US financial company’s name hijacked in impersonation scam

The FSP number of an authorised financial services business in South Africa is being used in an impersonation scam involving Cboe Global Markets, which is based in Chicago in the United States, warns the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.

Cboe owns the Chicago Board Options Exchange and stock exchange operator BATS Global Markets.

The FSCA said this week it received complaints from members of the public who invested with the impersonators and did not receive their returns.

According to the complainants, the impersonators provided them with an FSP certificate that was purportedly issued by the Financial Services Board (the predecessor of the FSCA). The FSP number (14315) that appears on the certificate belongs to Bloemfontein-based Wings Financial Services CC (WFS), trading as CSFin.

Neither Cboe nor WFS have any association or relationship with the impersonators.

The FSCA said it could not contact the impersonators.

Another impersonation scam doing the rounds involves stockbroking and wealth advisory company Rand Swiss (Pty) Ltd.

The FSCA said individuals are using Telegram groups to solicit funds from members of the public, by claiming to be associated with Rand Swiss and its key individual, Gary John Booysen.

Members of the Telegram group are promised returns of up to R16 000 from an initial investment of R2 000 within three days. The FSCA pointed out that such a return is not realistic and is a strong indication of fraudulent activity.

Rand Swiss is not associated with the administrators of the Telegram group, and its brand name, logos, trademark, and pictures of its employee are being used without its permission. Furthermore, Rand Swiss does not conduct business using social media, including Telegram.

Future Traders

The FSCA also advises the public to act with caution when conducting financial services business with Future Traders.

Future Traders solicits funds from the public by offering to trade in cryptocurrency on their behalf, with the promise of guaranteed and unrealistic returns, the Authority said.

Future Traders purports to be an authorised FSP, with number 02543045, but this number is invalid.

Without commenting on the business of Future Traders, the FSCA pointed out that Future Traders is not authorised in terms of any financial sector law to provide financial products or render financial services in South Africa.

Future Traders did not respond to the FSCA’s requests for comment.

The Authority urges the public not to conduct financial services business with unauthorised entities and to exercise caution when considering investment or trading offers on social media platforms.

The public is advised to be on the look-out for the tell-tale danger signs when dealing with persons offering attractive investment opportunities. These red flags include unrealistic returns, claims that the entity or person does not require an FSCA licence, vague information about the investment product, calls for the investor to act urgently, and requiring investors to pay more money to have their investment returned to them.

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, because 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