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FCA warns against fund recovery scams Trader Recovery and Refund Expert
UK FCA issued investor warnings against two suspected fund recovery scams Trader Recovery (www.traderrecovery.co.uk) and National Association of Refund Expert Bureaux (www.refund-expert.org). The former’s website is currently down. It is a sad fact that there are more and more fund recovery scams that lure even more money out of already damaged victims of scams by promising them to get their money back. Unfortunately, they are nothing but super-toxic.
Latest Updates
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Latest UK FinTech Unicorn Starling Bank secures £270m from new shareholders
The C19 pandemic apparently didn't hurt the FinTech hype. On the contrary, while Wise (formerly TransferWise), CoinBase, or eToro have IPO plans with billion-dollar valuations, Sky News reports today that UK FinTech unicorn Starling Bank has received £270M from new investors. Quite impressive, isn't it. Starling Bank will on Monday unveil the biggest fundraising in its seven-year history when it announces that it has secured more than £270m from investors, including one of the world's biggest wealth funds.
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Crypto-trading gamification platform Bybit terminates UK business after FCA warning
Bybit is a leader in the gamification of crypto trading. FinTelegram published an initial review on Singapore-based crypto-derivate trading platform Bybit (www.bybit.com) of Ben Zhou a few days ago. In this context, we also reported on an investor and scam warning issued by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) against Bybit. In October, the FCA had issued a ban on the sale of crypto derivatives to UK retail investors or consumers. In a recent blog post, Bybit has now announced the suspension of services to UK customers.
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FCA warns against CoinePro broker scam with Inovestments and CCX Markets legacy
The UK FCA has issued an investor warning against the FX and CFD scam broker CoinePro (www.coinepro.com), operated by the Estonian ExchangePower Technology OÜ with registration code 14632465. The only director registered is Nikolay Kunev Kolev, who is also the beneficial owner of Domus Partners Ltd, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which operated the Inovestment and CCX Markets scams, among others. The CoinePro scam is apparently just the latest link in a long chain of scams since at least 2017.
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Italian Consob ordered blackout of 5 more scam broker sites
The Italian watchdog Consob has ordered the blackout of five more scam broker websites that abusively offer financial services and financial products. Additionally, one site through was ordered to be blacked out offering financial products without the required prospectus. Consob availed itself of the powers deriving from the "growth decree" (Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies) regarding the blackout of the sites of abusive financial intermediaries.
Payment Processors
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The 20+ Mio of scam operator Donnybrooker and the Lithuanian payment processors
Spanish CNMV issued an investor warning against the EuroFX scam operated by Donnybrook Consulting Ltd in the Commonwealth of Dominica. This offshore entity is also the operator of the Energy Markets scam. We have discovered the Russian Piastrix and the illegally operating Lithuanian payment processor Merelita UAB with the regulated e-money institution Epayblock as facilitators. Besides, we have discovered a BTC address with more than BTC490 (equivalent to almost $23.2M).
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Investor Warning against FXX Trader broker scam facilitated by BridgerPay
Cyprus is high on the list of evil payment processors that support cybercrime and its scams with their technology and services. The Central Bank of Cyprus, as the responsible regulator, does precious little in the fight against these payment villains. These include the Israelis Amit Klatchko and Ran Cohen and their payment processors Praxis Cashier and BridgerPay, respectively. In the FXX Trader scam, the UK FCA has issued an investor warning against we have once again discovered BridgerPay.
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Investor Warning – Universal Markets broker scam facilitated by Praxis Cashier
When analyzing the scams against which the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued an investor warning yesterday, two suspects stand out once again - Praxis Cashier as a payment gateway and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as the given address of the scam operating entities. This is also the case with Universal Markets (www.umarkets.io, www.umarketspro.com, or www.umarketspro.net). The scam is allegedly operated by Universal Services LLC and/or UM Media LLC.
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Investor warning against ProfitAssist broker scam with more than $20M damage to EU consumers
the Spanish regulator CNMV issued an investor warning against the broker scam ProfitAssist (www.profitassist.io) allegedly operated by Seabreeze Partners Ltd, which is registered in Roseau Valley in the Commonwealth of Dominica. We have identified the Russian Piastrix and the Lithuanian registered UAB Skylas as payment processors. Potential customer-victims of the scam may also lose their money via cryptocurrency deposits. On one BTC blockchain address, we uncovered that victims deposited $12M.
Cybercrime Court Cases
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Bravo! Serbian boiler room perpetrator extradited to the United States to stand trial
According to an announcement of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, the Serbian Antonije Stojilkovic, 32, has been extradited to the U.S. to stand trial on allegations that he and his co-conspirators defrauded investors out of more than $70 million in binary options and crypto scam schemes. The Serbian police arrested Stojilkovic on July 24, 2020. Stojilkovic consented to extradition, and he was consequently extradited on Feb. 4, 2021. It's about time to crack down on the vast Belgrade scam scene.
Regulatory Updates
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The Insta Trading scam facilitated by BridgerPay and Zichain
Spanish CNMV has issued an investor warning against the Insta Trading scam allegedly operated by the Bulgarian Alcatel Group Ltd and/or Protiviti Group Ltd and/or Protiviti International EOOD are also involved as operators. These are fake companies. As payment processors, we have once again identified BridgerPay Cashier and, behind it, the crypto exchange Zichain OÜ and its Rashbe crypto service.
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Investor Warning – Don’t fall for crypto scam FXoptionTrade
The UK FCA has issued an investor warning against the broker scam FXoptionTrade. This scam acts as a clone of the FCA-registered Tickmill UK Ltd (www.tickmill.co.uk). Allegedly, the trading is done via a trading bot achieving up to 15% ROI within just seven days in different investment plans. Bullshit it is! The only way to deposit is Bitcoins (BTC). The scam is sloppily made and a white-label solution from one of the many scam factories. In fact, you can find so many spelling mistakes and flaws that victims should not fall for it.
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European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) is a non-government organization with the mission to support scam and cybercrime victims.
