Anti Cyber Crime & Financial, Department of Financial Regulators, Office of Financial Affairs, Department of Law and Public Safety — these are just several bogus financial regulators that the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday warned investors do not exist.
Included in the long list of fake regulators is also a list just as long of advisory/securities firms that claim to be registered with the SEC or supported by other international organizations in the United States but are not.
The agency also includes a separate list of firms that are impersonating legitimate ones.
An SEC investigation of "impersonator" firms reveals that these entities have wrongfully appropriated the registration numbers and address information of legitimate firms from publicly available databases such as EDGAR and FINRA's BrokerCheck, and set up phony websites in order to confuse and deceive investors, the agency states.
In other cases, what the SEC calls "spoofer" entities have appropriated the registration information of legitimate firms that recently terminated their registration with the SEC and FINRA or did so years ago.
