Last month, the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) received several complaints from investors about new fraudulent online trading platforms.

Belgium's FSMA has blacklisted 38 online trading platforms

These trading platforms usually place scam ads on social media to teach people how to "get rich quick." Trading platforms also use mobile apps to lure victims, often as part of virtual currency or training courses. After clicking on an AD or downloading a mobile app and providing contact details, the fraudster will often quickly call the victim with a specific investment proposal (stocks, alternative investment products, virtual currencies, etc.).

The behavior of these platforms is very aggressive. Scammers even try to convince victims to allow them to remotely control their computers in order to make certain money transfers. Scammers also try to convince victims to invest higher and higher amounts. They also promised repayment in exchange for a final transfer of funds, a technique to collect more money from victims. In the end, however, investors find themselves unable to get their money back, or receive no information from the investment platform.

FSMA strongly advises against responding to any financial services offered by the following new trading platforms:

24xFOREX

4x-Trade

Advantium LIMITED

AlfaPrime-MARKETS

AssetShot

Bitreserve (cloned firm)

BrownFinance

BTC-Markets

Capital Of Focus

CoinsBanking

CRPmarkets

FinoTrend

Fortexo

FundsProMax

Holding Partners

IGC Markets(cloned firm)

Impressive Area

InGoInvest

Invesdo

Kiplar

Kirther Investment

Ladson Capital

Liquidspro

Lite Gap

Livetradingfx

Luxury Capitals

MarketsEU

Marketsi

Ozon F Corporation)

Pegasus Invest

Sagatrade

Selfkings

Status Markets

Sterlingspecialist

SwissMarket(s)fx

The Investment Center

TradingFX Global

Vnsmart