The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has warned the public about another social media scam run by individuals purporting to be from International Capital Markets (Pty) Ltd.
The Authority has also alerted the public to scammers who are impersonating Centaur Asset Management (Pty) Ltd and RCG Markets (Pty) Ltd.
Last month, the FSCA warned about a scam in which individuals were soliciting investments by impersonating IC Markets (FSP number 50715), as well as two other licensed financial services providers, Rich Ideas Group (Pty) Ltd (FSP 50569) and Scope Markets SA (Pty) Ltd (FSP 47025).
Read: Three FSPs’ licences, branding abused in social media investment scam
In the latest alert, the FSCA said it received information from a member of the public who was defrauded by individuals on TikTok. They promised to invest her money in return for a greater payout and subsequently asked her to deposit more money to release her investment return.
Another individual on Facebook offered to assist her with recovering her investment from the individuals who defrauded her. This also turned out to be a scam because she was requested to deposit more funds.
IC Markets has confirmed they are not associated with the individuals on TikTok or Facebook using their name.
The public should not do any financial services-related business with individuals using a WhatsApp number (+27 67 209 8867) claiming to be from Centaur Asset Management (FSP 647).
The FSCA said these individuals, who have been introducing themselves as Mr Lungelo Ngwane and Mr Thembinkosi Dlomo, claim to be employed by Centaur. They are fraudulently taking deposits from unsuspecting members of the public.
Centaur does not have a Lungelo Ngwane or a Thembinkosi Dlomo in its employ and is in no way associated with these individuals.
Lungelo Ngwane and Thembinkosi Dlomo are not authorised to render financial services on behalf of any authorised FSP, the Authority said.
The FSCA said individuals purporting to be from RCG Markets (FSP number 49769) are running a fraudulent Instagram account (RCGmarkets_1) and a website (www.rcgmarkets.us) to scam the public.
RCG Markets, which provides an online trading platform for clients using their website www.rcgmarkets.com, are in no way related to these individuals or the fraudulent account and website.
Check before you invest
The FSCA says members of the public should always check the following:
That an entity or individual is authorised by the FSCA to provide financial products and services, including for providing recommendations about how to invest.
The category of advice the person is registered to provide, as there are instances where companies or people are registered to provide basic advice for a low-risk product but advice on far more complex and risky products.
That the FSP number used by the entity or individual offering financial services matches the name of the FSP on the FSCA’s database.
You can check whether an entity or person is authorised to provide financial products and services by:
Phoning 0800 110 443 (toll-free)
Conducting an online search for an authorised financial institution by licence category: https://www.fsca.co.za/Regulated%20Entities/Pages/List-Regulated-Entities-Persons.aspx
Conducting an online search for a financial institution that is an authorised FSP: https://www.fsca.co.za/Fais/Search_FSP.htm
