The Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Hanfa) has issued a new public warning regarding frequent computer and investment frauds in which fraudsters falsely present themselves as its employees. The agency has received a significant number of reports from citizens concerning such cases and has previously informed the public on multiple occasions about the misuse of its name, data and logo in fraudulent schemes.
According to the reports, certain individuals contact citizens by phone, via social media or by email, falsely claiming to be Hanfa employees. They offer alleged assistance with investing, "payouts" and the recovery of funds that citizens have lost in computer or investment frauds and similar cases. Particular emphasis is placed on instances where suspicious subjects offered help in recovering funds lost during investments.
Hanfa warns that it does not provide investment advisory services or assistance with investing, nor does it offer brokerage services or the payout or recovery of funds lost in frauds. Hanfa employees do not call or contact citizens in any other way to provide such or similar services. Citizens who believed such offers and paid the requested amounts have in fact become victims of an additional fraud.
There are also situations where the suspicious subjects assisting with the alleged recovery of funds are actually the same subjects who participated in the initial fraud. They present themselves differently to citizens and contact them from different email addresses or phone numbers, using different identities on social media.
Hanfa therefore recommends that citizens be cautious when considering investing and not engage with subjects that do not have authorisation to operate, meaning they are not registered and regulated by Hanfa or do not have a licence to operate in the Republic of Croatia based on notification. It is important to check whether the subject is listed in Hanfa’s registers of authorised providers of investment services and the conduct of investment activities, as well as notifications from European Union member states.
The agency urges citizens to visit its website www.hanfa.hr before making an investment decision to check useful information such as Hanfa’s registers, the list of suspicious subjects, the Consumers page and the Fraud page. It also urges caution and warns citizens not to believe suspicious offers or pay money to individuals who contact them and present themselves as Hanfa employees.
In the event that citizens are unsure whether a case constitutes investment fraud, they can contact Hanfa at the email address [email protected] and on the phone number 01/6173-200.
