CySEC warns investors about impersonation of personnel and phoney websites

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission ("CySEC") has issued a warning to investors regarding impersonation of its officers and staff, as well as fraudulent websites.

According to a recent CySEC press release, fresh instances of fraudulent impersonation of CySEC officers and personnel have been identified. It urges investors to be especially careful against imposters requesting payments for the settlement of fictitious compensation claims relating to enterprises regulated by CySEC.

In light of this, CySEC wishes to remind the public that it never sends unsolicited correspondence to investors or members of the public, nor does it ever request financial or other personal information.

According to the report, these cases are part of a sophisticated web scheme to deceive investors. In recent cases, fraudsters posing as CySEC personnel, appointed representatives of CySEC, such as legal advisors, other Cypriot supervisory authorities, or other legitimate or fraudulent organisations have perpetrated these schemes. In other instances, fraudsters approach clients of CySEC-regulated firms, frequently by email and occasionally via telephone, with messages that appear authentic and feature the name, address, official stamp, and logo of CySEC, as well as signatures falsely copied from CySEC personnel.

In addition, the fraudsters make false offers to assist investors with compensation claims for transactions they may have had with sanctioned firms – typically online trading firms offering speculative investment products – and through these initial contacts, they illegally obtain additional personal information.

CySEC has issued many public warnings when comparable incidents have occurred; these warnings are published on its website at https://www.cysec.gov.cy/en-GB/public-info/warnings/cysec and https://www.cysec.gov.cy/el-GR/public-info/announcements.

CySEC cautions the public to remain vigilant for any unsolicited communication appearing to be from CySEC and to avoid paying money to anyone who approaches them in a manner similar to the instances provided above. Before taking action, investors are strongly recommended to contact CySEC to confirm the validity of the communication at info@cysec.gov.cy.

In the meantime, it emphasises that it has lately identified additional instances of fraudulent impersonation of its website https://www.cysec.gov.cy as well as individuals falsely posing as CySEC Officers.

The bogus websites are cysec-regulatory.com, www.cysec-support.online, www.cysecgov.com, and www.cysecs.group.

Investors must be especially watchful against impostors requesting fees for the settlement of fraudulent compensation claims.

CySEC would like to remind the public that it never sends unsolicited correspondence to investors or the general public, nor does it request payments or financial or other personal information. Therefore, it is probable that such demands are part of a sophisticated web scheme to deceive investors.

It is stated that as a regulatory authority, CySEC does not have the authority or jurisdiction to collect fees from individual investors for any purpose, nor does it have the authority to select someone to collect fees on its behalf.

CySEC does not authorise, verify, or supervise class actions, compensation schemes, payments between natural or legal entities, or any public or private bodies, nor is it involved in any manner.

CySEC warns the public to be wary of any unsolicited communication appearing to be from CySEC and to desist from donating money to anyone claiming to represent CySEC.

Before taking any action, investors receiving such emails are strongly urged to contact CySEC at info@cysec.gov.cy to validate the validity of the communication.

By fLEXI tEAM