The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC), in its mission to protect residents in Canada’s most Western province, published a new warning on its website against Option888 on Tuesday.
According to the warning, the financial regulator recently became aware that Option888, an alleged online foreign exchange (forex) Trading Platform provider, had accepted funds from a resident in British Columbia to trade with the company.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem if the company was legitimate and authorized in the province. However, the BCSC warned yesterday that the company and affiliated parties are not registered to trade in, or advise on, securities or exchange contracts in British Columbia.
“We urge BC residents to exercise caution when dealing with firms that are not registered to trade or advise in BC,” said the BCSC in its warning yesterday.
Taking a look at its website, https://www.option888.com/, Option888 claims that: “In less than 5 years, Option888 has managed to become the largest Forex broker serving Europe, Oceania, and the Middle East.”
While this is a large claim, and one that is easily debunked, the entity also states that it is owned and operated by Celestial Trading Ltd, which is also not registered to trade in or advise on securities and exchange contracts.
Furthermore, the trading provider also purports to have offices in London, Sweden, Malta, Germany, Holland, Spain, and France. The entity also claims to be registered by the Montenegro Security Exchange Commission.
BCSC and financial regulators continue the battle against scams
The warning from the BCSC comes just one day after Italy’s financial regulator, CONSOB, warned against Nordic Pearl Ltd and Grand Services Ltd, which are connected to FXG Invest stating the firms do not have the required authorization to offer investment services to residents of Italy.
As Finance Magnates reported, FXG Invest is a trading provider of foreign exchange (forex), contracts for difference (CFD) and precious metals. The platform claims to use well-known firms such as Bank of America, Citibank, Barclays and Deutsche Bank as its Liquidity providers.
