Although regulators are tightening their supervision on the financial markets, numerous scams, particularly within the foreign Exchange (Forex ), crypto and binary options industries continue to surface.
As part of their efforts to protect consumers from predatory scam artists, financial regulators often send out warnings or flag entities they deem to be suspicious. Today, two financial regulators have done so - the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and France’s Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF).
This Wednesday, the FCA has flagged Quantum Forex Trade as suspicious. Specifically, the warning states that the entity is claiming to be associated with Fortrade Limited, which is a legitimate company authorized by the British regulator.
In the warning, the UK watchdog highlights that Quantum Forex Trade is in fact not associate with, nor has any connections to, Fortrade Limited. Instead, the FCA warns that the entity is a clone firm, that is a company which copies the details of a legitimate firm to trick consumers into thinking it is legitimate.
Furthermore, when visiting the clone firm’s website, which the British regulator states is https://quantumforextrade.com, the entity claims to be registered with the FCA and provides 609970 as its Firm Reference Number (FRN). However, this number actually belongs to Fortrade Limited. So taking into account today’s warning from the agency, this statement is false, and it is not in fact registered.
France’s AMF Flags Five Unauthorised FX Entities
Also today, the AMF, along with the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR), has listed a number of new websites and entities which are offering investments in the FX market in France without the authorization to do so.
Specifically, the regulator lists the following entities as operating without a license:
- www.ainvestments.com / Esos International Ltd / Kadeky International S.R.O
- www.ainvestments.biz / Esos International Ltd / Kadeky International S.R.O
- www.eastcapitalmarkets.com / MUU Group Limited
- www.londonemanagement.com / London Emanagement Ltd
- www.xstradepro.com / XS Investments
But it's not only the FX industry where fraudsters call home; the crypto industry is also plagued by scam artists. In addition to its warning about unauthorized forex entities, the AMF also called out ten websites which it says is offering cryptocurrency investment opportunities without the proper authorization today.
As highlighted by the French regulator, consumers should avoid dealing with the following websites:
- www.avenir-crypto.com
- www.cryptos-advisor.com
- www.directco-invest.com
- www.direct-ep.com
- www.falcon-wl.com
- www.futur-solution.com
- www.globalco-crypto.com
- www.mabanquecrypto.com
- www.mcminage.com
- www.phoenix-gm.com
The watchdog also points out that this is not a complete list of all the suspicious entities operating in the crypto space, but only newly-identified companies operating without authorization.
