Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of seven new websites that offer financial services illegally.
In issuing the orders, the Authority availed itself of the powers deriving from the “Decreto crescita” (“Growth Decree”; Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), on the basis of which Consob can order Internet service providers to block access from Italy to websites offering financial services without the proper authorization.
The websites targeted by the latest Consob orders are:
- “GMT” (websites www.gmtdirect.com, www.gmtplatform.com and www.gmtcapitals.com and related pages https://client.gmtdirect.com and https://client.gmtplatform.com);
- “Capitalpartners24” (website https://capitalpartners24.com);
- “FP Invest” (website www.fpinvest247.io);
- “Smart Limited Group” (website https://smart-limited-group.com and related page https://cfd.smart-limited-group.com);
- “Stockcptls” (website https://stockcptls.com).
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 1060.
Consob regularly adds more entities to the list of blocked websites. It has recently blocked six unauthorised investment websites.
The black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating in Italy is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the blocking to be implemented.
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 “Watch for Scams!”, providing useful information to warn investors against financially unauthorized initiatives.
