In an official announcement issued today, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) , which is the financial markets regulatory authority responsible for licensing, inter alia, the forex and binary options brokerages operating in the jurisdiction of Australia, revisits the issue of financial services firms which falsely claim to be regulated, but in fact are not.
More specifically, in this particular announcement ASIC has warned consumers to be wary of a fake website promoting foreign exchange broker, First Forex. As mentioned in the warning:
“First Forex and related entities Fifx and FiFX Global promote their services at www.fifx.com and falsely claim that their services are ‘under the regulation of Australia (Regulation No. 290600)’.”
However, as pointed out by ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer, neither First Forex, FiFx or FiFX Global are registered Australian companies, nor are their services regulated as a financial services business under Australian law. In fact, according to Mr Tanzer “The website, www.fifx.com appears to be operated overseas and refers to an Australian company that is in no way associated with First Forex.”
ASIC in its announcement also urges consumers to always confirm whether a company is licensed by ASIC by referring to its website at www.asic.gov.au and also stresses that “The best way for consumers to protect themselves from scams is to only deal with financial services providers who are licensed by ASIC. Licensed companies and individuals are required to meet stringent requirements under Australian law, the purpose of which is to protect consumers.”
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