With many people afraid of missing out on the chance to make ‎easy money, Poland’s authorities are launching a campaign to educate its ‎citizens on the potential risks involved when it comes to cryptocurrency and margin ‎trading‏.‏

The country’s financial regulatory body, the Polish Financial Supervision ‎Authority (KNF) is behind the campaign, which warns of the investment risks ‎using advertisements on the country’s radio and television stations, and in ‎print and digital media‏.‏

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There’s no preview of these adverts, but the campaign is scheduled to go on air in June. The ‎KNF has already allocated 1.75 million zloty ($474,886) for ads on radio and television ‎and 615,000 zloty ($166,888) for the internet and social media ads.‎

The increase in media coverage and hype around ICOs and ‎cryptocurrencies has aroused public interest. However, the public might use ‎these as speculative tools without full understanding of their nature and ‎potential risks, according to a translated extract.‎

Lack of proper regulations

‎“The aim of the campaign is to make sure that people who want to invest ‎their money do not trust those who offer easy, safe and high profits. It is ‎highly probable that such schemes may have the character of a financial ‎pyramid, i.e., a situation in which the profit of a given person depends on ‎payments made by persons below the structure,” explains Jacek ‎Barszczewski, spokesman of the Polish regulator‏.‏

The campaign also notes the lack of proper regulations in place which means ‎that crypto assets are somewhat murky for investors to be kept safe, unlike ‎strictly regulated traditional financial markets. ‎

Earlier this month, Poland’s finance ministry published an ‎update of the country’s tax ‎code, stating that it will not tax ‎income from transactions on ‎cryptocurrencies.‎ The MoF ‎justified its taxing decision by stating that it considers ‎conducting an in-depth analysis to better regulate the ‎emerging industry.‎

The KNF also plans ICOs warning to be accompanied by a wider crackdown ‎on unregulated margin trading. It says the fraud in such fields, which ‎includes, among others, leveraged forex trading, is being committed by brokers ‎that encourage investors to make seemingly simple bets on whether ‎shares, currencies or other financial instruments will rise or fall in value. ‎

Earlier in April, the Polish police carried ‎out a raid on the ‎Warsaw offices of Amplio Investments, a company that ‎‎operates call centers for several forex brands, including ‎CFD 1000, VORTEX ‎ASSETS, and MIB 700. Authorities ‎have arrested 20 of the company’s top managers ‎and ‎salespeople‏.‏