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Breaking News – CySEC suspends the license of Maxiflex!
It wasn’t really surprising. Recently, there had been a lot of rumors around the two CySEC-regulated investment firms Maxiflex and Maxigrid of Israeli Roy Almagor. Today, the regulator announced that the authorization of Maxiflex Ltd with license number 258/14, is suspended in whole. The CySEC justifies the suspension with the fact that Maxiflex apparently conducts or facilitates activities that are not authorized. Moreover, the company apparently does not always comply with the regulatory provisions.
Latest Updates
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Urgent warning against CoinsTrades facilitated by BridgerPay!
During the next law enforcement action day in Cyprus, agents should also visit the offices of the Israeli-Cypriot payment processor BridgerPay in Limassol. This would be a very efficient way to follow the trail of money stolen by scammers. For very many of the big scams, BridgerPay processed the payments through its cashier. So also for CoinsTrades (www.coinstrades.com) against which FinTelegram has warned several times. Today, the German BaFin announced investigations.
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Sorry, too late! German BaFin investigates ROIMAX broker scam
The German regulator BaFin announced today an investment of ROIMAX broker scam (www.roimax.io). The operator is said to be the offshore entity ATRIUM Ventures Ltd, registered in the Commonwealth of Dominica. In May 2020, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued an investor warning against the scam that attacks customers in English and German. The scam has already been in retreat for several weeks; registrations and deposits are no longer possible for potential victims.
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Update on Europol law enforcement actions in Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Ukraine
On 6 October 2021, extensive law enforcement actions were coordinated by Europol and Eurojust in Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. Please read our report here. These actions took place on the initiative of German prosecutors in Goettingen, Braunschweig, and Rostock and concerned the so-called "FX Leader Case." FX Leader was one of the alleged up to 170 scam brands operated by a cybercrime organization. During the action, a suspected high-ranking member was arrested in Limassol. Police seized numerous websites and domains.
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Investor warning against Finexo Markets and Finexo
German regulator BaFin has announced an investigation into the Finexo Markets (www.finexomarkets.com) broker scam. The boiler room agents behind the scam claim to have a branch office in Frankfurt. Until a few months ago, the operator listed was Finexo Holdings Ltd, registered in the UK. The scam attacks victims in English, Italian, Spanish, German, and Russian. The Finexo (www.finexo.io) scam is also still active and attacks European consumers. Don't fall for these fraud s
Payment Processors
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Alert! TIOMarkets facilitated by Praxis Cashier and FCA-regulated Monsas attacks consumers!
The Spanish regulator CNMV today issued a warning against broker scam TIOMarkets (www.tiomarkets.com). TIO Markets Ltd, registered in St. Vincent & The Grenadines, is allegedly running the scam. Potential victims are chased via the fake site of DonauCapital Wertpapier GmbH (www.donaucapital.es) pretends to be a German investment company regulated by the CNMV. After registration, victims receive a welcome email from TIOMarkets and are redirected to their website.
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Spanish CNMV warns against ElComercio24 powered by AirSoft
FinTelegram issued an investor warning against forex & CFD broker scam El Comercio24 (www.elcomercio24.com) in June 2021. At that time, the scam deployed the fraudulent Crypto Engine marketing campaign to chase victims in Europe. Today, the Spanish regulator CNMV shared FinTelegram's opinion and issued an investor warning against El Comercio24. The scam is a white-label solution on the Israeli AirSoft platform, about which we recently published a Request 4 Information (R4I).
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Urgent warning! GS4Trade broker powered by BridgerPay is still chasing victims!
In July 2021, the German BaFin had warned against GS4Trade (www.gs-4trade.com) and announced the launch of an investigation. In September 2021, the UK FCA issued another investor warning against the broker scam running as a white-label mutation on the SIRIX platform of Israeli Leverate. GS4trade Invest Limited, registered in the Marshall Islands, allegedly operates the broker, attacking consumers in English and German. As facilitating payment processors, we again found BridgerPay, Jubiter, and CoinDeck.
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German BaFin investigates FinanzFX scam with ePayComfort
The German regulator BaFin today announced an investigation into the broker Scam FinanzFX (www.finanzfx.com). The scam operator is allegedly the UK-registered Finanz Limited, where UK citizens Natasha Jane Hartley and Michael David Hartley are registered as beneficial owners. As a supporting payment processor, we have discovered ePayComfort offering vouchers of the Spanish HASHTAG DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY SRLS via the domain https://rdl900.epaycomfort.com. Crazy, who falls for this?
Cybercrime Court Cases
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Prosecutors filed the indictment against Israeli cybercrime lieutenant Jacki Fitelzon
We already reported a few weeks ago about the upcoming indictment of Israeli Tal-Jacki Zecharia Fitelzon. The 44-year-old guy was a lieutenant of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria of Gal Barak, the "Wolf of Sofia." The latter was sentenced to four years in prison in Vienna in September 2020. The Central Office Cybercrime Bavaria (ZKB) has filed charges against Fitelzon for defrauding 335 German victims of approximately €8.7 million. Fitelzon must now face a trial in Munich. Further charges surrounding E&G Bulgaria will follow.
Regulatory Updates
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Attention! FCA warns against the Scams Recovery scheme!
Just recently, we reported about the sad and brutal fund recovery business and the warnings against LegalFCA. Scam victims are desperate and therefore vulnerable to any offer of help, no matter how dubious. However, much more often than you think, the so-called fund recovery experts are just the end of a rip-off chain. Today, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning against the Scams Recovery scheme (www.scamsrecovery.com and www.scams-recovery.com). Stay far away.
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No more licenses! The end of Estonia’s weird crypto laundering strategy?
In June 2021, Matis Maeker resumed his post as the head of Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The agency is the regulator for the thousands of crypto licenses that have been issued over the last couple of years. t agency believes Estonia should scrap its current crypto regulations and start again, he said in an interview with the local news outlet Eesti Ekspress. In total, the FIU issued more than 3,000 licenses (report here). In 2020, some 1,800 licenses have been revoked. Currently, around 400 crypto licenses are still active, which is more than all other EU member states issued.
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Bravo! German BaFin warns against OIL PROFIT fraud campaign
FinTelegram has warned against the OIL PROFIT campaign several times. The German BaFin follows and issued a warning against the German mutation (www.öl-profit.de and www.oil-profit.de) of the fraudulent marketing campaign. Such campaigns are used to promote illegal broker activities and scams. Usually, victims who register with these fraudulent campaigns are redirected to the payment page of the respective scams and illegal brokers. Additionally, the victims' data is stolen and misused.
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European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) is a non-government organization with the mission to support scam and cybercrime victims.
