The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Britain’s financial market watchdog, today warned that a Forex brokerage firm has been falsely claiming its registration whilst usurping the identity of an authorised entity in order to give the appearance of trustworthiness or legitimacy, thereby fooling investors.
According to the UK financial watchdog, the fraudsters have been using a fake website – en.nblfx.com – and the FCA warned that the brands NBLFX/ Niru Bala Limited / Numex Foreign Exchange Corporation (UK) Ltd are indeed attempting to mislead investors through using the details of an authorised firm operating under a similar name.
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The original company operates under the name Numex Foreign Exchange Corporation (UK) Ltd and is registered with the FCA as a regulated provider of foreign exchange products.
A visit to NBLFX’s website reveals its attempt to mislead investors that it is offering a legal product - it claims to be governed by the FCA.
Apparently, the fraudsters behind the scam are not professional enough as they made some funny claims, including that their brand is licensed by the London Stock Exchange group, and on the Chinese version wrongly wrote the abbreviation of the UK regulator as FSA, the predecessor of the FCA. Additionally, the genuine firm provides traditional foreign exchange services while its foolish clone operates as a forex broker.
Today’s announcement is the latest in the FCA's series of warnings about clone firms posing as legitimate approved businesses in order to con UK consumers into making Payments for investment services.
The FCA reminded UK investors that clones employ the tactic of adopting a legitimate company’s name when they cold call potential victims. It urges them to be wary if they get contacted by anyone claiming to work for this company.
Based on this, the watchdog stated in its official statement that it strongly advises investors to only deal with financial firms that are authorised, and check the Financial Services Register to ensure that they are. It also noted that investors should be aware that if they give money to an unauthorised firm, they will not be covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) if things go wrong.
