Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) announces that it has issued orders for the blocking of access to five new websites that abusively offer financial services.

The latest set of orders target the following entities:

• Market Ltd and Propinquity Group Ltd (website https://marketltd.co and related page https://webtrader.marketltd.top);
• “Ibell FX” (website www.ibellmarkets.com and related page and https://crm.ibellmarkets.com);
• “Globecfds” (website www.globesfxp.com and related page https://client.globesfxp.com);
• Vibeinv Invest Limited (website www.vibeinv-24.com);
• “Seventrade24” (website https://seventrade24.com and related page https://client.seventrade24.com).

The number of websites blocked since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 725. Last week, the regulator issued orders for the blocking of access to seven websites.

All these websites belong to firms that offer investment services in Italy without having the necessary license to do so. Some of these entities are clones, that is, they abuse the details (name, address, etc) of licensed businesses in order to lure victims more easily.

The black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating in Italy is ongoing. Due to technical factors, it can take several days for the blocking to be implemented.