

Italy’s CONSOB just last week ordered five more fraudulent FX websites to be blocked. Here are the blocked sites and the companies behind them: olympusbrokers.com (Olympusbrokers Limited); 5markets.io (Uncanny Services LLC); fincloud.life (Surreptitious Group LLC); goldmar.co and webtrader.gmar.cc (Combobulating Group LLC); titancfd.com and platform.titancfd.com (Titancfd)
Last Thursday, the FX regulator order internet providers to ban access to the aforementioned websites within Italy. It has held this right since July 2019, and is currently the only EU regulator with the power to block illegal websites.
The way the blackouts work is not as straightforward as some might think though. Technically, it’s not the regulator that closes the site but the relevant internet provider that does the job by the order of CONSOB who takes the final decision. And even after the order has been issued, it can take several days until the blackout is fully executed.
Yet, once a full ban order is issued, it’s not long until the sites began shutting for all EU and non-EU users; in a sense CONSOB is looking after international markets’ safety too.
A total of 754 illegal investment sources have been blocked by the Italian watchdog since the start of the program. None of these can now operate within Italy’s jurisdictions. In the past five months CONSOB has shut off a total of 28 high risk scammer brokers.