AMF Has Shut 138 Binary Options and Forex Websites

The Financial Markets Authority (AMF) in France recently revealed that it has been very active in stopping binary options and Forex firms that have been illegally targeting French residents. The agency backed up their statement with proof of shutting down over 138 websites that fraudulently offered these services since 2014.

The AMF has been increasing its efforts to combat such bogus forex and binary trading sites since 2011. The Forex and binary options markets saw a rapid expansion in the last few years and as a result, the number of fraudulent sites that targeted French nationals also increased.

This forced AMF to increase their efforts to crackdown on the large number of fraudulent websites in order to protect its citizens from being scammed.

The blocking of these websites are just part of the AMF’s efforts to protect French investors. They also issue regular warnings to the public and blacklists on risky websites that are not to be trusted. The AMF maintains a blacklist that now has the names of 445 online Forex and binary options firms that operate without authorization.

As for the blocking, the AMF has the help of the High Court of Paris. The agency holds a meeting every two months on average to arrange for blockage orders. In 2017, 25 such orders were issued which resulted in 52 fraudulent websites being shut down. The AMF also does follow up checks to ensure that these sites remained closed.

AMF Crackdown Has Reduced Bogus Sites and Operators

The AMF Ombudsman, Marielle Cohen-Branche recently released the AMF’s Annual Report for 2017 which showed that the volume of complaints about fraudulent binary options and Forex sites has fallen off greatly. However, the report noted that frauds and scams in the industry are still rife.

The number of complaints in 2017 fell by 50% compared to the previous year. This was mostly because of the efforts of the AMF and the introduction of the Sapin 2 law. This law stopped the advertising and sponsorship of harmful products such as binary options. The total submissions for 2017 stood at 1,361 which also includes complaints and inquiries.

AMF investigated and closed a number of complaints concerning binary options and Forex websites in 2017. There were 67 decisions that were made in favor of investors during 2017 which allowed investors to recover nearly €1.05 million.

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