The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued out a warning against an unauthorized entity named Forexbit. The regulatory body put out the warning as part of its effort to combat illegal, fraudulent firms which may end up defrauding UK citizens.

Several citizens of the UK have lost money to fraudulent trading firms, and this has put the FCA on high alert. These trading companies lure in investors by posing as legitimate trading firms that have been approved by the UK’s regulators. Unsuspecting clients pay for the services of the firm, and they end up not receiving any service and losing their money in the process. Traders and investors have lost billions of pounds to such schemes, and the regulatory body has intensified its efforts to warn the public against firms that are unauthorized in the country.

Forexbit

The warning issued by the FCA says that Forexbit has been offering UK citizens a number of services including FX trading and a full range of offshore investments services. The watchdog adds that the registration being used by Forexbit is forged and that particular trading firm is not authorized to offer its services to people in the UK.

Firms that offer clients investments considered as speculative and high risk are placed under scrutiny by the FCA. The restrictions placed on CFDs came after European regulators applied action to supervise the sale of these products. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) placed restrictions on CFD trading for retail clients in 2018.

FCA warns investors about crypto trading

The FCA has expressed concern about investors who engage in cryptocurrency trading in a bid to get rich quick. The regulator says that many people do not understand what they are purchasing when they engage in crypto trading, and hence, they place themselves at risk when they enter the crypto market in that manner.

Cryptocurrencies are considered as a high-risk investment by the FCA, which is why the regulator has come out to warn investors. In a survey conducted by the watchdog, several of the people interviewed said that they see digital assets as an investment that earns money quickly. These people also showed limited knowledge about the crypto assets they believe are a path to easy money.

In the interviews, many of the interviewees said that they were saving up to buy a whole Bitcoin. These people did not know that they could buy just part of a Bitcoin. The enthusiasm shown does not match the knowledge people have, and this is a cause for concern on the regulator’s part.