Scammers are pretending to represent Seed Investment Consultants (Pty) Ltd so they can defraud the public.
The FSCA and Seed Investments have warned about individuals who are impersonating the independent investment management and financial advisory firm using a Telegram group and possibly other social media platforms.
Seed Investments has placed an alert on its website stating it does not trade in cryptocurrencies, and its representatives will never offer any form of financial advice using social media.
It goes without saying that Seed Investments (FSP number 2346) did not give the Telegram group the right to use its name to solicit investments from the public.
Unlicensed forex trading
Anyone considering doing business with Lwando Daniel Jini should tread carefully, the FSCA warns.
The Authority issued the warning following a complaint received from a member of the public who was unable to recover his profits from Jini.
The FSCA says that Jini, who may also be operating under the alias “FXKing D Nasdaq Godly” (FXKing), offers to trade in forex on behalf of others, promising unrealistic returns. This while not being licensed or registered in terms of any legislation administered by the FSCA or the Prudential Authority.
“Without commenting on the business of Jini and/or FXKing or its products and services, the FSCA points out that for a company to offer financial products or services in South Africa, it must be licensed by the FSCA and in some instances also by the Prudential Authority,” the Authority says.
Fraudulent Instagram account
Fraudsters, impersonating an authorised financial services provider on Instagram are robbing investors of their money online.
Individuals purporting to be from RCG Markets (FSP number 49769) are scamming the public using a fraudulent Instagram page with the handle RCGmarkets_1 and a website with the address www.rcgmarkets.us, the FSCA warns.
“RCG Markets, which provides an online trading platform for clients using their website www.rcgmarkets.com, has confirmed that they are in no way related to these individuals or the fraudulent account and website being used,” the Authority says.
Check before you invest
The FSCA says members of the public should always check the following:
That an entity or individual is authorised by the FSCA to provide financial products and services, including for providing recommendations about how to invest.
The category of advice the person is registered to provide, as there are instances where companies or people are registered to provide basic advice for a low-risk product but advice on far more complex and risky products.
That the FSP number used by the entity or individual offering financial services matches the name of the FSP on the FSCA’s database.
You can check whether an entity or person is authorised to provide financial products and services by:
Phoning 0800 110 443 (toll-free)
Conducting an online search for an authorised financial institution by licence category: https://www.fsca.co.za/Regulated%20Entities/Pages/List-Regulated-Entities-Persons.aspx
Conducting an online search for a financial institution that is an authorised FSP: https://www.fsca.co.za/Fais/Search_FSP.htm
