The United Kingdom’s financial watchdog announced Thursday that it had investigated over 300 ambiguous companies in its bid to eradicate scams and dubious ventures.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it had opened nearly 300 cases in the past six months related to firms involving crypto assets.
The financial watchdog further stated that nearly 50 businesses are under its radar that is undergoing active investigation, including” criminal probes involving unauthorized businesses.”
FCA Crackdown Continues To Tackle Potential Scams
The Consumer investments data review report uploaded by FCA on Thursday further states that the cases have been opened due to consistent complaints that the agency had received earlier concerning potential scams.
The agency had received nearly 16,400 inquiries between April and September concerning possible frauds with scams related to crypto-assets, boiler rooms, and recovery rooms.
The data further disclosed details highlighting the efforts that the FCA has been putting to thwart the potential scams from being rampant in the industry. The report further read:
“The latest data shows a quarter of applications from firms wanting to join the consumer investment market are being stopped by the FCA. The proportion is up from 1 in 5 in the last financial year. 9 of these firms were prevented from gaining authorization where it was suspected that individuals responsible for unsuitable advice tried to avoid the consequences of their actions by moving to or setting up new firms, or individuals set up and sought authorization for a new firm before their existing firm started to receive complaints about poor past advice.”
FCA Urges Consumers To Be “InvestSmart and “ScamSmart”
The report issued on FCA’s website further urged potential users and investors to act “InvestSmart and ScamSmart.” The FCA’s ScamSmart campaign is directed towards urging people to check its official website that lists “risks associated with an investment and view a list of firms the FCA knows are operating without its authorization.”
Similarly, FCA’s other campaign called InvestSmart intends to inform novel investors about potential risks, and “aims to provide them with information to make better-informed investment decisions.”
