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Abusive financial services: Consob blacks out 28 abusive pages/Internet websites reported by the Finance Police - A joint task force is underway (Press Release of 23 December 2021)

Consob has ordered the blackout of 28 new pages/websites that abusively offer financial services. The intervention is the result of a report received by Consob from the Finance Police.

Consob and the Finance Police have agreed to continue and intensify the collaboration related to this subject. To this purpose it was decided the institution of a dedicated joint working group.

As part of a wide-ranging investigation, several web domains were identified through which trading services on financial instruments, mostly related to crypto-currencies, were illegally offered.

The Authority availed itself of the powers deriving from the "Growth Decree" (Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), relating to the blackout of websites of abusive financial intermediaries.

Below are the 28 pages/websites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:

  • - Gate Technology Corp (internet domains www.gate.io, www.gateio.rocks, www.gateio.ws);
  • - "EliteCrypto Trade" (internet domain www.elitecryptotrade.com);
  • - Maxbit LLC (internet domains www.quotex.io, www.quotex.com);
  • - PrimeXBT Trading Services LLC (internet domain www.primexbt.com and related page https://my.pimexbt.com);
  • - Po Trade Ltd (internet domain www.po.trade);
  • - AMarkets Ltd (internet domain www.amarkets.com and related page https://my.amarkets.org);
  • - "Finmax" (internet domain www.finmaxbo.com);
  • - SimpleFX Ltd (internet domain https://simplefx.com and related page https://app.simplefx.com);
  • - Vantage Global Limited (internet domain www.monetamarkets.com);
  • - "Ultimate-mining.co" (internet domain www.ultimate-mining.co);
  • - "Bitcoin ERA" and "Absystem" (internet domains https://bitcoinera.app and https://absystem.world);
  • - "Bitcoin ERA", "CryptoRobot", "Sagatrade" (internet domains www.bitcoinera.com, www.cryptorobot.com, www.sagatrade.io);
  • - "Bitcoin-evolutionpro", Twingle Consulting LTD (internet domains www.bitcoin-evolutionpro.com and https://cointrade.cc);
  • - "Bitcoin UP" "FXPLANB" (internet domains www.bitcoin-up.live and https://fxplanb.com);
  • - Binarium Limited (internet domains www.binarium.com, https://binarium.global and https://binarium.trading).

The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 593.

The measures adopted by Consob can be consulted on the website www.consob.it.

The black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating on Italian territory is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect.

Consob draws investors' attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviors, essential to safeguard their savings: these include, for websites that offer financial services, checking in advance that the operator with whom they are investing is authorized, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.

To this end, Consob would remind you that on the website www.consob.it there is a section on the homepage, "Watch for Scams!", providing useful information to warn investors against financially abusive initiatives.

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