Number of blocked investment websites in Italy surpasses 700
Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of access to five new websites that abusively offer financial services.
The latest set of blocking orders target:
- “MBInvest” (website www.invmb.eu);
- “Saxo-FX24” (website https://saxo-fx24.com and related pages https://my.saxo-fx24.com and https://webtrader.saxo-fx24.com);
- Fundiza Ltd (website https://fundiza.site);
- Extraprime Ltd (website https://idealinvestfx.com and related page https://accounts.idealinvestfx.com);
- “EuropeanStock” (website https://europeanstock.eu and related page and related page https://client.europeanstock.eu)
The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 703. The list includes websites that offer FX, crypto and CFD trading services. Let’s note that many of these websites are run by the so-called clones. These are entities that abuse the name, address, logos, etc of regulated companies in order to mislead investors.
In issuing the orders, Consob made use of the powers deriving from the “Growth Decree” (Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), on the basis of which Consob can order Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access from Italy to the websites through which financial services are offered without due authorization.
The black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating on Italian territory is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the blocking to come into effect.