What regulators say about trading signal scams

According to the complaint, Cash FX Group and its CEO, who lives in Brazil, raised more than $950 million for a supposed forex pool. They marketed it as run by expert traders, algorithms and artificial intelligence, and promised up to 15% a week. They barely traded, sent out false statements, and participants lost at least $406 million.

In a case brought by the CFTC, a federal court in Florida entered a default judgment against two Fundsz board members who moderated its social media. It found they misrepresented the expected profits, the risk and the past performance of a supposed crypto and precious metals algorithm. They must pay about $15.7 million in restitution and a civil penalty of about $15.8 million, and are permanently banned from trading and registering.

The CFTC alleges the company and its CEO took about $397 million from some 1,600 customers for supposed bitcoin and ether trading, with fictitious profits and false promises that their principal was safe. According to the release, the CEO had already pleaded guilty in a criminal case.

In its tips on crypto and forex, Colombia’s Superintendencia Financiera explains that individuals are not authorized to promote forex in the country, and that promises of a fixed return can hide illegal fundraising.

Scammers exploit the default settings of WhatsApp, Telegram and other apps to pull people into groups. There they push so-called cooperative trading projects, leveraged crypto futures or advanced artificial intelligence, with promises of gains in the hundreds of percent.

Victims are invited to groups that promise training and tips from supposed experts, sometimes impersonating well-known people or registered firms. The first trades are allowed to win, then a star investment in a small stock is pushed until it collapses, and the victims are thrown out of the group. Some groups link to forex platforms or to portfolios they claim are managed by AI.

According to Belgium’s FSMA, fraud based on so-called exclusive investment tips in WhatsApp groups caused more than €2 million in reported losses in the first half of 2026, and complaints of this kind have been falling since February. In the previous half-year, the same category topped €9.5 million.

The network used ChatGPT to build fake identities, translate its conversations with victims on WhatsApp and Telegram, and produce material for fake investment platforms, including gold and crypto ones. It promised guaranteed returns and asked for deposits to unlock supposed rewards. OpenAI banned the accounts and shared indicators with the authorities.

In April 2026 the UK’s FCA led a week of action with 17 regulators, including Brazil’s CVM, Australia’s ASIC, Belgium’s FSMA and India’s SEBI: enforcement against people promoting financial products without authorization, consumer campaigns and education for creators. In the UK alone there were 120 account takedown requests, and 1,267 illegal ads were found.

EU market abuse rules also apply on social media. Anyone posting that it is time to buy or sell has to identify themselves, separate facts from opinions and disclose conflicts of interest, even in casual language. Breaking the rules can bring administrative or criminal penalties.

It asks them to disclose advertising, show the risks and not just the upside (it names CFDs, forex and crypto), check that what they promote is authorized, and not give personalized recommendations without a license.

The guide gives investors ten pointers and names fraud as the main risk, including personalized advice from people who are not authorized to give it.

Sites copying the look of Le Monde, Le Figaro, France Info or TF1 use public figures to promote BitKeltTrade, a platform that claims to use artificial intelligence and promises to earn more in a month than a savings account does in a year. The AMF notes it is not authorized in the EU, added it to its blacklist and published nine fake domains.

The foreign platform offered forex, CFDs, stocks, metals, indices and crypto without authorization. The regulator says it received more than 20 complaints from people who could not withdraw their money.