The FSCA has warned the public about unscrupulous individuals or entities that are either impersonating or seeking to associate themselves with authorised FSPs.
A common thread in these scams is stealing a legitimate FSP’s branding and using WhatsApp to lure unsuspecting members of the public with unrealistic returns.
Individuals are impersonating Capital International Group Ltd on WhatsApp in what appears to be a “clone scam”, where a scamming entity assumes the identity of a legitimate business to defraud the public, the FSCA said.
It received a complaint from Capital International Group Ltd, whose licensed subsidiaries are CILSA Investments (Pty) Ltd (FSP No. 44894) and CILSA Solutions (Pty) Ltd (FSP No. 6650) trading as Capital International SA.
The individuals impersonating Capital International Group Ltd are offering “investment opportunities” on WhatsApp with unrealistically high returns. Capital International Group Ltd does not conduct business on WhatsApp.
Integrity Asset Management (FSP No. 43249) seems to be the target of a similar scam.
A group of individuals is soliciting investments by promising unrealistic and excessive returns on WhatsApp, using Integrity Asset Management’s logo, website, and contact details. They also use the logo of a company based in Texas in the United States with a similar name.
Integrity Asset Management is no way associated with these individuals.
The FSCA received a complaint from Wealthport (Pty) Ltd (FSP No. 44158) that an entity called Wealthport Capital may be offering financial services to members of the public under the pretext of being associated with it.
The individuals using Wealthport (Pty) Ltd’s name are offering investment opportunities with unrealistically high returns, via WhatsApp.
Wealthport (Pty) Ltd does not conduct any business on WhatsApp and has no relationship with Wealthport Capital, which is not authorised to provide financial advice or render intermediary services.
It has also come to the FSCA’s attention that Datum RS is fraudulently presenting itself to be an FSP and that it is associated with QuickTrade (Pty) Ltd (FSP No. 45262).
QuickTrade is not associated with Datum RS, which is not authorised to furnish financial advice and render intermediary services.
The FSCA said it attempted to contact Datum RS for comment, but without success.
Members of the public can check whether an entity or individual is authorised to provide a financial service by phoning the FSCA at 0800 110 443 (toll-free) or performing an online search at this link.
I was scammed also the fraudsters took my 1000 rands …on watsapp ..