Hong Kong SFC Issues Warning to Public of Suspicious Gold CFD & FX Investment Products by Free Guy, Gold Scalper & Gold Champ
21st February 2024 | Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) has issued a warning to the public of suspicious Gold CFD (Contracts for Differences) and FX (Foreign Exchange) investment products by Free Guy, Gold Scalper & Gold Champ. Hong Kong SFC: “The Products have not been authorised by the SFC for offering to the Hong Kong public and are suspected to have breached the Securities and Futures Ordinance. The SFC notes that the Products have been promoted through various social media accounts or channels to solicit investments in the Products, claiming to offer high returns in some cases. In one of the cases, problems with fund withdrawal have been reported. The Products and their related information were posted on the SFC’s Suspicious Investment Products Alert List on 19 February 2024. The public is warned against investing in any non-SFC authorised investment products. As these products are not regulated by the SFC, their investors have no or very limited protection and may lose all their investments. The SFC once again reminds the public to be cautious and skeptical about “too-good-to-be-true” investment opportunities, and to stay vigilant when making investment decisions.”
“ Hong Kong SFC Issues Warning to Public of Suspicious Gold CFD & FX Investment Products by Free Guy, Gold Scalper & Gold Champ “
Hong Kong SFC Issues Warning to Public of Suspicious Gold CFD & FX Investment Products by Free Guy, Gold Scalper & Gold Champ
19th February 2024 – The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today warned the public of several suspicious investment products – namely, “程式自由仁 – Free Guy – 帳戶託管”, “Gold Scalper黃金獵人” and “Gold Champ帳戶托管” (collectively as the Products) – involving automatic trading systems which invest in gold contracts for differences (CFD) and foreign exchange (forex).
The Products have not been authorised by the SFC for offering to the Hong Kong public and are suspected to have breached the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) (Notes 1 & 2). The SFC notes that the Products have been promoted through various social media accounts or channels to solicit investments in the Products, claiming to offer high returns in some cases. In one of the cases, problems with fund withdrawal have been reported (Note 3).
The Products and their related information were posted on the SFC’s Suspicious Investment Products Alert List on 19 February 2024.
The public is warned against investing in any non-SFC authorised investment products. As these products are not regulated by the SFC, their investors have no or very limited protection and may lose all their investments. The SFC once again reminds the public to be cautious and skeptical about “too-good-to-be-true” investment opportunities, and to stay vigilant when making investment decisions. Investigations are ongoing and the SFC will take all appropriate actions where there is any breach of the law.
Notes:
- The Products display characteristics of a collective investment scheme (CIS) as defined in section 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the SFO. It is an offence under section 103 of the SFO for a person to issue, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere, an advertisement, invitation or document which is or contains an invitation to the Hong Kong public to acquire an interest in or participate in a CIS, unless the SFC has authorised the issue or an exemption applies. In general, CIS must be sold by an intermediary licensed by or registered with the SFC. Unauthorised CIS may generally be sold to professional investors only.
- It is an offence under section 114 of the SFO for a person to carry on, or hold himself out as carrying on, a business in a regulated activity (which will include promoting interests in a CIS) without a licence where required. It is also an offence under section 115 of the SFO for a person to actively market, whether in Hong Kong or from a place outside Hong Kong, to the Hong Kong public any services that the person provides and such services, if provided in Hong Kong, would constitute a regulated activity.
- The operation and promotion of the Products are detailed as follows:
- For “程式自由仁 – Free Guy – 帳戶託管”, the product involves automatic trading system(s) to invest in gold CFD and forex. A team operates and promotes the product via public accounts or channels on Telegram (https://t.me/freeguygoldpublic and https://t.me/freeguymam), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/freeguy.gold and https://www.instagram.com/freeguy_forex) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/freeguy.gold). The team has also set up another Telegram account (https://t.me/freeguygold) for enquiry and solicitation of investment in the product.
- For “Gold Scalper 黃金獵人”, the product mainly involves automatic trading system(s) to invest in gold CFD and forex. A team operates and promotes the product, claiming investors can quickly recoup their investments and earn multiple returns, via public accounts or channels on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/p/Gold-Scalper-黃金獵人-100083278077428/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/goldscalper.hk/) and Telegram (https://t.me/s/goldscalperpublic). The team has also set up another Telegram account (https://t.me/goldscalper_hk) for enquiry and solicitation of investment in the product.
- For “Gold Champ 帳戶托管”, the product mainly involves automatic trading system(s) to invest in gold CFD and forex. A team operates and promotes the product with an expected monthly profit of 15%-20% via public accounts or channels on Telegram (https://t.me/goldchamp_forex and https://t.me/+ipzvKUvpb9VmYjBl) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/goldchamp_forex). The team has also set up another Telegram account (https://t.me/goldchampforex) for enquiry and solicitation of investment in the product.
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