Italy’s Consob further expands list of blocked websites of unauthorized investment firms
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 websites:
- Surreptitious Group LLC (website https://fincloud.world);
- “Smart Trade Cfd” (website https://smarttradecfd.com and related page https://platform.smarttradecfd.com);
- “Tradebaionics” (website www.tradebaionics.net);
- “UeTrades” (website https://uetrades.com and related page https://secure.uetrades.com);
- Trustgarden Ltd (website www.trustgarden.net and related page https://webtrader.trustgarden.net).
In issuing the orders, the regulator made use of the powers deriving from the “Growth Decree” (Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies). This piece of legislation enables Consob to order Internet service providers to block access from Italy to the websites through which financial services are offered without due authorization.
The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order the blocking of access to websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries has thus risen to 736.
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 on Italian territory is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect.