The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has revealed a fraudulent entity has been posing as Gain Capital UK, an established FCA-registered firm, and has added the offending firm to its warning list.
Today’s warning concerns Gain Capital Ltd, a clone of Gain Capital UK Ltd, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the genuine firm, as the name might imply.
Gain Capital UK Ltd vs Gain Capital Ltd
Gain Capital UK Ltd is an FCA-registered financial services provider based at Park House, 16 Finsbury Circus, London, UK. The firm operates online via the websites www.cityindex.com and www.Forex .com/uk and provides a range of trading services including contracts for difference (CFDs) and FX and spread betting. It is the UK arm of GAIN Capital Holdings, a company which is publicly traded and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: GCAP).
By contrast, the brokerage’s clone, Gain Capital Ltd, is located at Derby Trading Estate, Unit 5, Stores Road, Derby, UK. The firm’s contact details provided by the FCA are davidflintacc@yahoo.com and watkinsonlayla@yahoo.co.uk.
Gain Capital UK maintains no relation or affiliation with the clone firm. The FCA has also confirmed that the authorised firm which the fraudsters are claiming to work for has no association with the clone firm Gain Capital Ltd.
FCA Warns Against Clones
The FCA has warned investors and market participants against dealing with Gain Capital Ltd since the clone is not under the jurisdiction of any regulatory body.
This latest case is hardly the first instance of a clone attempting to scam individuals through the deployment of illicit means and misleading details. Just last month, the UK regulator also red-flagged Algo Capitals, a forex and binary options brokerage, for conducting business as a clone of an FCA-regulated entity.
The FCA added in its statement that clones employ the tactic of adopting a legitimate company’s name when they cold call potential victims, and urges caution in the event they are contacted by anyone claiming to work for the firm in question.
The watchdog has also advised investors to ensure that they only deal with financial firms that are authorised by checking the Financial Services Register.
