Methodology and sources

This page explains exactly where every entry on this site comes from, what it does and does not mean, and how mistakes get corrected. If you disagree with something published here, this page tells you how to get it changed.

What this register is

A searchable record of warnings published by financial regulators about companies, websites and investment platforms.

Each entry reproduces a warning that a public authority has already published. We add the source, the date, the legal basis, and — where a regulator has said so — the name of the legitimate firm whose identity is being misused.

We make no accusations of our own. Every claim on every page is a regulator's claim, attributed and dated. Where we write anything in our own words, it is guidance about what to do next, not a statement about any company.

Where the data comes from

We do not use commercial news APIs. Their free tiers prohibit production use, and the underlying articles remain the copyright of their publishers.

What we never publish

We do not name private individuals. Some regulator notices name people alongside companies — a defendant in a court filing, an individual fined by an authority. Those names are removed automatically when data is collected, and never stored.

This is deliberate. Publishing personal data about alleged or actual criminal offences is restricted under Article 10 of the GDPR, and this site is operated from the European Union. The fact that a US court record is public does not make it lawful for us to republish the names.

Companies, platforms and websites only.

The publish rule

An entry only gets a page of its own if it carries enough substance to be worth landing on: the regulator, the date, the category, the warning text and a link to the original notice. Entries thinner than that still appear in the list and in search, but have no page.

How warnings get withdrawn

Regulators sometimes withdraw a warning — a firm obtains authorisation, or a notice is corrected. When that happens, the entry here is marked withdrawn and carries a notice saying so. We do not delete it: the record of what was warned, and when it stopped, is part of being trustworthy.

The withdrawal check runs before any page is rebuilt, every day.

If you believe an entry about your company is wrong, out of date, or should be marked withdrawn, write to the address in the footer. Include the company name and, if you have it, the regulator's reference. We will check it against the regulator's current record.

What a "no result" means

If you search a company and find nothing, that is not a clean bill of health. It means only that no regulator connected to this register has published a warning under that name. Fraudulent platforms appear faster than any authority can list them. Always check a firm's registration directly with your own national regulator before sending money.

Advertising

This site carries advertising, and that is what pays for it. There is one advertisement per page, always in the same place — below the menu bar, above the page. It is labelled. Nothing is placed inside a warning, beside the steps to follow if you have already sent money, or next to the notice about recovery scams, and automatic placement is switched off so that no advertiser can end up there by accident.

One category is blocked outright. This site does not accept advertising from fund-recovery services, asset recovery agents, or any business offering to retrieve money lost to fraud for an advance fee. Those services overwhelmingly target people who have already been defrauded once, and we will not carry them.

Advertisers have no influence on what is listed here. Entries come from regulators' own published notices, and no advertiser can pay to have an entry added, changed or removed. What is collected when an advertisement loads is set out in the privacy policy.

Who runs this

See the about page and the Impressum.