ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of Onward Medical, ISIN NL0015000HT4, on Euronext Brussels is suspended on the request of the company from 23/10/2025 at 9:00 CET until the publication of a press release. 

This agreed settlement consists of the payment of 75,000 euros and the publication, by name, on the website of the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA).This press release is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) is once again drawing the public’s attention to the dangers posed by fraudulent trading platforms. These platforms lure investors online with promises of quick and easy earnings. Their offers look attractive, but often they are nothing more than sophisticated scams that can lead to significant losses.  How does a fraudulent trading platform work? (flowchart)Modes of contactFraudsters use various techniques to contact their targets: a fake advertisement in which a celebrity is mentioned;a website intended to ‘recruit’ victims;a fake profile on social media or on a dating app (Tinder, Bumble, Happn, …);a message that you have received allegedly by accident (SMS, WhatsApp, etc.);an acquaintance invites you to an investment opportunity with high returns. In each case, the platform tries to lure investors by promising them very high returns in an extremely short time, often well beyond the sorts of gains that are actually achievable.RegistrationInterested investors register on the platform and deposit funds to their trading account. Generally, investors begin with a relatively small sum, such as 250 euros. Sometimes the swindlers offer to help their victims by taking over their device remotely in order to make certain transfers on their behalf, which of course allows them to download viruses or spyware.Manipulation and pressure tacticsOnce the funds have been deposited by the victim, the platform manipulates the transactions to give the impression that significant profits have been achieved.  However, these earnings are fictitious and the funds have not really been invested. The fraudsters then put pressure on their victims to invest more money. They do so by means of repeated phone calls, time-limited offers to which investors must respond quickly, or by issuing threats.Withdrawals seem impossibleTo gain victims’ trust, fraudsters sometimes allow them once to withdraw a small amount. However, once an investor wishes to withdraw a larger amount, the fraudsters use various pretexts not to have to pay back any money (high costs, taxes, etc.). The FSMA also noted that some platforms were based on a pyramid structure. The investors are encouraged to recruit new participants. Their investment allows to pay returns to the first investors. When it becomes impossible to recruit new participants the pyramid collapses.In all cases, the fraudulent platform disappears completely, taking with it all the investors’ money.The FSMA has noted that the following websites were putting consumers in contact with fraudulent trading platforms:Finance Legend (financelegend.org).The FSMA strongly advises against responding to offers made by the following trading platforms:Aurudium (aurudium.com, webtrader.graftey-battex.com);BerryPAX (berrypax.com);Boosty Flow (boostyflow.com);Chilla Capital (Clone), FXB Exchange (fxbexchange.com);Deal-Traders (deal-traders.com);Fintradix (fintradix.com, trading-area.fintradix-v4.com);HashXCapital (hashxcapital.com);Lamaco (Clone) (lamaco.org, user.lamaco.ltd);Lesrouleaux (lesrouleaux.com, webtrader.garnetix.tech);Nobu Invest (nobuinvest.com, nobu-invest.com);Priv-Solutions (priv-solutions.com, web.priv-solutions.com/d/trading);ProfitBee (profit-bee.com, profit-bee.org);RiseGrandAction (risegrandaction.com);TheExcellFuture, ThExcelFuture (theexcellfuture.com, thexcelfuture.com);Total-Profits (total-profits.com);Windelagence (windelagence.com);XH Pro, XH Pro Global Limited (pc.xhpro.net, xhproltd.com).The FSMA added these entities to the list of fraudulent trading platforms. Beware, this list is not exhaustive. If you wish to verify whether a company has the necessary authorisations to offer financial services and products, we invite you to consult our page ‘Check your provider’. In case of doubt, contact the FSMA.I’ve fallen victim. What should I do?Stop making any transactions and break off all contact with the platform: don’t deposit any more money and don’t provide any additional personal or financial information. Break off all contact with the fraudsters. They may try to manipulate you in order to take even more money from you.Contact your bank: inform your bank immediately if you have made any payments to the fraudulent platform.Report the fraud to the competent authorities: Contact the FSMA and file a complaint with the police.Document all exchanges of data and transactions: gather all evidence of your exchanges of data with the platform, including emails, messages, account statements and screen shots of the transactions. These items will, of course, be very valuable when you report the fraud.Beware of ‘recovery rooms’: fraudsters contact victims of a previous scam and offer to help them – for a fee – recover their lost money. Often this constitutes yet another attempt at fraud.For more recommendations on how to avoid investment fraud, please consult the ‘How to recognize and avoid fraud’ page on the FSMA website. Please watch our awareness-raising videos as well (available in Dutch and French only).

