One of the tasks entrusted to the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) is to combat unlawful activities in the area of financial investments. It publishes a dashboard that provides statistics and an overview of the main trends regarding investment fraud. Today, it is publishing the dashboard for the second semester of 2023, which will also include the figures for the whole year 2023.
This edition of the dashboard focuses notably on the following items:
For the second semester:
- Consumers’ reports concerning cryptocurrency scams or fraudulent trading platforms account once again for slightly more than half of the reports with regard to fraud handled by the FSMA.
- The number of such reports surged in October, partly a result of the launch that same month of an awareness campaign specifically targeting this type of fraud.
For the whole year:
- Belgian consumers reported having collectively lost more than EUR 15,482,000 to fraudulent trading platforms in 2023.
- The FSMA received a total of 2,170 reports regarding unauthorized or fraudulent activities. This figure has been steadily increasing since 2017.
The dashboard is available on the website of the FSMA.