British investors have been warned not to take out any financial services with Trade WFX after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ) on Tuesday said it had faked its authorization.
Trade WFX is targeting UK investors offering a full range of offshore investment services, including FX trading services, but the City watchdog has said the registration number on its website is a fake and the firm is not authorized to do business in the UK.
According to the City watchdog, many of these entities are acting in a capacity requiring them to be registered with the FCA. Registration allows the agency to provide greater security and oversight of the industry by examining whether firms meet minimum financial standards as well as disclosure, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements.
A statement from the FCA said: 'Some firms act without our authorisation and some knowingly run investment scams."
The FCA has advised anyone who has been contacted by Trade WFX to contact its consumer helpline on 0800 111 6768.
A visit to the broker’s website reveals its attempt to mislead investors that it is offering a legal product – it claims to be governed by the FCA.
Those behind the unregulated firm are not professional enough as they made some funny claims, including that their brand is licensed in London, but they wrongly wrote the abbreviation of the UK regulator as FSA, the predecessor of the FCA.
Tuesday's announcement is the latest in the FCA’s series of warnings about unauthorized firms posing as legitimate, approved businesses to con UK consumers into making Payments for investment services.
If you are an investor, you should be aware that the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme are not available if you deal with an unauthorized company or individual, the FCA said in a statement.
