The City of London Police, along with representatives of the Financial Conduct Authority and the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have “visited” the offices of 20 binary options brokerages in the City this week, the police said.
The inspection was prompted by data of the Action Fraud cybercrime unit that in the first six months of 2017 Brits have reported losses of over GBP 18 million to various binary options fraud. On average the loss of a single person amounted to GBP 22 811. The total losses to various online scams since 2012 have amounted to GBP 59 million. Most likely the losses are much greater, as the statistics is based just on the reported cases.
The action of the government agencies mostly focused on compliance and document gathering, but, according to the police, some interesting things have been found.
The inspection was prompted by data of the Action Fraud cybercrime unit that in the first six months of 2017 Brits have reported losses of over GBP 18 million to various binary options fraud. On average the loss of a single person amounted to GBP 22 811. The total losses to various online scams since 2012 have amounted to GBP 59 million. Most likely the losses are much greater, as the statistics is based just on the reported cases.
The action of the government agencies mostly focused on compliance and document gathering, but, according to the police, some interesting things have been found.
