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

Specifically, an order was issued to close one website (https://nibble.finance) through which financial products were being offered to the public without a prospectus, and five websites through which investment services and activities relating to financial instruments were being carried out unlawfully.

The latest orders target the following entities:

• “ArizonaTrade” (website https://arizona-trade.com and related pages https://client.arizona-trade.com and https://web.arizona-trade.com);
• “Afex Markets” (websites https://afexmel.it and https://afexmarketsltd.it and related page https://client.afexmarketsltd.it);
• “Lgquantichft” (website https://lgquantichft.com and related page https://app.lgquantichft.com);
• “Trading Europe BV” (website https://www.tradingeuropebv.com);
• OÜ NIBBLE ITSF (Nibble Finance) (website https://nibble.finance).

This brings the total number of websites blocked by Consob since July 2019 – that is, since the Authority was granted the power to order the blocking of websites belonging to unauthorised financial intermediaries – to 1,729. Of these, 204 relate to crypto-asset-related activities.

Internet service providers operating in Italy are currently in the process of blocking access to these websites. For technical reasons, it may take a few days for the block to take effect.

Consob notes the evolution of deceptive practices that exploit the Internet to steal users’ money and personal data: there has been an increase in the use of new tools, such as emails and ‘cloned’ websites, fake profiles of politicians and celebrities, and content generated using artificial intelligence systems – such as images, voices or videos – with the aim of inducing savers to make harmful investment choices.