The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has joined the war on binary options, and it does not seem to be slowing down. Just today ASIC added five more brokers to its national blacklist. The companies are: A.I.M Corporation Limited, Oproserv Limited (also known as 365BinaryOption), Pearson Investments, CFD Stocks, and Libor Capital.

The one size fits all reasoning that the Australian regulator gives on its website is that these companies might be running scam operations, and so they have not received licenses to trade with Australian clients. These brokers have also been found guilty of making unsolicited calls and sending out similar emails to locals regarding online trading, financial consultation, loans, and credit without gaining the proper Australian Financial Services (AFS) license from ASIC.

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Australia is following the lead of several other countries worldwide which have been waging war against binary options brokers due to numerous instances of traders falling victim to frauds, presented under the guise of easy money. Though Australia is placing more companies under ban as months go by, it still allows brokers to approach clients under certain restrictions.

Earlier this year, ASIC warned Australians of online trading scams in the form of emails which were likely to appear once the Christmas or tax seasons were about to arrive. Greg Medcraft, the Chairman of ASIC, has said that the organization’s focus in 2017 will include CFDs and forex companies because “..such products were traditionally targeted at inappropriate investors who were less likely to profit from dealing in the financial product.”

ASIC’s battle is far from over.