Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission Warns of Bogus Account on Social Media

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued a warning against fraudsters posing as the regulator on social media.

The regulator discovered a fake account called "cysec_cy" on Instagram and said that someone had maliciously registered the account and pretended to be an official or representative of CySEC. In order to swindle money from investors, they falsely claimed to settle compensation claims for investors regarding CySEC-regulated companies.

The regulator further emphasizes that CySEC never calls or sends unsolicited letters in order to contact investors, nor does it ask for personal information, financial or otherwise. Investors are strongly advised to confirm the authenticity of the letter through CySEC's official e-mail address before taking any action.

Genuine emails from CySEC include a "gov.cy" address at the end of the email, although scammers have been known to clone this address.

In addition, for whatever reason or purpose, the regulator does not have the authority to demand fees from individual investors, nor does it have the authority to appoint representatives to collect fees on its behalf.

The commission also says: "CySEC does not authorize, verify, monitor, or is in any way involved in class actions, compensation schemes, payments between natural or legal entities or any public or private agencies"

In September this year, CySEC warned about cloned websites posing as the regulator.