Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of access to four unauthorized investment websites.
The websites targeted by the latest orders are:
- “Egplus.vip” (website https://egplus.vip);
- “Egalite.bond” (website https://egalite.bond);
- Arbismart UAB (website https://arbismart.com and related page https://dashboard.arbismart.com);
- “Blockbyteq” (website https://blockbyteq.top).
In issuing the orders, the regulator made use of the powers granted to it by the MiCAR (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 and Legislative Decree No. 129 of 5 September 2024) regarding the black out of websites through which crypto currency services are provided to Italian savers without the prescribed authorisations.
The number of websites blocked since July 2019, when CONSOB got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 1,304.
The implementation of the black-out of these websites by Internet service providers 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 to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviours, 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 or a white paper has been published.
