More than 400 investment companies operate in Spain without permission

Pfizer versus ModernWho is in the lead? Tesla y BitcoinWho is above? These are some of the bets and claims of the financial chiringuitos that operate in Spain in the era of the covid and which they want to put a stop to. The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the supervisory body of financial markets in Spain, has notified of the existence of 473 companies that are not authorized to provide investment services or other activities subject to its supervision. This figure, detected between January and November of this year, represents an increase of 21% over the 389 identified by the institution chaired by Rodrigo Buenaventura in 2020, according to the figures that the body itself has confirmed to EL PERIÓDICO.

This is how they capture their targets

The entities denounced have access to the potential victims of quickly and at a very low cost making use of digital technologies whose use skyrocketed in a pandemic and increased especially from the end of 2020, such as remote access (AnyDesk, LogMeIn or TeamViewer, among others) and virtual private networks ( VPN). They use databases that they have almost always obtained fraudulently and from them they extract the addresses of people who, for example, have contracted a certain financial product or have responded to a survey. They select less informed or more confident investors to deliver their savings under promises of high returns and target them with aggressive business strategies.

But, in practice, most of these chiringuitos act as a mere cover that steals customers’ money. Sometimes, they can lose all the money invested, especially if these entities disappear or change their name when they cannot meet the promised returns or justify the losses. The contributions of clients, whom they try to attract with advertising or other means (such as television teletext, according to the CNMV), are not attached to the Investment or Deposit Guarantee Fund.

To prosecute these frauds, the CNMV has a team that analyzes and supervises all financial activity in forums, social networks and other channels. It also warns potential users of the risks of these investment companies through the same channels.

The last company identified by the Spanish supervisory body is delitraders.com, which is presented on its website as a global investment portal that allows access to global markets with low commissions and from a single place. Also as a “fully licensed and regulated broker” that trades stocks, metals, energies or indices, among others. The customer has to open an account to use its services, which the entity sells with claims similar to bets: “Pfizer versus modern, who is ahead” or “Tesla and Bitcoin, who is above?”. Only in the section about who we are and in small print the company that owns the portal, the British company, is identified Miva Solutions LLC. The CNMV, on the other hand, considers that neither delitraders nor Miva Solutions are registered in the corresponding registry and, therefore, are not authorized to provide investment services.

cryptocurrencies

Another entity that has also been indicated by the CNMV is Foxcryptomining.com, which operates in cryptocurrencies, one of the areas to which the supervisor pays special attention.

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The institution is not the only body that makes these warnings. The supervisors of the member states of the European Union and from other European countries also follow this practice and entities that provide investment services communicate with each other without authorization. Along these lines, the CNMV has informed the Spanish financial markets in the first eleven months of this year notices from 1,081 international entities. The United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and Austria are among the countries that have warned the most, along with Spain.