The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has been made aware of fraudsters that are claiming to be representatives of the regulator in an attempt to solicit personal information from consumers and scam investors.

According to a statement released by the Securities regulator, the fraudsters are claiming to be officers or appointed representatives of CySEC. By doing this, they are trying to scam investors into paying fees in exchange for the settlement of fake compensation claims.

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Specifically, the most recent scam that has come to the regulator’s attention is where an individual using the name Christos Sofroniou tries to get recipients to pay legal fees to take part in fake aid programs for the recovery of potential losses.

In this email, the fraudster uses the email address contact@sofroniou-legal.org and the telephone numbers +35725654263 and +35799711917. As a result, CySEC has again reminded consumers that, as a matter of policy, CySEC will never: “send unsolicited correspondence to investors or members of the public, nor will it ever request any personal data, financial or otherwise.”

Furthermore, the watchdog reminds investors that it does not have the authority nor jurisdiction to collect fees for any purpose from individual investors. It also doesn’t have the right to appoint a representative to do so.

Typical Attributes of CySEC Scams

While this is not the first time fraudsters have tried to impersonate CySEC to trick investors, and the different scams do vary in tactics, the regulator has found the following attributes to be similar across the scams.

Firstly, the scammer’s preferred method of contact is email, and they will try to target the clients of CySEC-registered firms. The emails will often look professional, including CySEC’s logo, address, official stamp and will contain a fraudulent copy of a CySEC officials’ signature.

Contained in the email will be false promises to help investors receive compensation for potential damages they may have incurred. The fraudsters often target online trading firms that offer speculative investment products to peg as the perpetrator.

From here, the scammers then try and collect personal information from investors, especially phone numbers so they can continue the scam via telephone.