Despite financial market regulators' best efforts to combat unlicensed investment firms, their struggle seems never-ending. The Spanish CNMV has just reported that scammers have once again attempted to impersonate popular retail trading brands. Additionally, the latest warning list includes several entities operating in the country without proper licenses.

CNMV Alerts Against StoneX and IG Group Clones

According to today's (Monday) update from CNMV, the Spanish financial markets regulator, the market watchdog has added ten new entities to its warning list.

Among them, "Finance IG," offering services through the websites finance-ig.com and financeig.com, stands out as a clone of the popular, publicly traded London-based firm IG Group, known throughout Europe and worldwide.

The warning list also includes a clone Clone A clone refers to a fraudulent attempt by an entity or individual to use the details of an authorized firm in a bid to convince people that they work that firm.This refers to a relatively new tactic that has seen fraudsters using the name, ‘firm registration number’, and address of firms and individuals authorized by regulators to suggest they are genuine. Clones are seemingly primitive techniques, though newly adopted by scammers that have evolved in the information era. As regulators push for A clone refers to a fraudulent attempt by an entity or individual to use the details of an authorized firm in a bid to convince people that they work that firm.This refers to a relatively new tactic that has seen fraudsters using the name, ‘firm registration number’, and address of firms and individuals authorized by regulators to suggest they are genuine. Clones are seemingly primitive techniques, though newly adopted by scammers that have evolved in the information era. As regulators push for Read this Term of the US-based company StoneX, offering services through the website stonexly.com/es.

Unfortunately, attempts to impersonate popular brands are common. A few months ago, CNMV also warned against a firm pretending to be the popular social trading platform eToro.

According to a survey conducted by Finance Magnates and FXStreet, retail traders consider broker and signal provider clones to be the biggest threat in the industry. However, conversations with representatives of frequently cloned firms reveal that the practice is so widespread that effectively defending against it is very challenging.

Eight Unlicensed Entities Alongside Clones

In addition to the two clones warned about by CNMV, the update also included information on eight entities operating without proper authorization in the Spanish market.

Among these entities were Fusionlots, TD Markets, Rumlenomic, AMI Solutions, Aduent Capital, TCM Globals, and Trader Expertss:

"According to CNMV records, these institutions are not registered in the corresponding registry of this Commission and, therefore, are not authorized to provide investment services or other activities subject to the CNMV's supervision," CNMV explained.

This is another update to the Spanish regulator's warning list over the past month. In June, Finance Magnates reported that 8 unregistered FX/CFD brokers came under CNMV scrutiny.

Recently, CNMV also took an interest in Linq Capital, which offers trading with leverage Leverage In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders Read this Term up to 1000:1. The firm claims to be registered in the UK, in a city that doesn't actually exist. A few months earlier, the German BaFin also drew attention to its suspicious activities.