Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) today issued a warning against online trading “video games”.

Consob warns investors against the risks associated with offers, promoted on the web and social media, of exercises that simulate an online trading activity in a kind of finance video game aimed at passing skill tests and making a profit.

The operating scheme – variously referred to under various names, including shadow investment game, funding trading, financed trading accounts – consists in inducing network users to participate in online trading challenges, which in most cases assume enrolment in paid training courses. Those who pass the test are presented with the opportunity to switch from simulated trading to supposedly real trading with capital apparently made available by companies calling themselves proprietary firms (prop firms).

To entice the “players,” the opportunity to share some of any profits made is floated to them.

Consob has received several reports from users who have signed up for such offers. The complaints concern both the level of difficulty of the tests, which are allegedly contrived to push “players” to try again, and the failure to share the alleged profits.

Similar warnings about the risks associated with these offers, which can lead to the loss of pledged amounts, have also been issued by the National Financial Market Regulatory and Supervisory Authorities in Belgium (FSMA) and Spain (CNMV).

Last month, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it was keeping financial trading apps “under review” over gaming concerns, following an online experiment it conducted with over 9,000 consumers. The FCA found in its experiment that digital engagement practices (DEPs) used by trading apps, such as push notifications and prize draws, can increase trading frequency and risk taking.