Its been quite some time since FSM-dedicated thread started. Meanwhile, a lot has happened in the world of scams. Sadly, this scheme seems to be resilient to any enforcement or investigation. We believe (and know) that this is now coming to an end. Bad times ahead for scammers, in general. The hunting season is open in both US and the EU, believe it or not. So the FSM scheme will not be exempted from the proper steps in the near future.
Now we do some small follow-ups, adding some details, exploring further the scheme in some details.
Earlier in this thread (Part 1) we indicated Taris Financial Corp as a receiver of client deposits and later on, subject of regulatory warnings, related to MXTrade, an earlier scam from this group. Well, since a bank wire deposit of a scammed client went to this bogus company's account, wouldn't it be simply easier if the law enforcement representatives, together with Cyprus-based authorities (be it the CySEC or the police - we suggest both) checked the record files lodged with the receiver's bank and determined the identity via KYC documents? We refer to this swift message specifically:
Client: TARIS FINANCIAL CORP
IBAN: CY79005001400001400167230301
with Hellenic Bank ltd, Cyprus entity (swift: HEBACY2N)
How hard can it be to check? Nevertheless, it's been 6 years already since this specific 10.000 eur deposit was made from Germany.
Not connected to the above information, but very much connected to scamming German and Aussie clients, there are some indications that parts of this vast scheme possibly were scams known as
Olympus Markets (
www.olympusmarkets.com) and
Aspen Holding (
www.aspenholding.com). We are not sure at this time weather true or not, but in case more information is needed, simply check the Vanuatu registrar and NexTrade Ltd and its sole Director, Ms Nonka Asenova, Bulgarian resident:
There are no information of this Nonka Asenova, for the time being.
While we wait for some spectacular future crackdown, we can add some more details and new info to this story.
As a short summary, we already elaborated in Part 3 on the fact that,
Trade12, HQBroker and
FSMSmart(s) were and are coming from the
same people, meaning the same people invented, created and launched these 'brands'. While final boiler room operators changed, as they normally do in any scam, the people behind remain the same. So does profit-sharing model between scammers on the phone in a hidden office and guys that granted them access to the 'platform' and all its 'fintech' solutions (CRM, payments, local boiler room set-ups and intermediaries that would protect them, etc).
Here are more boiler rooms across Eastern Europe and beyond, that 'worked' on FSMSmart 'brand':
Today's profile is off course relieved of any FSMSmart indications, however it used to look like this:
We will continue exploring this and adding more, shortly.
