Belgium's Financial Services and Markets Authority (FMS)A issued a fresh public warning today (Thursday) over a wave of online trading scams that use staged interviews with executives at large banks to lure investors into depositing as little as 250 euros.

A clone of Swissquote, also popular in the CFD industry, was included on the list.

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The FSMA said the fake interviews show a journalist criticizing bank lending products before suggesting viewers can build wealth more quickly through a system that lets them "get rich quick" with a small initial outlay.

The interviews are fabricated and the products on offer are fraudulent, the regulator said. Belgium has a history of aggressive intervention against unlicensed online brokers, and the FSMA's warning lists have grown steadily over the past year, with its H2 2025 dashboard recording €23.4 million in reported consumer losses, of which more than €10.5 million was tied to fraudulent trading platforms.

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In total, the regulator named 14 websites it said funnel consumers toward fraudulent trading platforms. It separately advised the public against 33 platforms, among them a clone operating under the Swissquote name from swissquote-es.com and another clone using the brand Innovate X Capital.

Other entries on the longer list include Arko Group, Axstera, Genesisarbit, Lotment Capital, NewRockwood, PrymexEnergy and Rockpoint Partners.

How the Schemes Reach Belgian Investors

According to the FSMA, scammers use a familiar mix of channels to make first contact: paid advertisements featuring celebrities, the new fake CEO interviews fronted by recognizable television presenters, dedicated recruitment websites, profiles on dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and Happn, and invitations to closed trading groups on WhatsApp or Telegram.

The pitch is consistent across each channel: returns well in excess of what conventional investing typically delivers.

Once a target registers, the platform asks for an opening deposit, often around 250 euros. The regulator said fraudsters sometimes ask victims to install remote-access software, ostensibly to help with transfers, which can be used to deploy malware or spyware.

The 250-euro entry point matches the threshold the FSMA flagged in an earlier warning this year about networks of scam platforms operating across Europe.

Deepfakes Push the Tactic Across Borders

The use of fabricated interviews with bank executives mirrors a pattern other regulators have documented over the past year. New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority warned in 2025 about Facebook pages running AI-generated videos of well-known financial commentators to recruit users into WhatsApp investment groups.

Germany's BaFin has flagged a similar uptick in AI-driven schemes promising automated trading returns, and South Africa's FSCA issued public guidance after deepfake clips of local celebrities began circulating in fraudulent ad campaigns.

The FSMA itself has previously warned about WhatsApp groups impersonating Saxo Bank and JP Morgan to push fake trading apps to retail investors in Belgium. The country bans the retail sale of contracts for difference and crypto derivatives, leaving local consumers a comparatively narrow set of authorized providers and, regulators argue, more exposure to offshore platforms that operate without a license.