California DFPI warns about 16 crypto brokers and websites suspected of being involved in fraudulent activities.
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), an institution regulating a variety of financial services, businesses, products, and professionals in California, has shared several alerts regarding crypto brokers and websites.
According to the DFPI website page dubbed Consumer Alerts, on December 27th and 28th, the institution issued 16 separate warnings about various crypto brokers and crypto-related websites.
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The California DFPI warns the public that listed brokers or websites “appear to be engaged in fraud against California consumers.”
The list includes ZC Exchange, VoyanX.com, Unison FX, Yong Ying Global Investment Company Limited, Trade 1960, Hekamenltd and Tosal Markets Limited, Tony Alin Trading Firm, TeleTrade Options, Tahoe Digital Exchange, Sun Bit Proa, SIMEX, Rui Win Capital Group LTD, Reliable Option Trade, RB Hood.
The list also names two websites which pretend to be two major players in the crypto industry: UniSwap LLC and eth-Wintermute.net.
The short description under each case claims that DFPI received “a complaint from <at least> one California resident regarding a crypto investment.”
It is worth noting that usually, DFPI doesn’t share such a large batch of alerts regarding fraudulent actors. Therefore, one can assume that the number of scams performed in California has been growing.
The last time the institution shared such a large amount of warnings was on June 15th, when it warned the public about 26 untrustworthy crypto-related platforms.
Based on the complaint descriptions shared by DFPI, Californians lost from $2,000 to $1.2 million through listed crypto brokers or websites. The majority of fraudulent actions were performed by using pig butchering scams. In this scheme, malicious actors build close relationships with the victims. Eventually, they convince their victims to invest in crypto through fake websites.
In other California DFPI-related news, the institution has recently instructed crypto lender MyConstant to stop providing some of its crypto-related services in the state.
