Cyprus financial regulator CySEC puts out some version of a warning against impersonators appearing as CySEC officials in an attempt to scam unsuspecting investors quite often these days.
CySEC has already issued several warnings like this – two times back in 2017, as well as June, November, and October 2016.
CySEC again reminded investors and the general public of the following:
- From time to time it comes to the attention of CySEC that unknown entities or individuals present themselves as CySEC or other Cypriot Supervisory Authorities, or of other jurisdictions, for the purpose of conducting illegal transactions.
- These entities or individuals contact investors that are clients of various supervised or other firms usually via email and, using the name and logo of CySEC as well as other untruthful contact information, promise to “assist” said investors in receiving compensation for potential damages incurred during their cooperation with the aforementioned firms, in exchange for a legal fee or other expenses.
The official text of the regulator’s warning can be seen below:
A number of market participants have informed the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) about the fraudulent representation of CySEC officers. It has come to our repeated attention that individuals claiming to be CySEC officers or appointed representatives are soliciting investors for fees in exchange for settlement of bogus compensation claims related to conduct of business with a number of firms under CySEC’s supervision.
As a matter of policy, CySEC will never send unsolicited correspondence to investors or members of the public, nor will it ever request any personal data, financial or otherwise.
CySEC has no authority or jurisdiction to collect fees for any purpose from individual investors, nor does it have authority to appoint anyone to do so on its behalf. It does not authorize, verify, monitor, or is in any way involved in class actions, compensation schemes, payments between natural or legal entities or any public or private agencies.
These fraudulent cases are scamming investors every day as part of a sophisticated online campaign. Typically, these scams include:
- Individuals claim to be CySEC officers, appointed representatives of CySEC (e.g. legal advisors), other Cypriot supervisory authorities (e.g. Central Bank of Cyprus) and/or bank representatives appointed by CySEC
- These scammers contact investors that are clients of regulated entities under CySEC’s supervision, often via email
- These emails appear genuine – they carry the name, address, official stamp and logo of CySEC and fraudulently copy CySEC officials’ signature
- The fraudsters then make false promises to assist investors with compensation for potential damages in connection with dealings they have had with sanctioned firms (typically online trading firms offering speculative investment products)
- Through this engagement, the fraudsters illegally obtain personal information including telephone records
- In some cases, investors are then called via telephone in relation to email correspondence
CySEC has sent multiple public information warnings via its website.