The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission issued a statement on Monday saying that scammers are impersonating its workers and trying to steal cash from retail brokers’ clients.
According to the document released by the regulatory body, the fraudsters are sending emails to retail traders that look identical to messages sent out by CySEC .
In those emails, the scammers say that they represent the regulatory body and that they are helping traders to reclaim funds.
Of course, in order to help the investors, the scammers say they need traders to pay them a fee so that they can move their case forward.
According to CySEC, the fraudsters also use these emails to illegally obtain personal information, including phone numbers and bank details.
“CySEC would like to remind the public that it never sends unsolicited correspondence to investors or members of the public, nor does it ever request any personal data, financial or otherwise,” said the regulator in its statement.
Same old scam
Some victims of the scam, having been convinced to hand their phone numbers, have then started receiving phone calls from the scammers. The fraudsters have then been pushy, asking for money so that they can ‘help’ their victims get their money back.
The scam is the latest step in a long-running trend. As Finance Magnates reported in mid-2018, fraudsters have taken to setting up ‘recovery expert’ scams.
Usually targeting the victims of unregulated brokers, they claim they can retrieve any stolen funds in return for a large fee.
A person familiar with the matter said that, in the case of the CySEC scam, fraudsters are targeting clients of regulated brokers that have been hit with fines or warnings by the Cypriot financial authority.
