Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has announced through a statement that it has refreshed its crypto warning list by including seven new websites.
The addition of more websites to the warning list brings the total to 120 cryptocurrency websites that have been blacklisted. The FSMA has flagged those websites after receiving complaints from users. The Financial watchdog noted in its statement that it has been receiving a lot of complaints from investors who have used those websites to invest in cryptocurrencies.
Scams are a major problem in the crypto market
According to the FSMA statement, cryptocurrency fraudsters are still active in Belgium, thus the need for regulation and also for fraudulent websites to be flagged. This will at least help protect investors who innocently invest in the digital currency market in the hopes of making a profit.
“The scam operators try to inspire confidence by assuring you that you don’t need to be an expert in cryptocurrencies in order to invest in them,” the FSMA noted in its statement.
The statement further added that the scammy websites lure in unassuming investors by claiming that they have specialists who can manage investments on behalf of the clients. They are also guaranteed that they can make withdrawals whenever they wish to do so. Unfortunately, many people fall for these claims and they end up losing their money.
The blacklisted websites and other measures
This is the FSMA has been upgrading the list ever since February 2018. Despite having a total of 200 blacklisted crypto websites, the Belgian watchdog has warned crypto investors to exercise caution because there are still other fraudulent platforms out there.
The recently flagged cryptocurrency websites include www.tribelylimited.com, www.ripae-homine.com, www.novoplacement.com, www.maisonducoins.net, www.directco-invest.com, www.btckingdom.com, and www.bearsmarkets.com.
Meanwhile, the financial authority FPS Economy (FPS) has also taken up an interest in protecting investors from scammers. For example, in 2018 it launched a website aimed at raising awareness and educating the masses about the risks that are involved in cryptocurrency investments. The FPS claims that Belgian investors lost roughly $2.5 million in 2017 through cryptocurrency-related scams. So far more than $152 million has been lost to scammers.
