A number of blacklisted firms are still trading and accessible to UK consumers, new research by NordVPN has shown.
According to the VPN service provider, the websites of 1 in 6 businesses added to the Financial Conduct Authority’s blacklist of unauthorised firms last year remains online.
Of 1,717 firms added by 7 December 2022, the websites of 292 remained visible to UK consumers. The firms said some financial websites are still operating 17 years on from being added to the FCA’s unauthorised register.
While the UK’s domain registration authority Nominet can take down sites with UK domains, NordVPN is calling for greater international cooperation to take down sites no matter what domain is being used, with most scam sites using a non-UK domain to carry out their fraudulent activity.
Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, said: “The FCA cannot properly protect UK consumers because its influence is limited to UK domains. Scammers routinely exploit this simple loophole because it’s so easy to use the web and social media to target consumers in any country from afar.
“It’s high time domain registries worldwide joined forces to defeat those committing fraud and financial crime online. The main vehicle for these offences is a cheap but effective website but this can also be their downfall if countries work together.”
Briedis warned that the longer a company providing advice and products remains online, the higher the number of potential victims.
He added: “Every one of these companies can see that they feature on the FCA register of unauthorised firms. The fact they are happy for this to remain the case should ring alarm bells.”
