The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has advised the public of several warnings, through its MoneySmart.gov.au website, against potential scam firms purporting to offer financial services in Australia yet lacking the relevant licenses to do so. This update follows ASIC's last warning against a marketing website that offers reviews of binary options brokers as covered by Finance Magnates yesterday.
The two new warnings were issued against FMTrader and RTG Direct Trading Ltd, and just yesterday against Top Ten Binary Brokers (toptenbinarybrokers.com), according to the three separate circulars so far this week.
Warning against FM Trader
One of the companies cited in the warning earlier this Monday in Australia, FM Trader, has the url fmtrader.com and addresses in Cyprus and Belize, including at 6 Ioanni Stylianou 2nd Floor Office/Flat 201 2003 in Nicosia, Cyprus, and Level 17 Dashwood House Old Broad Street and 35 Barrack Road on Third Floor in Belize City, Belize.
The FM Trader website lists itself as a brand owned by Terapad services LTD yet that entity is not authorized in Cyprus as a CIF, according to information on the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC ) website.
The warning against FM Trader mentioned that the firm could be involved in a scam and that Australians should not deal with this business as it is unlicensed in the country. FM Trader was also added to a warning list by France's financial market regulator earlier last year.
According to the warning, the firm allegedly made unsolicited calls or sent emails about investing, financial advice, credit or loans, but it doesn’t hold an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license nor an Australia Credit License from ASIC.
Warning against RTG Direct Trading
The second warning was against RTG Direct Trading Ltd, which uses the url rtgtrading.com and purports to have a UK address at 20-22 Wenlock Road London UK N1 7GU. ASIC noted in its warning about this firm that it too may be involved in a scam and that the public should not deal with this business as it is unlicensed in Australia.
In addition, ASIC added that RTG made unsolicited calls or sent emails related to financial services or credit card loans, yet lacked related AFS licenses or credit licenses from ASIC. Finance Magnates has previously written about RTG when Canadian authorities took action against the firm.
