Have you been scammed? How to complain to the regulators manual!

[Master Yoda]

ATTENTION!
​

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS THREAD TO REPORT SCAMS. THIS THREAD IS ONLY FOR LISTS OF REGULATORS WHICH YOU CAN CONTACT.

OFF TOPIC POSTS WILL BE DELETED.

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS THREAD TO TRY TO START DISCUSSIONS ABOUT INDIVIDUAL SCAMS.

IF YOU HAVE BEEN SCAMMED, PLEASE START YOUR OWN THREAD HERE IN SCAM ALERTS.

Dear All,

I have been approached by some FPA members asking about their legal alternatives to get their money. So I decided to post this thread in order to help people to get all information they need to use their legal tools.

Many of the FX/financial scams are being made by unregulated companies, nevertheless, you can still go ahead and file a complaint for the financial regulator where the company is located (or they claim they are located). Please find the list of financial regualtors by country:

List of financial regulatory authorities by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For example: : if you would like to complain against a company who is located in Cyprus, you need to file a complaint in Cysec. Also please note that you can complain against all EU regulated companies through the FSA/FCA as well.

NOTE: some companies are regulated by more than one regulator.

Also, another option is the Cyber police, now here I suggest you will report the scam/crime in the police where the company is located/regulated and where you are physically regulated. I have found this site where you can find all cyber police and internet crime unites by country:

Report Internet Crime around the World at ccmostwanted.com

From my experience, usually the companies are trying to avoid dealing with the regulator and the police and will try to solve your case when you see you took these actions.

Good luck everyone!

Important Note: I am not a lawyer, in fact have no legal training whatsoever! My suggestions here are not instead of taking any proper legal counsel which I highly recommend for some cases.

 

[Pharaoh]

Allow me to add econsumer.gov - Your site for cross-border complaints.

This is US based, but allows complaints from consumers anywhere in the world who've been scammed online. The data collected is available to police and regulators in a number of countries. You may or may not be contacted by those police or regulators, but the information you provide may be a critical piece of the puzzle for getting official action taken.

 

[AK-47]

The EU has many regulations for consumer protection. Relevant here is: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/financial_services/distance_marketing/index_en.htm
You can get help here http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/solving_consumer_disputes/non-judicial_redress/ecc-net/index_en.htm and here http://ec.europa.eu/finance/finservices-retail/redress/index_en.htm, and it the authoritier do not do their job, you can go here http://ec.europa.eu/solvit/index_en.htm

For the UK the Financial Conduct authority: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/report-scam-unauthorised-firm and here:
https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/share-fraud-boiler-room-scams where you can report scams here: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/report-scam-unauthorised-firm
Individual scammers risk to end on this list of "prohibited individuals": https://register.fca.org.uk/shpo_searchresultspage?preDefined=PI&TOKEN=5zq3mgf0d8qk
Might be an incentive for propper conduct for some

And finally the police: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/about-us and here http://content.met.police.uk/Site/reportingfraud

Her a report about chargeback in the EU: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/ecc/docs/chargeback_report_en.pdf

Her guide on chargeback with VISA and Mastercard: http://www.choose.net/money/guide/features/chargeback-visa-mastercard.html
Interesting detail, even debit cards are covered: "Card companies like Visa, Mastercard and American Express run the process so that it applies to any card with their logo: credit, debit and even prepaid."

Here are the timelimits for VISA and Mastercard: chargebacks911.com/chargeback-time-limit/
FPA Forums Team Note: Deadlines also vary from country to country.

And her is a detailed description of chargeback rules with recommendation to the other side, the merchants, how they can fight back chargeback claims. Very useful to know what rights the scammers have to reject chargeback: chargebacks911.com/everything-need-know-chargeback-rules/

 

[AsstModerator]

This thread is EXCLUSIVELY for information on regulators which traders can complain to. It is not for reporting individual scams. Off topic posts will be deleted.

If you have been scammed, open your own thread here in Scam Alerts. If you need advice on what to say to a regulator, ask for that in your Scam Alerts thread.

 

[dg.ott.ca]

Before anyone can call up for a financial regulating party to get involved in a potential fraud case on their behalf, they must first investigate if their so called - Broker - is an actual entity by definition of a financial broker. Financial Brokers must have an office, to begin with. Offshore office is OK.

If your broker is only a website on network server then you are victim of cybercrime (aka: virtual crimes) and there are police departments for those issues. There is no need to spam financial regulators with non-relevant claims outside their jurisdiction. It delays proceeding in actual cases.

..a quick word in regards to consumer protection agencies, such as: Better Business Bureau (BBB)
for a company to have a BBB rating they must be registered with such an agency first. If the company is not registered, then only a summary of complaints against them will be listed on the site with either resolved or unresolved status, no overall business rating will be shown.

 

[AsstModerator]

ATTENTION!​

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS THREAD TO REPORT SCAMS. THIS THREAD IS ONLY FOR LISTS OF REGULATORS WHICH YOU CAN CONTACT AND FOR INFORMATION TELLING HOW THOSE REGULATORS CAN BE CONTACTED.

OFF TOPIC POSTS WILL BE DELETED.

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS THREAD TO TRY TO START DISCUSSIONS ABOUT INDIVIDUAL SCAMS.

IF YOU HAVE BEEN SCAMMED, PLEASE START YOUR OWN THREAD HERE IN SCAM ALERTS. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO CONTACT A REGULATOR OR WHICH REGULATORS TO CONTACT, DO THAT IN YOUR SCAM ALERTS THREAD.

 

[cash_money_man]

Before anyone can call up for a financial regulating party to get involved in a potential fraud case on their behalf, they must first investigate if their so called - Broker - is an actual entity by definition of a financial broker. Financial Brokers must have an office, to begin with. Offshore office is OK.

If your broker is only a website on network server then you are victim of cybercrime (aka: virtual crimes) and there are police departments for those issues. There is no need to spam financial regulators with non-relevant claims outside their jurisdiction. It delays proceeding in actual cases.

..a quick word in regards to consumer protection agencies, such as: Better Business Bureau (BBB)
for a company to have a BBB rating they must be registered with such an agency first. If the company is not registered, then only a summary of complaints against them will be listed on the site with either resolved or unresolved status, no overall business rating will be shown.

THE BBB IS NOT AN AGENCY. It is a company directory that lists companies and reviews. Companies pay the BBB fee to be listed as "BBB ACREDDITED".

Even scammers can be BBB ACREDDITED.

 

[Revenger100]

Question for you how would you consider being scammed if it happened while in 2 different countries? Asia and EU for example. Whose jurisdiction would that be and if the scammer was supposedly in the states?

 

[AsstModerator]

Question for you how would you consider being scammed if it happened while in 2 different countries? Asia and EU for example. Whose jurisdiction would that be and if the scammer was supposedly in the states?

The best choice is to contact the regulators for your country and all countries connected to the scammers. For the US, IC3.gov is where the FBI takes complaints for online scams. If the problem is related to trading, SEC.gov and CFTC.gov should also be contacted.