Scams within the foreign exchange (Forex ) and cryptocurrency industries remain a huge thorn in regulators’ sides. This fact was shown this Monday, with the Spanish financial regulator, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), posting a warning against 21 entities.
Usually, regulators publish warnings against individual entities or small groups of companies that it identifies as suspicious. A warning against 21 institutions at once is rare and could be a sign of the prevalence of FX and crypto scams in Europe and in Spain.
In particular, the warning published today is against 21 institutions that are operating in the country without holding the proper authority from the Spanish regulator.
“According to CNMV records, these institutions are not registered in the corresponding registry of this Commission and, therefore, are not authorized to provide investment services,” the statement said.
Among the list of unauthorized entities is Novatrades Ltd, the self-proclaimed most “trusted digital asset exchange” and “the safest, fastest asset exchange on earth,” according to its website, https://www.novatrades.com/.
However, despite its claims of being safe and reliable, Novatrades has appeared on the radar of numerous regulators. As Finance Magnates reported, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) posted a warning against the entity last year.
InstaFX24 Ltd also appears on the CNMV’s warning list. The entity, which claims to be a Forex Broker and operates via the following URL - https://instafx24.com/ - has also been a repeat offender, as the British regulator, the FCA also warned against the company earlier this year in September.
You can find the complete list of entities the CNMV warned today against here.
Scams are on the rise
However, scams don’t just appear in Spain and in the United Kingdom. Regulators across the world have their work cut out for them. On the other side of the world in Australia, investment scams are also on the rise.
Specifically, Australians have lost more to investment scams so far in 2019 than they did in the whole of 2018. That’s according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Scamwatch.
