An epidemic of scams continues to ripple through the FX industry, this time affecting Polish retail brokerage company X-Trade Brokers (XTB). In the latest example of scammers trying to deceive, multiple individuals were falsely claiming to represent XTB Limited in Saudi Arabia, a region the group has no ties with.

Such episodes of fraud are hardly uncommon in the industry today, with numerous jurisdictions and domestic regulatory authorities always on the prowl for this activity. The past few years have seen an uptick in frequent warnings from these regulators, which together with parallel announcements from companies being targeted has helped mitigate the damage of abuse against unsuspecting individuals.

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XTB cautioning against abuse

For its part, XTB Ltd maintains no formal partnership with any 3rd party company in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. Rather, XTB’s client contacts there are managed by direct support teams. Any such efforts by individuals in Saudi Arabia should be avoided and treated as fraudulent, a stance the company has reiterated on its website.

XTB has already passed on these concerns to local authorities and informed the relevant parties of the aforementioned fraudulent activity. This is the group’s first instance of such a scam afflicting the brokerage in Saudi Arabia however – this includes individuals working for CBF Trade or Dulcimar SA UK Ltd.

To safeguard themselves against this deception, XTB is reminding individuals that only official channels of communication are used in contacting potential clients.

The unwelcome news follows on the heels of an active June for XTB, which saw multiple developments. Last month, XTB reiterated it would give its professional clients the ability to trade using 200:1 leverage. The announcement followed on the heels of ESMA’s introduction of new regulations, which will be effective from August 1, 2018.

In addition, June also shifted its operations, closing the news and market analysis section of its Tradebeat.pl portal. By extension, XTB instead opted to combine the market news and analysis that was available on Tradebeat.pl, with its xtb.com website and its xStation trading platform.