CONSOB stands as the Italian securities market regulator, and has been making the news about once a week for its black-out orders. This week is no exception, with the Italian watchdog mandating the black-out of five new websites that Consob claims is offering illegal financial services to Italian citizens.
The Latest Suspects
This time, the websites banned by Consob are Terratech Ltd (www.eufxinvest.com), Capoinvest Ltd (www.capoinvestgroup.co.uk), Trade Com Limited (https://globalspotfx.com), Level Up Capital Ltd (https://trade100fm.net), and Pure M Global Limited (https://realmarketbroker.com).
As is always the case, article readers are urged against accessing these aforementioned sites, as the companies themselves already showed dubious intent. They did so by trying to target Italy’s customers without going through the proper channels of the country’s regulator, showing they have something to hide, or otherwise do not regard proper protocol as needed.
The Growth Decree Strikes Again
With these five new websites added to the ever-expanding list, CONSOB has, since July of 2019, officially barred 257 websites from its borders. The actions taken on Thursday, like all similar actions before it, was done thanks to the expanded powers it was given thanks to the so-called “Growth Decree,” which allowed the regulators to mandate Italy’s ISPs to block certain websites from being accessed by Italian citizens.
As is always the case in these matters, the Italian regulator warned that the process of blocking these websites through the ISPs from Italian territory would take a few days. This, as was the cases before it, is due to the technical aspects of such a black-out order.
New Powers, New Ways To Combat Scams
Prior to its newly given powers, Consob was forced to stick to official warnings to investors, but this ultimately proved unsatisfactory. With this new power, uneducated and naive or not, Consob is capable of protecting its country’s investors from these websites. This isn’t a perfect solution, since there will always be more websites that have financial scams, but it’s a pretty adequate solution to a problem that will never go away.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial scams in particular simply skyrocketed. It’s the way things are, with the amount of money flowing through the world and the stress of the world’s events making people desperate, that some would prey on the unwary. It’s a sad truth, but it’s a truth nonetheless.
With any luck, the world will start to do more good, but expecting that is like expecting not to get wet when you jump into the sea. Some things aren’t possible, no matter how good the intentions are.
