Canadian $100 bills are counted in Toronto, Feb. 2, 2016. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy)
The Manitoba Securities Commission is sounding the alarm over an investment website that isn’t registered to trade securities in Manitoba.
The MSC says Trader Platinum and traderplatinum.com is a company that claims to trade in stocks, commodities, financial derivatives, and contracts for difference (CFDs).
A Manitoba man alerted the commission after he was approached by phone and offered a fully-managed financial market trading account for $500 USD deposit, with a minimum guaranteed one per cent per day profit through the website.
“The Manitoba resident was promised a monthly profit return between 15 and 30 per cent,” says Jason Roy, senior investigator with the MSC.
“That’s something like 180 to 350 percent per year ROI. The caller also indicated that the first two weeks would be ‘zero risk,’ and that any following trades would be ‘low risk.’ That should absolutely raise a red flag that you might be dealing with a scam.”
The company’s physical address lists their location as Sofia, Bulgaria, but claims to be operating in various world financial centres like London, Toronto, and New York.
“Bulgaria has unfortunately become a current prime landing place for many fraudsters run out of other countries,” added Roy, “specifically Binary Options trading, which was completely banned in Canada, Israel, and other nations last year.”
MSC suggests potential investors follow some basic advice to avoid investment fraud:
- Start by checking an individual or company’s registration at aretheyregistered.ca
- Research an investment before making a commitment
- Look for investment fraud red flags such as promises of high returns with low risk, pressure to invest quickly, and inconsistent details
- Never send money to anyone you only know from an unsolicited phone call or email
- Never give out sensitive personal information online or over the phone
Anyone who believes they have been targeted by any type of investment fraud attempt is asked to call MSC’s anti-fraud line at 1-855-FRAUD-MB.
