The Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) stands as Italy’s securities market regulator. On Friday, CONSOB announced that it had ordered yet another series of black-outs regarding websites illegally offering financial services within the country.
The Ever-Expanding List
The websites themselves are as follows: Gntfin LTD (www.gnt-fin.com), DirectaFx Limited (www.directafx.com), Platiniumfund Ltd (www.platinium-fund.com), Maxi Services Ltd (www.maximarkets.org), ProConsultingInvest (www.proconsultinginvest.co), Digital Exchange Limited and Securex Plus Solutions EOOD (www.dgxltd.io), as well as Tfx25 (www.tfx25.co.uk).
As is always the case, it’s urged that the readers do not try and access these websites for financial services. This is due to the businesses behind these websites already showing dubious intents by wholesale refusing to gain the needed approval to operate within the country, yet continue to cater to Italian citizens. As one would imagine, that’s something of a troubling development. All seven of these websites offered Italian citizens an array of assets to trade in, ranging from equities to forex, to commodities.
268 Blacked Out Sites (And Counting)
With these seven firms added to the list, the total number of platforms CONSOB has restricted from its borders has totaled into an impressive 268. All of these websites offer suspicious, unregulated financial services within the borders of Italy. It was just after the middle of July when CONSOB had issued its previous blacklisting.
The Italian regulator is capable of mandating the Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to these websites within Italy thanks to the so-called “Growth Decree.” This has allowed CONSOB to extend its powers to crack down against fraudulent and suspect financial services ever since a year ago, in July of 2019. In the past, the regulator had to resort to stern warnings, which didn’t really have the desired effect it’s getting now.
A World Full OF Scavengers
As is the case this time, and all the times before it, CONSOB stated that the process of blacking out these websites would take a few days. This is due to the technical issues regarding barring a website from an entire country through the ISPs themselves.
As it stands now, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a massive influx of financial scams across the globe. The simple logic behind it is criminals have realised that the desperation a global pandemic causes leaves people extremely vulnerable to scams that promise to give them money. It’s a sad, but unfortunately true part of the world, as these scammers prey on the desperate and naive.
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