent schemes. Further, they provide incentives for referrals.
"Rather than withdrawing their potential earnings prematurely, which would incur fees, retail investors are encouraged to generate affiliate income by recruiting new subscribers. They are promised bonuses or commissions at various levels, in a similar way to multi-level marketing (MLM) structures, whose aggressive practices in the sale of trading training packs were exposed by the AMF in June 2020," the warning added. "Both schemes use the same keywords, such as 'financial freedom' and 'passive income'."
Regulators Are Cautious
The French regulator is not the only one to warn against such robot trading schemes. In 2021, Belgium's Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) red-flagged multiple fraudulent investment companies, including one offering Expert Advisors. Moreover, the Belgian supervisor warned retail traders against the trading software as a whole. Belgium does not allow the retail offering of counterparty investment instruments.
Earlier, the French regulator revealed that there were more than 1.5 million active investors in the country's stock markets in 2022. The figure was 5.5 percent lower than the previous year, with about 1.6 million active investors, but it was higher than 1.3 million active investors in 2020.
Furthermore, the AMF blacklisted more than a dozen unauthorized websites offering forex investment services in the country. According to official numbers, the total number of unauthorized forex sites blacklisted this year dropped by 30 percent to 49 platforms, which is down from 61 last year.
