Theft of CSSF’s identity – increase in fraud attempts

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) warns the public of a significant increase in fraud attempts involving the usurpation of the CSSF’s identity. Consumers are contacted by fraudsters pretending to be representatives of the CSSF in order to request tax payments, refund/recovery fees or other undue payments.

The CSSF was recently informed of a number of cases in which consumers who had invested in crypto-assets were contacted by persons pretending to act in the name of the CSSF. Fraudsters mainly used the following methods to convince consumers to transfer their money to them:

Account opening or account management fees: upon the initial investment of a small sum that generated significant profits, fraudsters required the transfer of a larger amount of money which was allegedly necessary to open an operational account.

Payment of an insurance premium: fraudsters claimed that the payment of an insurance premium to the CSSF was required to benefit from investment loss or theft coverage.

Payment of taxes: fraudsters pretended that investment profits could only be released upon the upfront payment of a fee or tax to the CSSF or other authorities.

Recovery Scam: fraudsters targeted consumers who had already been scammed in the past or lost money in connection with crypto-asset investments, claiming that the CSSF recovered all or part of the lost crypto-assets or funds which would be transferred back to the victim upon the upfront payment of administrative fees or taxes to the CSSF.

We reiterate that the CSSF, in its function as supervisory authority of the financial sector, never contacts consumers to ask for tax or fee payments, or any other type of payment. Moreover, the CSSF has no competence in tax matters, it does not provide fund recovery services, and it does not manage financial instruments or crypto-asset accounts on behalf of any third party.

Contact: sg@cssf.lu

You will find hereafter a few examples of ongoing fraud and scam attempts.