On Friday, October 10, FSMA Chairman Jean-Paul Servais and the Wikifin team welcomed Rob Beenders, Minister of Consumer Protection, the fight against Social Fraud, Persons with Disabilities and Equal Opportunities, to the Wikifin Lab in Brussels. Together with the enthusiastic pupils from GO! Next Level X in Hasselt, the Minister explored the interactive journey offered by the Wikifin Lab.Through his visit, the Minister highlighted the importance of financial education as a key element of consumer protection.The Wikifin Lab is the FSMA’s financial education centre, where secondary school pupils engage with various everyday financial situations. Since its opening in 2020, more than 30,000 pupils have visited the Wikifin Lab, which is consistently fully booked.

As part of its supervision of information published by issuers, the FSMA has published the following warning.This press release is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

Have you met someone on a dating platform who is now inviting you to continue the discussion via another channel like WhatsApp or Telegram? Has the person told you he or she has made a fortune and knows someone who can help you make money easily by investing in cryptocurrencies? Beware of scams.There are, in fact, investment scams that begin on dating applications (like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, etc.). After having made a match with their targets, the scammers continue the discussion via another online app. Once they have developed a relationship with their victims, they soon begin to talk money. They vaunt their so-called fortune and share their secret for getting rich quick and without risk: a trading platform.The FSMA has noticed that this type of fraud targets both men and women of all ages. This scam is a worldwide phenomenon that targets every segment of the population. This is why IOSCO decided to emphasize this type of fraud in its campaign, to be disseminated during this year’s World Investor Week.How does the fraud work?SolicitationFraudsters contact their victims via various communication channels, including messages sent ‘by mistake’, a fake profile on a dating app or on classic social media like Facebook or Instagram.RelationshipMost of the time, such scammers pass themselves off as rich people who have made their fortune via trading or in cryptocurrencies. They sometimes pass themselves off as professionals who are offering commercial opportunities. The scammers establish a relationship of trust with their victims, convincing them that they are in a romantic relationship or by claiming to act as their mentor.InvestmentsThese individuals then suggest that their victims should in turn invest on a trading platform. In some cases, the fraudsters offer to invest jointly with you, in order to share the risk. This method helps them gain the confidence of consumers. In fact, they do not make any investments at all.Transfer of fundsInstead of asking for money directly, the fraudsters invite their victims to set up their own accounts on a platform and to transfer money to those accounts. However, the accounts are in fact being operated by the same fraudsters who are behind the scam.ReturnsThe platform will manipulate the transactions so as to give the impression of substantial earnings. You may even be able to make a few withdrawals. In this way, the fraudsters gain the trust of their victims, who will then invest even more money.Money is blockedUltimately, the fateful day arrives when the consumer is no longer able to withdraw his or her money without first paying an additional sum. The fraudsters give all sorts of pretexts for not releasing the funds (high fees, taxes to be paid, etc.). In the end, the fraudulent platform disappears, taking with it the investors’ money.What to do if you have been the victim of such a scam?Stop making any transactions and break off all contact with the fraudsters; don’t make any more payments and don’t provide any additional personal or financial information. Break off all contact with the fraudsters, including with the person who contacted you on the dating app or social media. They may try to manipulate you in order to take even more money from you.Contact your bank: inform your bank immediately if you have made any payments to the fraudulent platform.Report the fraud to the competent authorities: Contact the FSMA and file a complaint with the police.Document all exchanges of data and transactions: gather all evidence of your exchanges of data with the platform, including emails, messages, account statements and screen shots of the transactions. These items will, of course, be very valuable when you report the fraud.Beware of ‘recovery rooms’: fraudsters contact victims of a previous scam and offer to help them – for a fee – recover their lost money. Often this constitutes yet another attempt at fraud.To verify whether or not a provider of financial services and products is authorized by the FSMA or has been the subject of a warning, please visit our website.Does the company hold an authorization? Check that the authorization has not lapsed and be on your guard against identity theft, known as ‘cloned firms’. If an entity is not listed on our website, this means it is not authorized to offer such products in Belgium. Is the company named in a warning? In that case, you should not, under any circumstances, respond to an offer they have made to you. But please note: the list of fraudulent companies provided on the FSMA’s website is not exhaustive.For more recommendations on how to avoid investment fraud, please consult the ‘How to recognize and avoid fraud’ page on the FSMA website. Please watch our awareness-raising videos as well (available in Dutch and French only).

