Regulators are taking action against providers, does that help me if I have already been scammed?

What does an FCA warning mean if you have already paid?

The FCA keeps a Warning List of unauthorised firms: firms it believes are operating in the UK without its permission. The list is meant for people who have not yet invested. If you have already paid, the warning plays a different role. It becomes a public, dated record about the firm you paid.

That is useful, but it does not tell the whole story. The warning does not say where your money went, or whether it is still somewhere. That answer lies in the transactions themselves.

It may feel mixed: relief that something is happening, and a sinking feeling that it has come too late. That is completely understandable. Many people who come to us first read about the warning and only then wondered what they could still do.

Does an FCA warning mean the platform is a scam?

Not automatically. A warning is about a firm not having the permission it needs. That is a strong signal, but it can go either way. Sometimes a platform does turn out to be a scam. Sometimes it is a badly run firm that never sorted out its authorisation, while the money is still there.

A few signs that may point to something more serious:

• withdrawals suddenly stop working, or only work after an extra payment;
• you are told to pay “tax” or “fees” before you can have your balance;
• the platform changes its name or web address;
• after the warning, someone contacts you promising to get your money back.

Do one or more of these sound familiar? Then you still do not know for sure what is going on. You only get clarity once someone properly follows the route of your money. You can check a firm on the Financial Services Register, but what happened to your own payments is not on there.

Would you rather know where you stand now? Let Paucitas look at your payments. Get in touch or call +31 20 244 5774.

Why does the date of the warning matter?

The FCA says that dealing with an unauthorised firm can mean you have no access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the FSCS. So the moment a firm was flagged often matters in your file. Did your payments come before or after the warning? Did the platform change its terms or block withdrawals around that time?

Events like that count in a reconstruction. Paucitas puts them, with dates, next to your own payments, so you and your solicitor can see at a glance what happened when.

Can Paucitas help if you have already been scammed?

Often, yes, although what that achieves differs from case to case. Sometimes a balance is still held by a service provider and a well evidenced overview helps to raise it. Sometimes Paucitas maps where the money went, up to the party where the route ends. And sometimes it turns out not to be a scam at all, but a platform that ran into trouble. Nobody can promise the money will come back. But you can move forward with clarity.

Paucitas puts your payments and the warning together in one timeline. It shows which payments came before and which came after the warning, and to which addresses the money went.

An example from practice

A private investor had paid into a trading platform in instalments over five months. After his last payment he found the platform on a warning list. He assumed the warning had only just appeared.

The timeline showed otherwise: the warning was already there between his third and fourth payment. On top of that, his last two payments went to a different address from the first three. With those facts on paper, he could take the next step with confidence.

Paucitas takes privacy very seriously and never shares personal details of clients. This is a composite example: names, amounts and details have been changed. The situation is one we see in practice.

What Paucitas does for you

Paucitas works everything out: your transactions, the route of the money, the parties involved, the documents and the timeline around the warning. Paucitas also reads through all the conversations, emails, messages and other communication with the platform, so you get a complete picture of what happened and where all the money went, step by step. Paucitas does all tracing itself, without tracing tools. You receive a report that anyone can follow and understand step by step, including your solicitor.

• What you can provide: whatever you have, such as bank statements, screenshots and messages. Never your recovery phrase.
• Costs: every investigation is tailored. You receive a custom quote in advance that we go through together, with no surprises.
• Turnaround: from the same day to about two weeks.

The report shows whether there is still money available, or where it has gone, and what the next steps are. If it was a scam, that might be a report to Report Fraud (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or to Police Scotland on 101; the Paucitas report is a strong attachment to that, because it sets everything out fully and clearly. Your solicitor can also work with it straight away. What a private client can expect from us is on for private individuals. Signs of trouble at an exchange are explained under exchange warning signs.

Sources: FCA, Warning List of unauthorised firms; FCA, Financial Services Register; Report Fraud; Police Scotland, scams and frauds.