The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning to the public today against another broker it calls a clone firm. The regulator says FTradition (or Forex Tradition) is passing itself off as a member of the Tradition Group, an international group of brokers that is FCA authorised.
In December 2014, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) also issued a warning against the unlicensed Seychelles broker. The Dutch financial watchdog warned European investors not to respond to offers from Ftradition as the company is suspected of being a boiler room. A boiler room, the AFM explains, is a collective term for fraudulent individuals and organizations using “clever salespeople” to call potential investors to pressure them into buying shares that promise high returns (cold calling).
The FCA warns against trusting cold calls from the broker but does not claim reports of it happening. AFM has said in the past that it found that Ftradition Ltd. approached people without being asked for the purpose of offering them investment proposals.
Ftradition claims to offer “Stock Exchange Products” on its website but in some sections it also calls itself “ForexTradition.” At any rate, the broker seems to focus mostly on CFDs. Additionally, Ftradition says it is located in Mahe, Seychelles but the website domain address is registered by a company in France and it has a UK office branch. That might explain the European involvement.
As for the investment offers, the Dutch regulator said that: “In reality the shares are either worthless or non-existent.” The AFM has also established that Ftradition Ltd. does not have any European-compliant financial licenses.
