Did Martin Lewis Offered you a Money Making Scheme Lately?
When it comes to scams, the scammers and the lies they will tell there is no limit. They have no respect for anyone and in the latest news have targeted well known consumer rights advocate Martin Lewis. Lewis, found of Money Saving Expert, says that a cloud-based money making scheme is using his name and likeness to draw in its victims. The site says he’s invested $500K into the scheme which Lewis says is an outright lie. In an effort to protect the public Lewis released a video in which he denounced the scam.
“It is a con, it is a scam. It is about binary trading. It is a brilliant way to lose money. Do not touch it, do not sniff it, do not smell it, do not go near it, it has nothing to do with me.”
The British FCA has also come out in defense of Lewis and others like him. They warn that clone-sites claiming to be associated with legitimate businesses are targeting UK citizens. These sites are operating in the UK without authorization and are scams. Lewis goes on to detail how other sites use his images without permission and put them up next to boilerplate testimony claiming his support for the website. His final word, anyone using his name or image to sell financial products is an outright liar.
Banning Binary Isn’t Working
Belgium was one of the very first countries to ban binary options trading outright. The ban came in late summer last year and has since resulted in not much difference for Belgian citizens. The country is still plagued by scam and fraudulent brokers, signals and services and evidenced by a growing black list. IN the most recent press release the Belgian FSMA has added 9 new brokers to the list. These include a number of newer white labels as well as well known OneTwoTrade and TorOption. TorOption for one can also be classified as a clone site as it tries to associate itself with the safety of using a Tor network.
Scams Still Target US Traders Too…
Despite the best efforts of the CFTC to curtail the spread of binary options scams US traders are still being targeted. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is not happy with this and has issued a cease-and-desist order against a scam site that has been taking advantage of MO citizens. The site is a well-known scam robot called BinaryOptionsRobot.com and has been fleecing MO traders since early 2015. In the statements MO Securities watchdog David M Minnick said
“Overseas binary options firms continue to operate without authorization, and our division is pursuing these unregistered operations to make sure Missourians’ hard earned money is not needlessly lost,”
While I applaud their efforts it is unlikely they will result in much. Missouri has no jurisdiction over UK based companies and no way to prevent this scam or others from operation on the Internet. They’d have better luck if they banned MO citizens from using the Internet.
Belize It Or Not
Belize has been gaining attention lately as it has become a potential headquarters for binary options businesses who wish to have some regulation but not CySEC. The problem is that the regulation is loose, and is often faked. The Belize IFSC has just issued a warning against Binary/Forex Trade, owned by James Emiliev, because it is claiming IFSC regulation. According to the IFSC no business of that name, and no person of that name are registered or regulated by them.
Canadian regulator OSC has a problem with the Belize regulation too. They don’t recognize it and have begun to take legal actions against broker OptionRally. OptionRally is a Belize investment firm but not registered or regulated to operate in Canada.
Russia Steps Into The Fray
The Russian Anti-Monopoly Agency has stepped into the binary options regulation battle and may taken a step others could follow. Instead of targeting the brokers themselves the Russian agency is going after Yandex, the Russian Google, in an effort to prevent fraud from getting time on the web. Russia claims that Yandex and another entity allowed and facilitated the advertising of businesses who were required to have regulation and registration.