The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) on Friday issued a warning regarding a rise in fraudulent activity.
The latest spate of incidents involves individuals posing as CySEC officers to trick investors into paying fees for recovering losses in companies regulated by the commission.
According to the CySEC, these scams have been identified in misleading posts on public review platforms such as TrustPilot.com and Google Business, with perpetrators contacting investors via fake accounts and emails.
Moreover, CySEC has reported an increase in incidents where scammers impersonate CySEC representatives, warning the public to remain alert.
The commission has implemented social media listening tools to monitor real-time posts across various languages, identifying potentially harmful activity by financial firms and influencers.
These tools, the commission explained, allow it to take action when necessary, in an effort to protect investors from misleading or fraudulent marketing.
“In order to help the public identify and avoid potential scams, CySEC wishes to remind the public that it never contacts individuals by telephone or sends unsolicited correspondence and does not request personal data, financial or other information,” the commission said.
Additionally, it urged investors to verify the authenticity of any communication by emailing info@cysec.gov.cy before taking action.
CySEC also said that genuine emails from the commission will come from addresses ending in cysec.gov.cy, although scammers may try to mimic these email addresses.
CySEC further stated that it has “no authority or mandate to collect fees for any purpose from individual investors, nor does it have authority to appoint anyone to do so on its behalf”.
“CySEC does not authorise, verify, monitor, or engage in any way in class actions, compensation schemes, payments between natural or legal entities or any public or private organisations,” it added.
Furthermore, the commission reminded the public it provides regular warnings about unregulated entities and impersonation attempts on its website.
It also offers an investor guide on identifying scams, available on its official site.
“CySEC urges the public to remain vigilant and cautious of any unsolicited communication claiming to be from CySEC, and to refrain from sending money to anyone claiming to represent it,” the commission concluded.
