The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) warns the public against the activities of new ‘companies’ approaching Belgian consumers with offers of lucrative investments. These ‘companies’ do not hold any authorization. They are not authorized to provide investment services in Belgium. Moreover, these companies are most likely new ‘boiler rooms’.
Boiler room fraud is a type of fraud that generally involves contacting consumers unsolicited, often by telephone, offering to sell them shares or other financial products.
Although boiler rooms claim to be authorized service providers, with a professional website and forms to fill out, they are in reality fraudsters who offer fictitious or worthless products or services.
As a rule, the consumer is enticed to make an initial, limited investment that very soon appears to be profitable. After that, the consumer is asked to make more and more additional investments. But when a consumer asks for his or her money back, this proves to be impossible without making additional payments and/or the new investments begin to lose money. In the end, the investor never recovers the amounts invested.
The FSMA warns the public against the following new ‘companies’:
The FSMA therefore strongly advises against responding to any offer of financial services made by the companies listed above and against transferring money to any account number they might mention.
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In order to prevent consumers from falling victim to this type of investment fraud, the FSMA makes the following recommendations:
On the FSMA website, this search can be conducted via the search function provided. In addition, all the boiler rooms about which the FSMA has already published a warning are included on the ‘List of companies operating unlawfully in Belgium‘ published on the FSMA website.
Please note: the fact that the FSMA has not published a warning against a given company does not mean that that company is authorized to offer financial services. While the FSMA seeks to ensure that it publishes warnings in a timely manner, it is entirely possible that a company operating unlawfully on the Belgian market may not yet have come to its attention. Moreover, unauthorized companies regularly change their name.
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More than ever, caution is needed. If you have the least doubt about whether financial services being offered to you are lawful, please don’t hesitate to contact the FSMA directly using the consumer contact form. As well, feel free to notify it should you come across a suspicious company that has not yet been the subject of a warning by the FSMA.
Source: FSMA