A senior investigator at the Manitoba Securities Commission (MSC) was randomly cold called by an offshore firm pitching binary options trading, the regulator announced Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Jason Roy was called at home by a binary options trading firm, Central Option, pitching him on an “amazing investment opportunity.”
Roy, who is a member of the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) working group on combating binary options fraud, played along to gather evidence while pretending to be a potential client.
“I grabbed my notebook, and after confirming some details with an operator, I was connected to an individual identifying himself as Sean Bessi,” says Roy, in the MSC’s announcement.
“Bessi started to pitch me on the exact sort of illegal investments I’ve been investigating for the past two years. It was a bit surreal.”
Investors in Manitoba have lost nearly $160,000 in the past couple of months to unregistered, offshore binary options firms, the MSC says, and the true losses are likely higher due to cases that go unreported.
There are no binary options trading firms registered to operate in Canada, the MSC says, adding that these schemes can be used for fraud and identity theft.
MSC issues warning on binary options
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