FSA warns about use of cloned websites
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has this week sent out 10,000 letters to genuine investors whose names appeared on a so-called "boiler room" list. These "boiler room" lists are effectively genuine investor details which have been acquired by rogue share traders with the intention of selling either worthless or non-existent shares using very strong and aggressive sales tactics.
This comes at a time when he FSA has warned UK investors about the growing number of genuine websites which have been cloned and contain valid FSA registration numbers with telephone numbers and addresses changed in favour of these rogue traders. It is estimated that share fraud in the UK is costing between £150 million and £300 million each and every year and this figure has increased of late. It is very difficult to catch these scammers in the act because as quickly as these sites are setup they are dropped and the scammers disappear out of sight.
There is a need to ensure that investors in the UK, and around the world, are made aware of these ever more complicated scams which on the surface appear very believable. It's also vital that those who have been targeted by such fraudsters make their way forward and inform the police and the regulators of their experiences.
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