The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) of Belgium on Wednesday updated its list of unauthorized investment businesses by issuing 12 more warnings to the public against the activities of various “boiler rooms”.
The Belgian regulator defines “boiler room” as a type of fraud that involves contacting customers often by telephone, offering to sell them little-known shares or exotic financial products. Although the boiler rooms often claim to be an authorized service provider with a professional website and forms to fill out, they are in reality fraudsters offering fictitious or worthless shares or products. Fraudsters running such operations most often put the consumer under heavy pressure.
The list of new “boiler rooms” that the FSMA became aware of includes:
- AEG Financial and Pro-Nice Limited;
- Bayside Financial Services and Pro-Nice Limited;
- Belmont Financial Group;
- Capital Precision Belgium;
- Clewis Financial and Aoguan HongKong CO., Limited;
- Condor Capital Management, Advanced Global Securities Corporation (AGS Corporation) (cloned firm), CCMGT Management Consultancy and CME Global Corporation;
- Cunningham Mutual;
- Manniworth Co Ltd, Elantra Ltd and Deniver Ltd;
- Prestige Equity and Pro-Nice Limited;
- Shinshiro International and Brilliant Sheen Limited;
- Tenjin & Associates;
- Voth Nixon Group.
The regulator notes that the above companies are not authorized investment firms or credit institutions in Belgium and are not permitted under any circumstances to offer investment services in or from within Belgium. Also, according to information in the possession of the FSMA, these “boiler rooms” appear to be targeting company managers and directors in particular.
The FSMA strongly advises against responding to any offers made by the companies listed above and against transferring money to any account numbers they might mention.
To view the lineup of the latest additions to FSMA’s “Black List”, click here.