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Italien Consob ordered black-out of FX24 facilitated by BridgerPay
This week the Italian Consob ordered the black-out of the FX24 broker scam website operated by Swiss Management Corporation Ltd. The scam also operates with the domain www.fx24.live, which is not mentioned in the Consob order. The scam operator Swiss Management Corporation is registered with the private forex “regulator” IFMRC. A fake regulator for a fake company We have once again identified the unregulated Cyrpus-based BridgerPay as the payment gateway for credit and debit card deposits.
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Italian Consob ordered blackout of 5 more scam broker sites
The Italian watchdog Consob has ordered the blackout of five more scam broker websites that abusively offer financial services and financial products. Additionally, one site through was ordered to be blacked out offering financial products without the required prospectus. Consob availed itself of the powers deriving from the "growth decree" (Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies) regarding the blackout of the sites of abusive financial intermediaries.
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The Insta Trading scam facilitated by BridgerPay and Zichain
Spanish CNMV has issued an investor warning against the Insta Trading scam allegedly operated by the Bulgarian Alcatel Group Ltd and/or Protiviti Group Ltd and/or Protiviti International EOOD are also involved as operators. These are fake companies. As payment processors, we have once again identified BridgerPay Cashier and, behind it, the crypto exchange Zichain OÜ and its Rashbe crypto service.
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FCA warns against CoinePro broker scam with Inovestments and CCX Markets legacy
The UK FCA has issued an investor warning against the FX and CFD scam broker CoinePro (www.coinepro.com), operated by the Estonian ExchangePower Technology OÜ with registration code 14632465. The only director registered is Nikolay Kunev Kolev, who is also the beneficial owner of Domus Partners Ltd, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which operated the Inovestment and CCX Markets scams, among others. The CoinePro scam is apparently just the latest link in a long chain of scams since at least 2017.
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Investor Warning against FXX Trader broker scam facilitated by BridgerPay
Cyprus is high on the list of evil payment processors that support cybercrime and its scams with their technology and services. The Central Bank of Cyprus, as the responsible regulator, does precious little in the fight against these payment villains. These include the Israelis Amit Klatchko and Ran Cohen and their payment processors Praxis Cashier and BridgerPay, respectively. In the FXX Trader scam, the UK FCA has issued an investor warning against we have once again discovered BridgerPay.
Payment Processors
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Good Morning St. Vincent – Investor warning against Sky Capital Broker Scam
There are beautiful places that, unfortunately, are also associated with terrible events. For example, today's vacation paradise Vietnam will long be associated with the Second Indochina War. The Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on the other hand, will long be known as one of the offshore centers through which cybercriminals and scammers have conducted their crimes via offshore entities. The Sky Capital broker scam (www.skycapital.cc and www.skycapital.co) operated by Geiko Holdings Ltd is one of them. With Cashir.Live and Paystruct as its payment facilitators.
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German-Ukrainian Capital Letter Scam Group and its payment facilitators
German Capital Letter group operatees scams such as BrightFinance, SolidInvest, GFXRoyal, STSRoyal, STSCrypto, or GFXFinance. Various European regulators such as the FCA, BaFin, or the FMA have already warned and issued Cease and Desist Orders over the last months. The Italian Consob has ordered a blackout of the sites. Some scams are still active. Now the UK FCA issued a new warning. Praxis Cashier is still facilitating the GFXRoyal scam along with the Estonian AnyCach OÜ (d/b/a any.money).
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Illegal German payment processors Z.I.E natural edition, Maka Marketing, and their network
German BaFin issued cease and desist orders against Z.I.E natural edition and Maka Marketing. Both payment processors processed bank transfers from victims of several broker scams like easytrade55 or MarketsSoft. The British resident Aron Wertheimer is involved in both companies. He is a director of Maka Marketing and the liquidator of Z.I.E natural edition. Scam victims who used Z.I.E natural edition or Maka Marketing should file their fund recovery claim with these companies and Aron Wertheimer and his partners.
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Payvision and Vienna Cybercrime Trials – Let’s scam the scammers and the EFRI Campaign
Oh yes, the alleged German cybercrime mastermind Uwe Lenhoff was a very good acquaintance of Payvision founder and CEO Rudolf Booker. They spent skiing vacations together in Austria and communicated a lot. Thanks to the frequent and very open communication between Lenhoff and Booker, their business details can be found in the criminal files. They show how high-risk payment processors work.
Cybercrime Court Cases
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Bravo! Serbian boiler room perpetrator extradited to the United States to stand trial
The Serbian Antonije Stojilkovic, 32, has been extradited to the U.S. to stand trial on allegations that he and his co-conspirators defrauded investors out of more than $70 million in a binary options and crypto scam scheme. The Serbian police arrested Stojilkovic on July 24, 2020. Stojilkovic consented to extradition, and he was consequently extradited on Feb. 4, 2021.
Regulatory Updates
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Investor Warning – Crystal Ball Markets is most likely a scam
The unregulated offshore broker Crystal Ball Markets (www.crystalballmarkets.com) is allegedly operated through a legal entity with registration number 262 LLC 2020 in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The only employee we found on LinkedIn is Naina Sharma in Uttar Pradesh, India. However, the profile does not look real. The broker is currently very active on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and evidently tries to build up credibility. We found iPayTotal, PayStruct, Perfect Money, and Euro Pacific Intl. Bank Inc. as payment processors. The broker, of course, accepts crypto.
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iPayTotal – PR campaign with fake people and fake LinkedIn accounts
Given the UK insolvency and the many negative reports, iPayTotal has run a massive PR campaign in recent weeks. Nice-looking people try to polish the image of the disgraced high-risk payment processor in the best possible way. Among these actors is Sen Kugan, the president of iPayTotal and a real person, and Jason Smith, a fake person who does not exist. A few weeks ago, we wanted to know who Jason Smith is and if he even exists. A whistleblower explained that this was one of several fake persons who also worked through fake LinkedIn profiles.
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Trustpilot heads for billion-IPO on London Stock Exchange
The Copenhagen-based Reviews platform Trustpilot announced that it is considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in London that would see at least 25% of the company floated on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). According to Bloomberg, Trustpilot is seeking a valuation of around 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) in the IPO. It would be the first large post-Brexit IPO from an EU company in London, showing that the city is still attractive to foreign listings after Brexit. Trustpilot is a key company in the dawning European cybereconomy.
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