The Belgian regulatory body added 11 websites more. These pages represent a high risk of scams.
With the aim of preventing crime through Internet scams, Belgium updated its blacklist, which indicates the number of websites that are dedicated to develop scams, using cryptocurrencies and other methods.
The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) published the list which contains a new number of websites that may represent a potential risk for investors. It is known that the list now includes about 131 online platforms that represent a high risk for investments.
This new update added, some weeks ago, about 11 websites that have received strong reports of investment theft and high risk of loss within the country’s local market. The last report conducted by the FSMA was published last October 29th. The intention is that investors take their forecasts before making financial decisions on websites that usually promote cryptocurrencies. According to data provided by the regulatory body, these fraudulent companies have been suspected of illegal activities for more than four years.
The strong warnings issued by the FSMA do not represent the only possible risk of theft and scam. Investors, companies and the regulatory body agree that these websites that offer to earn a lot of money by investing in cryptocurrencies, with the promise of making a lot of money with very little effort, are in general misleading offers that lack of legitimacy.
In addition, they highlight that these companies could also generate great damage in the global financial markets, extending these fraudulent offers to investors from other nations.
About the way these companies act, the FSMA details one of the most common ways of deception in one of its recent reports.
“They offer an investment that they ensure is safe, easy and very competitive. They try to inspire confidence by ensuring that you don’t need to be an expert in cryptocurrencies to invest in them. They claim to have specialists who will manage your investments for you. They tell you that your funds can be withdrawn in any time or that they are guaranteed. At the end, the result is always the same: the victims are unable to recover their money!”.
The FSMA clarifies that the actors which are reflected in the blacklist about websites of possible risks of scam with cryptocurrencies, are not expressly illegal companies. In fact, there are no legal procedures against these companies, and some may have permissions of the Belgian regulator to operate. The inclusion of these companies on the list is due to the number of complaints they receive and the investigation made by the regulatory body.
The first warning issued by the FSMA came at the beginning of 2018, and alerts were increasing during last year. The regulatory body noted that some of the websites on the list claim to be registered companies, so the FSMA recommends that investors take educational courses to recognize the true companies that are engaged in crypto business.
Some of the companies that are on this Belgian blacklist are: xtb-markets.com, bitcoinmarketscap.com, abesix-belgique.business.site, coinsmex.com, among many others.
By María Rodríguez
