Investment Scam Platform Lookup

How this lookup works

The Investment Scam Platform Lookup aggregates verdicts from authoritative sources rather than making original judgements. Every result is sourced. The five verdict tiers:

• Known fraud — the platform is documented as fraudulent on at least one regulator warning list with documented victims, an investigative-journalism investigation (notably OCCRP's Scam Empire), or an industry blacklist with corroborating evidence.
• Unauthorised in UK — the platform is a real firm but is not authorised by the FCA to offer regulated services to UK consumers. It may be authorised elsewhere or unregulated entirely. This is different from "fraud": the platform may operate genuinely in its own jurisdiction, but UK users have no FSCS or Financial Ombudsman recourse if things go wrong.
• Authorised — the firm is listed on the FCA Financial Services Register, FINRA BrokerCheck, the CSA National Registration Search, or another tier-1 regulator's authorised list.
• No warning found — the platform is not on any list we check. This is not a clean bill of health; it means we have no signal either way and you should apply the five-minute pre-investment check below.
• Possible impersonation — the searched name is one or two characters off a known regulated firm and matches a known typosquatting pattern.

The five-minute pre-investment check

If a platform returns "no warning found", run these five checks before depositing anything. Together they take under five minutes and defeat the great majority of fake-platform pitches.

1. Search the FCA Warning List directly. Our dataset is a sample; the live FCA list has 12,000+ entries and is updated daily.
2. Search the FCA Firm Checker. If the platform is regulated, you'll find a registration number, permitted activities, and contact details. If not, walk away.
3. Check international warning lists. The SEC PAUSE list (US), CSA Disciplined List (Canada), ASIC banned persons (Australia), NZ FMA warnings, and California DFPI Crypto Scam Tracker.
4. Check the domain registration date. A free WHOIS lookup tells you when the domain was registered. Most fake platforms have domains under 12 months old.
5. Try a small test withdrawal. Deposit a token amount, then try to withdraw it before depositing more. A platform that lets you in but won't let you out is, by definition, a scam.

If you've already deposited and can't withdraw

Three immediate actions:

1. Stop depositing. Do not pay any further "fees", "tax clearances", or "verification deposits" — every additional payment goes to the same fraudster.
2. Call your bank's fraud line using the number on the back of your card. For UK Faster Payments, use the phrase: "This was an authorised push payment scam. Please log it under the PSR reimbursement scheme."
3. Read our UK Scam Recovery Guide for the full first-60-minutes playbook including the £85,000 PSR APP reimbursement framework, the Report Fraud complaint, and how to recognise the recovery-scam follow-up that targets victims within days.

Sources we cross-reference

Every red verdict in our dataset cites at least one of the following authoritative sources:

• FCA Warning List of unauthorised firms (UK, updated daily)
• FCA Financial Services Register / Firm Checker (UK)
• FINRA BrokerCheck (US)
• SEC PAUSE list (US)
• CSA Disciplined List and National Registration Search (Canada)
• ASIC Investor Alert List (Australia)
• NZ FMA Warnings & Alerts
• California DFPI Crypto Scam Tracker
• OCCRP Scam Empire investigation (mapped 81 fake investment platforms in a single criminal network)
• FXLeaders worst-scam-brokers blacklist
• Investing.com Broker Blacklist

About this tool — data limitations

An honest disclosure: this is a curated aggregator, not a comprehensive database. Three things to be aware of:

• Not finding a platform here means we have no signal — not that the platform is safe. The FCA Warning List alone has 12,000+ entries; our dataset samples that universe with the most-impersonated and most-reported entries. Always cross-check directly with the regulator before depositing.
• Verdicts are dated. A "last verified" date appears on every result. Authorisation status can change; warning-list entries can be removed; new fakes appear daily. Treat older verdicts with a degree of caution.
• We rely on the cited sources. If a regulator removes a firm from a warning list (e.g. because the firm successfully obtained authorisation), we update accordingly — but there is a delay. Use the source links to verify the live state.

Corrections & takedown requests

If you believe an entry in this database is inaccurate — for example, your firm is listed in error, the verdict is out of date, or the cited source no longer supports the verdict — email corrections@signaltools.org with the platform name and the basis for the correction. Disputed entries are reviewed within five working days and removed pending review where the dispute is substantive.

For additions — if you believe a platform should be in the database (red, green or otherwise), the same address accepts submissions. We add entries that meet the source-citation standard documented in our dataset curation guide.