The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) of Belgium today issued a warning to the public against the activities of Derwent Investments.

Derwent Investments is not an authorized investment firm in Belgium. It is therefore not allowed to provide investment services in Belgium.

The FSMA therefore strongly advises against responding to any offer of financial services made by Derwent Investments and against transferring money to any account number it might mention.

Moreover, according to the information available to the FSMA, the activities proposed could be of a fraudulent nature, i.e. boiler room fraud.

Boiler room fraud is a type of fraud that generally involves contacting consumers unsolicited, often by telephone, offering to sell them shares or other financial products. Recently, the services being offered have grown ever more diverse. Products and services currently being offered also include: management accounts, term deposit accounts, investment advice, investments in crowdfunding, etc.

Although boiler rooms claim to be authorized service providers, with a professional website and forms to fill out, they are in reality fraudsters who offer fictitious or worthless products or services.

As a rule, the consumer is enticed to make an initial, limited investment that very soon appears to be profitable. After that, the consumer is asked to make more and more additional investments. But when a consumer asks for his or her money back, this proves to be impossible without making additional payments and/or the new investments begin to lose money.

The fraudsters often put the consumer under severe pressure (hence the term “boiler room”), insisting that they keep making further payments. In the end, the consumer will never get the invested money back.