FSMA Issues New Warning Against Revocery Room Fraud: 11 Unlawful Entities Flagged

On April 25, 2024, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) warned again the Belgian public against recovery room fraud, a practice whereby fraudsters offer to help victims of investment fraud obtain compensation for their losses or recover their lost assets.

The FSMA also warns the public against the following 11 companies operating unlawfully and likely committing recovery room fraud:

Apag-Audit AG (https://apag-audit.org/)

Claim Justice (https://claim-justice.com/) 

Crypto Conduct Authority (https://commission-cca.com/)

Etoro (Torocoin – Cloned firm) (https://toroc.io/)

FXVC (Cloned Firm)

Global Get Back (http://globalgetback.com/)

IFP Center (https://ifp.center/; www.ifp.center)

NCSC (Cloned Firm)

Trading Center (http://trading-center.co/) 

Ucoin Capital (https://ucoincapital.com) 

VaxCo (www.vaxco.io; www.vaxco.co; www.vaxco.org)

Generally, the fraudsters contact their victims by phone or by e-mail. The FSMA has noted, however, that victims sometimes come into contact with the so-called ‘recovery rooms’ while conducting internet searches or via social media. When introducing themselves, fraudsters and their companies pass themselves off as law firms or accountants, and sometimes as police services or financial supervisors. The fraudsters do not hesitate to misuse the identity information of existing companies or official institutions in order to appear trustworthy.

In a recovery room scam, the fraudsters charge a fee for their services, and victims of investment fraud must pay the fee in advance. The payment is demanded, for example, allegedly to cover certain administrative or legal costs or to pay taxes. These are purely fictitious costs, however. 

In some other cases, fraudsters pretend to offer free services. The victim only has to give access to her computer via a remote desktop application (such as Anydesk). In this way, fraudsters can install spyware on the consumers’ computers or access their PC-Bankings. 

Fraudsters also sometimes ask their victims to create and activate a wallet on a crypto platform. 

In all cases, fraudsters manage to steal money from consumers. Once the fraudsters have received the fees, they disappear without a trace and it is almost impossible to recover the amounts paid. The FSMA thus advises absolutely against responding to such offers.

The Belgian regulator also cautions that victims of investment fraud are often targeted twice by the same fraudsters: first the latter perpetrates investment fraud, and thereafter, recovery room fraud. The persons behind the investment fraud may also sell their victims’ contact information to other fraudsters. Anyone who has ever been a victim of investment fraud needs to be aware that fraudsters may target their victims again or sell their personal data on to others.