Recently, the Malta Financial Services Authority (“MFSA” or “the Authority”) has been made aware of a malicious document purporting false information and illegally bearing the MFSA’s signature template and logo. This document was/is being potentially circulated among users participating in ETH and BTC trading, and is maliciously requesting payment of penalties for alleged market manipulation.

The document falsely asserts that failure to pay the penalties imposed therein will result in regulatory action being taken by the national competent authority of the respective user.

The Authority wishes to alert the public against such fraudulent schemes which are used as a means to fraudulently obtaining funds from potential victims by purporting to falsely originate from legitimate authorities, in this case, the MFSA.

The Authority encourages the public to remain vigilant and exercise caution when receiving unsolicited communications, even if at face value, they appear to originate from a familiar and trustworthy source. The MFSA advises consumers of financial services to exercise extra caution and to not entertain any financial transactions unless:

• You ascertained and verify the identity of the sender and its legitimacy, and
• That such sender is duly authorised to provide such services by the MFSA or any other legitimate financial services regulator.

A list of MFSA licensed entities is available and can be viewed on the official website of the MFSA at https://www.mfsa.mt/financial-services-register/. If you are a victim of a scam or think you might be dealing with an unauthorized entity or any other type of financial scam, first of all stop all transactions with the company and contact the MFSA at https://www.mfsa.mt/about-us/contact/ as soon as a suspicion arises.