Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of access to several unauthorized investment websites.

Consob ordered the blackout of four illegal financial intermediation websites and one website which conducted an advertising campaign for an abusive brokerage platform.

In issuing the orders, the Authority made use of the powers deriving from the “Decreto crescita” (“Growth Decree”, converted by Law No. 58 of 28 June 2019) regarding the black-out of websites of abusive financial intermediaries as well as of the powers introduced by the “Legge capitali” (“Capital Act”, Law No. 21 of 5 March 2024) regarding the black-out of websites through which advertising campaigns are carried out targeting abusive brokerage platforms.

The websites targeted by the latest orders are:

• “Guru4Invest” (website www.guru4invest.com and page https://platform.pltf-tchg.io);
• “Sectorcapitals.com” (website https://www.sectorcapitals.com and related page https://clientarea.w1e2b3tr4d3r.com);
• “Aifactor Group” (website https://vipaifactorvip.com);
• “Apollo Trade FX” – “Affidabiletop.com” (website https://apolloinvestfx.com and related page https://cfd.apolloinvestfx.com and advertising website https://affidabiletop.com).

The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blocked, has thus risen to 1,252.

The implementation of the black-out of these websites by Internet service providers is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the blocking to be implemented.

Consob draws investors’ attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviors, essential to safeguard their savings. These include, for websites that offer financial services, checking in advance that the operator with whom you are investing is authorized, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.

To this end, Consob would remind you that there is a section on www.consob.it, “Watch for Scams!”, providing useful information to warn investors against financially unauthorized initiatives.