Consob, Italy’s financial regulatory authority, recently blacklisted five new illegal financial websites. According to the regulator, the companies behind these websites were offering unauthorized services to Italian citizens.
Consob has ordered the websites of Alphapro FX, Eurofxsecurities Limited, The Active Traders Ltd, Promarketing Ltd and Enercom AG to be blocked. Consob has blocked a total of 741 websites since July 2019.
Investors in the region have been largely protected from fraudulent activities by the Italian financial regulatory authority over the past few months. In light of the growing number of scams in Italy and other European countries, Consob has requested investors do their due diligence before investing.
“Consob draws investors’ attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviors, essential to safeguard their savings: these include, for websites that offer financial services, checking in advance that the operator with whom they are investing is authorized, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published,” the watchdog pointed out.
Consob added: “The Authority availed itself of the powers deriving from the 'Growth Decree' (Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), on the basis of which Consob can order Internet connectivity service providers to inhibit access from Italy to the websites through which financial services are offered without due authorization.”
According to Consob, the section on its website entitled ‘Watch for Scams’ aids investors in identifying fraudulent projects. Additionally, citizens were encouraged to check the credibility of the website and the company behind it before making an investment decision.
Recent Consob's Blockages
Last month, Consob blacklisted Lilac Group LLC, MB Invest, BTCoin Group, Levelprofit and Alphafxprime. These platforms are offering trading services with counterparty contracts.
The instruments include forex , cryptocurrencies and other asset classes. None of these trading platforms have been authorized by the Italian regulator, and there is a high chance of them being scams.
