ASIC unable to help victims of limestonefx.com recover their funds
Clone entities create a growing number of problems for investors and regulators, as confirmed today by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The Australian regulator today published a warning regarding limestonefx.com. The website is abusing the details of Limestone FX Pty Ltd, an authorised representative of Baileyhenry Capital Group Pty Limited, an Australian financial services (AFS) licensee. The website limestonefx.com falsely claims to be associated with the licensed company.
The licensee and authorised representative have advised ASIC that they do not have any connection to the website.
The operators of the website appear to be located outside of Australia. Recovering money lost to investment scams is challenging, particularly when scammers are offshore.
ASIC has received reports predominantly from people who invested via limestonefx.com. These investors said that they are now unable to withdraw their investments.
The regulator says it is unable to assist victims in recovering their funds. They are advised to contact their financial institution to see if they can assist in tracing payments made. Unfortunately, often funds are very difficult to recover once is has been sent outside of Australia.
ASIC encourages investors to obtain independent financial advice before investing, and to check ASIC’s registers to see if the entity you’re dealing with holds an AFS licence. However, unscrupulous operators sometimes impersonate AFS licensees.
The regulator advises:
“You should check that the contact details you’ve been given for the entity, corresponds with publicly available details for the licensee, and confirm with the licensee that the communications in fact originated from them”.
Traders do not need to lodge a report with ASIC as it has sufficient information at this time.