After receiving dozens of enquiries and complaints from retail investors, France’s financial markets regulator the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) has announced that it is calling on the public to be extremely vigilant about the automated trading service offered by Immediate Connect, which is being promoted on the Internet through advertisements using the names of prominent personalities and well-known news websites.

According to the testimonies gathered by the AMF Epargne Info Service platform, retail investors say they discovered the automated trading service through an article on the Internet presented as a publication by a major national daily newspaper, reporting an alleged interview with a famous television presenter in a programme extolling the merits of this service. This platform was claimed to be “the ideal solution for those who want to get rich quickly”, where it would be easy to “earn a million euros in 12-15 weeks”.  Other cases of identity theft using this newspaper and celebrities from the world of sport or business have been used in the past to promote other trading scam sites on the AMF’s blacklists.

After filling in their details on an Immediate Connect online contact form, interested investors were quickly contacted by a supposed financial adviser who induced them to register on an unauthorised trading platform to invest in the foreign exchange market (Forex), in crypto-assets such as bitcoin, or in derivatives on crypto-assets. When they tried to collect their alleged gains, they were asked to first pay a “capital gains tax”.

The AMF said it would like to remind retail investors that only companies authorised as investment services providers in the European Union are permitted to offer brokerage services such as trading, whether automated or not, in forex or crypto-asset derivatives. Only digital asset service providers (DASPs) registered with the AMF are authorised to offer the purchase and sale, custody or trading of crypto-assets to the French public via promotional marketing material.

The AMF has taken several measures to put a stop to the activities of these unauthorised companies.

• More generally, the AMF reminds the general public of due diligence rules that must be applied before making any investments:
• Be wary of unrealistic promises from trading websites that guarantee quick profits;
• Avoid the Forex market, the unregulated currency market, where the risks of a loss of capital exceeding the sum invested are very high (if you are not an experienced investor);

Check that the company is authorised to offer financial services and is not on one of the AMF’s blacklists.