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) held its fourth AMCLO Day on Thursday, 9 October 2025. That is an online event that is intended for AML compliance officers (AMLCOs), who hold a key function in combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.This press release is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – the ESAs) have issued a warning to consumers, reminding that crypto-assets can be risky and that legal protection, if any, may be limited depending on which crypto-assets they invest in. This warning is accompanied by a factsheet explaining what the new EU regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) means for consumers. The ESAs recommend concrete steps consumers can take to make informed decisions before investing in crypto-assets, such as checking if the provider is authorised in the EU. Read the warning and the factsheet.

Listed companies may have an extensive stream  of news about the transactions, or ‘deals’, that they enter into. In addition to the mandatory disclosure of market-sensitive information about material ‘deals’, they may also voluntarily publish press releases about non-material ‘deals’. The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has carried out an analysis of the number and types of ‘deals’ published by listed companies under its supervision and of their materiality. In the process, the FSMA also examined the extent of the financial information that these press releases contain. Given that investors need to be able to understand their impact, the presence of financial information is always an aspect to which the FSMA pays close attention in its supervision of the information disseminated by listed companies.This press release is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) warns the public against several companies engaging in unauthorized activities on the Belgian market.The companies are the following:Aaron Venture Capital (aaronventurecapital.com)Aurora Capital Venture (auroracapitalventure.com)The above companies are not authorized to provide investment services in Belgium.The FSMA therefore strongly advises against responding to any offer of financial services made by the companies listed above and against transferring money to any account number they might mention.Moreover, according to information in the possession of the FSMA, these companies may be ‘boiler rooms’.Boiler room fraud is a type of fraud that generally involves contacting consumers unsolicited, often by telephone, offering to sell them shares or other financial products.Although boiler rooms claim to be authorized service providers, with a professional website and forms to fill out, they are in reality fraudsters who offer fictitious or worthless products or services.As a rule, the consumer is enticed to make an initial, limited investment that very soon appears to be profitable. After that, the consumer is asked to make more and more additional investments.  But when a consumer asks for his or her money back, this proves to be impossible without making additional payments and/or the new investments begin to lose money.The fraudsters often put the consumer under severe pressure (hence the term ‘boiler room’), insisting that they keep making further payments. In the end, the consumer will never get the invested money back.In order to prevent consumers from falling victim to this type of investment fraud, the FSMA makes the following recommendations:Always verify the identity of the company (company identity, home country, etc.) offering you financial services. If the company cannot be clearly identified, it should not be trusted. If the company is located outside the European Union, you will also have to be aware of the difficulty of legal recourse in the event of a potential dispute.Check whether the company holds an authorization by searching the lists published on the FSMA website – Check your provider.Consult the warnings published on the FSMA website as well as on the website of foreign supervisory authorities and of IOSCO. Check if the company offering you a financial service has been named in a warning. Search not only for the name of the company(ies) in question but also for the companies to which you are being asked to transfer money . On the FSMA website, this search can be conducted via the search function provided. In addition, all the boiler rooms about which the FSMA has already published a warning are included on the 'List of companies operating unlawfully in Belgium' published on the FSMA website. Please note: the fact that the FSMA has not published a warning against a given company does not mean that that company is authorized to offer financial services. While the FSMA seeks to ensure that it publishes warnings in a timely manner, it is entirely possible that a company operating unlawfully on the Belgian market may not yet have come to its attention. Moreover, unauthorized companies regularly change their name. Be wary of unsolicited phone calls/emails (cold calling), that is, where no prior request has been made by the investor. Such calls are often indications of an attempt at fraud.Be wary of requests to transfer money to a country without any connection to the company or to the State of which the investor is resident. Please note that in the case of boiler room fraud, requests to transfer money are made most often toward accounts opened with banks based in Asia.Be wary of (promises of) completely disproportionate returns. Fraudsters frequently present significant earnings at the beginning, until the day when the investor asks to withdraw the funds invested.Do not accept uncritically the information provided by such companies. It is not uncommon for a company to claim to be authorized to offer financial services although this is not the case. Be sure always to verify the information you are given.Be wary as well of 'cloned firms': companies that pass themselves off as different, lawful companies even though they in fact have no connection with the latter. A close look at the email addresses or contact details for the companies in question may prove useful in order to detect potential fraud of this sort.Ask your intermediary for clear and comprehensible information. Never invest if you do not understand precisely what is being offered.Be all the more suspicious if the payout of returns is conditional on an additional payment and/or the payment of a tax. These additional demands are often the sign of fraud.Company directors and managers should be extremely vigilant. Many boiler rooms target that group in particular.If you have the least doubt about whether financial services being offered to you are lawful, please don’t hesitate to contact the FSMA directly using the consumer contact form. As well, feel free to notify it should you come across a suspicious company that has not yet been the subject of a warning by the FSMA.