Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has issued orders for the blocking of access to five more unauthorized investment websites, taking the total to over 750.

The websites targeted by the latest set of orders are:

• Olympusbrokers Ltd (website www.olympusbrokers.com);
• Uncanny Services LLC (website https://5markets.io);
• Surreptitious Group LLC (website https://fincloud.life and related page https://webtrader.fn-trade.link);
• Combobulating Group LLC (website https://goldmar.co and related page https://webtrader.gmar.cc);
• “Titancfd” (website www.titancfd.com and related page https://platform.titancfd.com).

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 such blocking has thus risen to 754. 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.

Consob regularly updates its list of blocked websites. Last week, the regulator ordered the blocking of access to five other investment websites that operate in Italy without the necessary authorization.

The implementation of the black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect.