Financial Conduct Authority

FCA Alerts Public of ‘ICM Capetal’, Clone of ICM.com

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today sounded an alarm about a fraudulent clone website that was impersonating London-based financial trading provider ICM.com (formerly ICM Capital).

The watchdog warned investors to watch out for other websites that claim their services were developed or authorized by regulated brands to lure and possibly scam them.

The FCA said an attempt by a company called ‘ICM Capetal’ had been made to reproduce the ICM Capital Limited webpage in many areas and contexts, under the domain https://icmcapetal.com/. To this end, the copycat broker was trying to usurp the names and other legal information of ICM Capital Limited and try to convince them that they are indeed the authorized firm.

FX brokers are among those that have been targeted by rogue operators who clone their names and websites in an attempt to part unsuspecting investors from their cash.

The high number of warnings from the City watchdog, which roughly issues clone alerts on a daily basis, underscores the concern in the sector over copycat sites.

The FCA has warned that fraudsters typically use the name of a genuine firm and launch a website with a similar design to the original.

Today’s announcement is the latest in the FCA’s series of warnings about clone firms posing ‎as legitimate approved businesses to con UK consumers into making payments for ‎investment services.‎

Among those it warned about this month were unauthorised firms purporting to be affiliated with the multi-regulated financial services provider Interactive Brokers.

The FCA encourages traders or those considering online trading to exercise caution. Anyone who ‎chooses to sign up with the impostor should bear in mind that they will not receive the ‎financial authorities’ assistance should things go awry.‎

ICM.com is a multinational forex and CFD trading company with headquarters in London, and offices in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Since being founded, the firm has been authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Back in August 2018, the company rebranded itself from ICM Capital to ICM.com to represent all of the firm’s group entities under one brand. As a result, the firm has also unveiled a new logo and a redesigned website.

The broker has been actively making moves to improve its brand awareness over the past two years through sports sponsorships.