The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), alongside the Prudential Supervisory and Resolution Authority (ACPR), have today updated their warning lists to include a suite of entities that are operating in France without the proper authorization.
This Tuesday, the French regulator has identified websites that are operating in the foreign exchange (forex) and cryptocurrency markets without having the proper authorization. Specifically, the AMF has flagged seven FX entities and three crypto websites.
The new unauthorized players that have recently been identified by the watchdog are:
- www.capitaltradefx.com / Capital TradeFx Ltd
- www.fargo-global.com / Fargo Global Limited
- www.grandcapital.net / Grand Capital Ltd
- www.hqbroker.com / HQ Broker
- www.investors-strategy.com/reussir-your-investments/ / Kito Marketing
- www.lh-broker.com/Larson and Holz IT Ltd
- www.lockwoodinv.com / Elit Property Vision Lt
For the crypto space, the websites are as follows:
- www.cryptoprofx.com
- www.interactifonline.com
- www.lh-crypto.com
“Be careful, these lists are updated regularly but are not intended to be complete because new unauthorized actors appear regularly,” the statement from the AMF said.
“To ensure that the intermediary who offers you financial products or services is authorized to operate in France, you can consult the list of authorized investment service providers (https://www.regafi.fr) or the list of authorized intermediaries in the Financial Investment Advisor (CIF) or Participatory Investment Advisor (CIP) category (https://www.orias.fr/search).”
AMF: scams are moving from FX to crypto
Scams within the FX and crypto space remain a real threat to consumers in France. As Finance Magnates reported, the French regulator revealed earlier this year that fraudsters are moving away from selling binary options and Forex and towards Cryptocurrencies .
In 2016, the AMF wrote in its report that it received 3,768 requests from retail investors pertaining to FX and binary options scams. In the same year, just 18 requests were related to cryptocurrencies.
Fast forward to 2018, and only 968 consumer requests were related to FX and binary options. Conversely, 2600 demands were made regarding cryptocurrencies.
“The rapid and large-scale deployment of these offerings and their impact has led to questions about phishing techniques deployed by networks of clearly structured, organized and agile individuals,” the AMF said in its report.
