Number of investment websites blocked in Italy reaches 780
Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has issued orders for the blocking of access to six new websites that offer financial services and products illegally: 5 illegal financial intermediation websites and 1 website through which an offer of financial products is carried out in the absence of a prospectus.
The websites targeted by the latest set of orders are:
- CMS Ltd (website www.cmsltd.io and related pages https://client.cmsltd.io and https://webtrader.cmsltd.io),
- Clandestiny Group LLC (website https://dakkengroup.pro);
- Cryptopay Limited (website https://eufxbank.com and related page https://webtrader.eufxbank.com);
- “Axicapitals” (website https://axicapitals.com and related page https://platform.axicapitals.com);
- “Sureinvest” (website https://sureinvest.org and related page https://private.sureinvest.co);
- British Trade Limited (website www.britishtradeltd.com).
In issuing the orders, the Authority made use of the powers deriving from the “Decreto crescita” (“Growth Decree” Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), as well as of the power introduced by the Law no. 8 of 28 February 2020, Article no. 4, paragraph 3-bis.
The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 780. Just a month ago, the number of blocked investment websites topped 750.
The measures adopted by Consob can be consulted on the website www.consob.it.
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.
Consob draws investors’ attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence in order 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 they are investing is authorized, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.
To this end, Consob would remind you that on the website www.consob.it there is a section on the homepage, “Watch for Scams!”, providing useful information to warn investors against financially abusive initiatives.