By Marcello Condemi
The practice of abuse, coinciding with the exponential spread of increasingly sophisticated new technologies, raises serious alarms because of the enormous damage it causes to the economy, financial activities and savers. Abusive activity is generally found when banking or financial activities are exercised without the necessary authorisation from the Bank of Italy, Consob, Ivass or Covip, respectively, or when financial activities are exercised without registration in registers or rolls kept by the aforementioned authorities. The danger is that by exercising this abusive activity (also criminally sanctioned) the unsuspecting saver is induced to carry out transactions that are significantly damaging to himself. Hence the alarm spread last 16 February by Consob [the Authority that oversees the transparency and orderly conduct of trading, transparency and correctness of the conduct of persons operating in the financial markets] through the communiqué entitled “Financial abuse: Consob bans 5 abusive websites” in which, in addition to recommending that attention be paid to a particular type of scam, it was announced that five new websites that abusively offered financial services [id est: “Global Trade Group” (website https://global-trade-group.com and related page https://cfd.global-trade-group.com); “Tide Technologies Group” (website https://tidetechnologiesgroup.world); “TRETORO”(website https://tretoro.co); Finalto LTD Global Limited e Finalto LTD Markets (Pty) Ltd (website https://finaltoltd.com and related pages https://client.finaltoltd.com and https://trade.finaltoltd.com); “Premium Capitals” (website https://premiumcptls.co)]. The initiation of the blackout took place at the initiative of Consob which, using the powers provided by the “Growth Decree” [Law No. 58, 28 June 2019, Article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies], ordered Internet service providers to inhibit access from Italy to the sites web used for the abusive offering of financial services. This form of abusiveness (unfortunately not the only one) is widespread; suffice it to say that Consob from July 2019 to date has blocked a total of 1024 sites, all of which can be viewed on www.consob.it., and which, in view of the high risk of fraud, recommended - not only to check beforehand that the operator with whom one intends to invest is authorised and that, for offers of financial products, the prospectus has been published - but also to consult the “Watch out for scams!”available at www.consob.it where useful information on such illegal practices is contained.
Published in the newspaper “Il Tempo” on 21 February 2024
