OSC, or Ontario Services Commission, is the financial regulator of the Canadian province of Ontario. The authority is in charge of issuing Forex and CFD trading licenses, as well as regulating crypto exchanges. When customers have a dispute with a broker, this is the first instance of a complaint.
PancakeSwap is a website for buying, selling, and swapping crypto coins. You can connect your wallet from any other exchange to your PancakeSwap account and trade on BNB Smart Chain. If you choose to swap your tokens to CAKE, you can earn passive income from staking.
In December 2022, OSC warned against this financial services provider and pointed out that it doesn’t have a valid license for trading in securities. Hence, Canadian residents should avoid it.
The other one on the OSC warnings list is CoiniBank. As the name suggests, it’s a bank for your digital coins. The platform is inactive but has left many victims behind.
The official owner is Vital Resources Ltd, registered in the Marshall Islands. The country is known for its loose regulations and many companies operating under the radar.
Since CoiniBank was one of them, getting reimbursed is nearly impossible without legal aid.
While advertising attractive trading terms and popular platforms, such as MT4 and MT5, this bogus site offered nothing.
No mobile, desktop, or web software. In addition, it seems to be off the grid, meaning clients can no longer access their accounts and money.
The brokerage offers investors proprietary trading software susceptible to market manipulation. An attractive minimum deposit requirement of $100 also contributed to having many victims.
TradeSimple is a brand of Apollo MS Ltd, a UK-registered company. However, the firm has listed advertisement and media as the main activity rather than anything related to the financial market.
Therefore, it has never entered an FCA register. As the OSC warning confirms, it’s an investment scam to avoid.
Currently, both domains are inactive, leaving investors unable to submit a withdrawal request.
The brokerage is stealing clients’ funds, and being a part of the OSC warnings list is the final proof.
While we don’t know who’s behind the scenes, we know that BitfinityFX has offered us support phone numbers from the UK and Australia.
However, it’s not licensed with the FCA, ASIC, or any other regulatory body. According to T&C, the governing law is the law of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the only country without valid Forex and CFD supervision.
Once again, we’re facing an issue with the inactive website. Simply put, clients cannot log in and get their money back.
CoiniSwap is a brand of European Exchange Ltd, registered in Switzerland. However, it turns out that the owner is a clone firm that has taken over the details of a legitimate business.
Behind the scenes, we found European Exchange Pro LLC and European Exchange Pro Ltd, both located offshore.
The company presents itself as a reputable crypto exchange while stealing money through CryptoPayIn, a fraudulent crypto payment provider. Note that the Swiss regulator also issued a warning against scams.
QuantumTrade says it’s a brand of Quantum Global Trading, holding a Dubai Multi Commodities Center license. However, the link leading to this alleged regulation is broken, while DMCC records show no data.
The brokerage requires clients to invest at least $250 and offers up to a 100% margin loan and 1:400 leverage. Negative reviews and OSC warnings are an indication of trading fraud.
After being exposed by regulators, the Nymexidn trading scam vanished. The company was charging high fees and promising services they could not deliver. Reviews show that customers were highly dissatisfied with pressure sales techniques and unwilling to deposit more.
Besides Ontario, Nymexidn was added to the warning list of another Canadian regulator, Securities Administrators.
SogoTradez is a domain registered in April 2022 that has already shut down. We believe this was a clone firm of FINRA-licensed SogoTrade, luring investors by deceiving them to be a part of the same brand.
While the legitimate firm has existed since 2008, this financial swindler was short-breathed.
Zeta Hedge was a site claiming to have their headquarters in the UK and the US, two of the most stringent financial areas. For this to be true, the brand would need an FCA, CFTC license, and NFA registration. As you can guess, it has none.
This crypto and Forex trading brokerage was registered on February 1, 2022, and has already disappeared, leaving investors without funds.
Humility Investment is a company that offers private wealth management, investment banking, and crypto investments. However, all without appropriate regulation. It’s a domestic firm that needs an OSC license to conduct business.
However, being on the OSC warnings list proves it’s an illicit site to avoid.
Both domains are currently inactive, and withdrawals are impossible. However, while in the business, the company owner running both sites was unknown, as well as their headquarters.
According to an OSC warning, none of the domains is authorized to provide trading in securities in the said province.
Another crypto exchange that was added to the OSC warnings list is Poloniex. It belongs to Polo Digital Assets, but the headquarters are unknown.
The exchange has no regulation and has quite loose KYC policies, which is why various scammers can easily exploit it to steal your money.
Another crypto platform registered in 2022 that has already vanished is TrustLedgersChain. According to the OSC warning, this entity had no valid license for onboarding Canadian residents and providing them with securities trading.
While offering Canadian and UK phone numbers, The Liberty International lists SVG law as the governing law. Hence, we believe this is where the scammer resides. Or it was residing before the domain was shut down, and the company vanished.
The firm targeted mainly the US, UK, and Canadian residents, explaining this OSC warning.
Bitcore Exchange claims to offer crypto services to clients all around the globe. However, it turns out that in December 2022, right after the warning by the OSC, all services were suspended.
Another brand quite similar to CoiniSwap is CryptosPair, owned by a similarly named fraud. The company claims to reside in Switzerland, which the official warning issued by FINMA denied. Then, we got another address, this time in London, UK.
However, the website is currently inactive, and fraud has been exposed.
When choosing a broker, you must check all the relevant details, including a license number and headquarters.
The post OSC Warnings Dec 2022 – List of Brokers & Crypto Exchanges to Avoid appeared first on Global Fraud Protection.
