Italy’s CONSOB Blocks Seven ‘Abusive’ Websites

The Italian Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB), Italy’s financial regulatory authority, says it has blocked seven unauthorized websites.

CONSBOB, which announced this action on Friday in a press statement, said the websites offer financial services and financial products illegally.

Last month, the watchdog similarly blacklisted five illegal financial websites for offering unauthorized services to Italian citizens.

In the latest news, CONSOB explained that while five of these websites acted as illegal financial intermediaries, the other two were used to offer financial products “in the absence of a prospectus.”

The flagged websites are: Tetris Group Ltd (https://battletrade.io), Eudaimon Consulting LLC (https://aceinvest.co), FTI Finance (www.ftifinance.com) and FX Publications INC/ Dlfinindex Ltd (https://dolfinindex.com with a related page: https://client.dolfinindex.com).

Others are: Promarketing Ltd (https://greencapitalz.com with related page https://platform.greencapitalz.com), Global Success Management Inc (https://globalsuccessmanagement.com) and GIG-OS (https://gig-os.com).

However, CONSOB pointed out that blocking the websites by internet service providers operating in the country is still ongoing.

“For technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect,” it said.

The financial watchdog explained that it acted on the power conferred on it by sections of Italy’s Growth Decree relating to blocking the sites for abusive financial intermediaries.

Additionally, the regulator said it acted on the section of the decree that references when to block a site through which an abusive financial offer is carried out.

“The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when CONSOB got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 720,” it said in the statement.

‘Greatest Diligence’

CONSOB in the statement urged investors to exercise “the greatest diligence” in order to make informed investment choices.

Moreover, the watchdog urged them to adopt “common sense behaviour” it said were essential to safeguard their savings.

According to CONSOB, examples of such behaviour to adopt when dealing with websites that offer financial services include checking in advance to confirm that the operator they want to invest in is authorised.

For offers of financial products, the financial authority asked that investors ensure that a prospectus has been published.

“To this end, CONSOB would remind you that on the website, there is a section on the homepage ‘Watch for Scams!’ providing useful information to warn investors against financially abusive initiatives,” CONSOB added.