FCA says that people should verify the qualifications of financial service providers and check the data they offer. The CNMV had earlier warned for cloning firm operating as eToro

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), alerted people about a clone firm known as Expotoro, Trotoro, and PayBack Turo. It has been fraudulently claiming that it is a FCA authorized company engaging itself in unauthorized financial service activities.

In financial services, the FCA warns about a clone firm called Expotoro, Tratro, PayBack Toro which it has not authorized; people should be wary when dealing with any firm purporting to act on its behalf. Misleading information is therefore commonly presented in clone firm advertisements in connection with contact details, fake email address, phones, as well as even postal addresses. Similar to legitimate authorized firms, these fraudulent entities may also imitate eToro by replicating the details involved.

However, eToro is an official company and has nothing to do with the mirror trader. While it ensures the public validates such providers’ credentials, it should ensure that anyone looking for information on any such provider cross-checks such records with the same FCA source. Also, the organization emphasizes on the need for due diligence by indicating one’s obligations towards disclosing any form of suspicions to the FCA.

These clone companies tend to change in nature and could also change their contact details thus requiring one be vigilant and ensure consultation is always made to the fca warning list for updated information on fake and clone firms.

Eight entities, among them, Easy to Invest, El Comercio IX, Etora Grand, Pivotal Coin Net, Thor FX, Tools4deals, Xifra Global, and Exptoro have been warned by the Spanish National Securities Market Commission or CNM According to CNMV, these companies are dangerous for consumers as they lack the necessary authorization to perform these banking functions.

The CNMV warned that ExpToro could be operating as a white-label or clone firm since it shares an uncanny name similarity with eToro. For example, clone firms may employ names and images that look similar to those of an established platform in order to trick investors.

After several past warnings such as the one on Bits Panda, which is similar to the popular Bitpanda crypto plat, this cautionary note from CNMV. Last week, another four market entities in the FX/CFD category have been included in the regulator’s warning list.