The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has raised concerns about deceptive posts on popular review sites like TrustPilot.com and Google Business. The Commission reports that some individuals have impersonated CySEC officers or representatives, contacting investors with false promises to help recover investment losses in exchange for fees. These individuals claim connections to companies regulated by CySEC, misleading the public and preying on investors.

In a press release CySEC notes that there has recently been an increase in cases where individuals fraudulently present themselves as representatives of CySEC, both through email and fake accounts on online platforms and urges the public to be alert to these scams.

To support its aim to protect investors, CySEC employs social media listening tools that have the capacity to monitor social media posts in real time, in multiple languages, triggering alerts over false and misleading posts by investment and financial firms, and so-called finfluencers. This allows CySEC to monitor the marketing activities of regulated entities   and take action when posts may be harmful to potential investors.

In order to help the public to identify and avoid potential scams, CySEC reminds the public that the Commission never contacts individuals by telephone or sends unsolicited correspondence and does not request personal data, financial or other information.

Investors are urged to contact CySEC to confirm the authenticity of communications by sending an email to [email protected] before taking any action, and to inform CySEC of any suspicious activity that comes to their attention.

Genuine emails from CySEC include addresses ending in cysec.gov.cy – although, there have been cases where fraudsters have disguised their web addresses to copy these.

CySEC has no authority or mandate to collect fees for any purpose from individual investors, nor does it have authority to appoint anyone to do so on its behalf.

CySEC does not authorise, verify, monitor, or engage in any way in class actions, compensation schemes, payments between natural or legal entities or any public or private organisations.

CySEC issues multiple regular warnings and updates regarding unregulated entities and impersonations of CySEC representatives, in its website.

It also issues in its websinte an investor guide on how to spot scams.

CySEC urges the public to remain vigilant and cautious of any unsolicited communication claiming to be from CySEC, and to refrain from sending money to anyone claiming to represent it.