Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of seven new websites that illegally offer financial services.
In issuing the orders, the Authority made use of the powers deriving from the “Decreto crescita” (“Development Decree”, Law no. 58 of June 28, 2019, article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), under which Consob can to order Internet service providers to block access from Italy to websites offering financial services without proper authorization.
The sites targeted by the latest Consob orders are:
- “GMT” (websites www.gmtdirect.com, www.gmtplatform.com and www.gmtcapitals.com and related pages and
- “Capitalpartners24” (website
- “FP Invest” (website www.fpinvest247.io);
- “Smart Limited Group” (website and related page
- “Stockcptls” (site
The number of websites taken down since July 2019, when Consob was given the power to order the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries to be blocked, has risen to 1,060.
Consob regularly adds more entities to the list of blocked websites. It has recently blocked six unauthorized investment websites.
The shutdown of these websites by ISPs operating in Italy continues. For technical reasons, it may take several days for the block to take effect.
Consob draws the attention of investors to the importance of adopting greater diligence in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviors necessary to safeguard their savings: these include, for websites offering financial services, the prior checking of operator with whom they are authorized to invest and, for financial product offerings, a prospectus has been published.
To this end, Consob will remind you that on the website www.consob.it there is a section “Watch for frauds!”, which provides useful information to warn investors of financially unauthorized initiatives.