Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of access to five new unauthorized investment websites, with the total reaching 1,000.
This milestone has been reached in just over four years of commitment, after in the latest “squeeze” Consob ordered the blackout of five new websites, offering financial services without the proper authorization.
The latest round of blackouts included the sites “Bitblanco” (website www.bitblanco.co and related page https://webtrader.bitblanco.co); “StormInvest” (website https://storminvest.io); Cryptogo365 Ltd (website https://cryptogo365.com); “TCRinvest” (website https://tcrinvest.com and related page https://trading.tcrinvest.com); and “EuroXTradeFX” (website www.euroxtradefx.com).
The Commission has been blocking websites since July 2019, when the “Decreto crescita” (“Growth Decree”, Law No. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article No. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies) gave Consob the power to order Internet connectivity service providers to ban access, from Italy, to websites through which financial services are offered without proper authorization.
With regard to the last five websites blocked by Consob, the activities for the blacking-out of websites by Internet connectivity providers operating in Italy are 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 there is a section “Watch for Scams!”on the homepage www.consob.it, providing useful information to warn investors against financially abusive initiatives.
