Italy’s financial watchdog raises alarm over XTB Empire, Activ4X
Italian authorities are cracking down on illegal online trading operations in their jurisdiction.
The nation’s Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) has recently ordered that ISPs block four offshore websites that are operating illegally in the country as the move helps in the fight against unauthorized providers.
Consob is responsible for regulating the Italian securities market, ensuring that it operates in a transparent and fair manner. To this end, it has the power to block access to the websites of financial firms that are not authorized to operate in Italy, in order to prevent Italian investors from falling victim to scams and other fraudulent activities.
These blocked websites were a mix of FX platforms while some of them were allowing users to bet on cryptocurrency prices, a trend that the regulator says has become popular recently. The main problem with these sites is that they are focused on attracting minors and normalizing gambling-like trading products for them.
As the battle between legal and unregulated trading rages on, Italian investors have been warned not to take out any financial services from: “Activ4X” ( website https://www.activ4x.com and related pages https://client.activ4x.com and https://trade.activ4x.com);
“VirtuFinance” ( website www.virtufinancial.eu and related page https://webtrader.virtufinancial.eu);
XTB Empire Ltd ( website https://xtbempire.com and related page https://client.xtbempire.com);
“Goldy Deal” ( www.goldydeal.com website ).
A glimpse at the websites of the brokers added out by the Italian financial regulator shows a well-known tactic to attract inexperienced clients to trade highly leveraged products.
Some of these brands are offering bonus schemes for their clients to the tune of 100 percent of their deposits. With the usual draconian conditions required to withdraw funds from the account once a bonus is applied, the end-result for such tactics are usually disgruntled clients who have withdrawal issues. With the Forex brokerage industry in the developed world being forced to halt any such practices, offshore jurisdictions remain tolerant of bonus schemes.
The number of sites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to ban the websites of financial intermediaries it deems unregulated, has risen to a whopping 890 offshore sites. The regulator’s end goal is to eliminate unlicensed trading from Italy and ensure a healthy ecosystem for local investors. CONSOB uses a combination of AI-based search algorithms, investigations and customer reports to identify offshore operators.
The Italian regulator found new tools to address illegal operators in the market when the ‘Growth Decree’ extended its powers far beyond. Thanks to the decree, CONSOB can order Italian internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites in the region. Due to technical reasons, however, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect when these websites shut for a temporary period.
