CySEC warns investors about fake website and people posing as its officials

Nicosia, Cyprus. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has alerted investors to a website impersonating the authority and additional cases of people posing as its officials. It urged the public not to transfer funds to anyone purporting to act for the regulator.

Warnings over recovery payments

In an official announcement, CySEC said it had discovered a fraudulent website presenting itself as the regulator. The announcement referred to it as “fake CySEC website” and said it had no affiliation with the authority.

The regulator advised investors to exercise particular caution if approached by people seeking fees or other payments for supposedly recovering investment losses involving either regulated or unregulated entities. Such requests could be linked to a sophisticated internet fraud campaign aimed at investors, it said.

Limits on the regulator’s role

CySEC said it never telephones individuals, issues unsolicited correspondence or asks for information of a personal, financial or other nature.

The authority also said it neither authorises nor verifies, monitors or takes part in class actions or compensation schemes. The same applies to payments involving individuals or legal entities and to transactions involving organisations in the public or private sector, it said.

CySEC said its regulatory mandate does not permit it to charge individual investors fees for any reason or designate third parties to collect funds on its behalf.

Checking suspicious communications

The regulator called for vigilance over unsolicited communications presented as coming from CySEC and reiterated that recipients should not send money to people claiming to represent it.

It advised investors receiving suspicious messages to check whether they were genuine by contacting [email protected] before acting.