The Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick and Crime Stoppers are warning about the proliferation of investment fraud involving binary options.
Crime Stoppers Crime of the Week: Binary Options Fraud https://t.co/D9aE7rVeqW
— RCMP New Brunswick (@RCMPNB) August 15, 2016
Investors are being sought through online portals with ads being posted on many social media websites.
FCNB’s Director of Enforcement Jake van der Laan says no firm in Canada is registered to trade in binary options essentially making the practice illegal here.
“It is the vehicle through which one can, in essence, attempt to bet or wager on the future value of an underlying asset, stock, commodity or some other item of value. The timeline for these options are really quite short, sometimes in the range of minutes or seconds even. They are mediated through these online portals where you sign up for an account, and in some cases you are are given an online balance to play with,” he notes.
Van der Laan says most people who engage in binary options lose money and he adds once money is sent outside of Canada it’s almost impossible to recover it.
