The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning
regarding a fraudulent entity masquerading as a legitimate financial services
provider. The scam operation, identified as “finaltolive.com,” is
falsely claiming to be an authorised firm under the FCA’s jurisdiction.
Fraudsters behind “finaltolive.com” have
replicated the details of the genuine FCA-authorised firm, Finalto Financial
Services Limited, in an attempt to deceive potential investors and clients.
This method, known as creating a clone firm, is a common tactic used by
scammers to gain the trust of unsuspecting victims by presenting themselves as
credible financial service providers.
Deceptive Operation
The fraudulent operation known as finaltolive.com is using
misleading details to deceive the public. The scam firm lists its addresses as
Midcity Place, London, WC1V 6EA, and Ground Floor St Georges Court, Upper
Church, Douglas Street.
It uses the email address h.stevens@finaltolive.com. The FCA
has warned that these scammers may provide additional false contact
information, such as other email addresses, telephone numbers, and postal
addresses, often mixing these fake details with some of the legitimate
information of the authorised firm to appear credible.
The FCA cautioned on their site: “If you deal with this
firm, you won’t have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you have a
complaint. You also won’t be protected by the Financial Services Compensation
Scheme if things go wrong. This means it’s unlikely you’d get your money back
if the firm goes out of business.”
Using Legitimate Company Details
Earlier, the FCA issued a
warning against a clone pretending to be the authorized firm Admiral Markets UK
Ltd., which operated under the Admirals retail trading brand. This
fraudulent operation is at least the fifth clone of a popular broker identified
in recent years.
The organization also published warnings about two clone
firms falsely claiming to represent legitimate
financial services providers Hargreaves Lansdown and Westpac. These fake
companies are using the names and details of the real firms to scam people into
investing money that is unlikely to be returned. The Hargreaves Lansdown clone
uses various names and contact details, falsely claiming the company number and
FCA product reference number of the genuine Hargreaves Lansdown PLC.
The FCA issued another warning
about a clone of investment firm Spreadex. This fraudulent firm, operating
under the website sspreadex.com, is impersonating Spreadex, a regulated
spread-betting service provider in the UK.
This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.
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