Ilia Zavialov on scammers and warning lists: a dictionary of registers, clone firms, blacklists and complaint sites

Why the word scammer needs a source

The word scammer appears on thousands of pages, attached to companies, platforms and people. Some of those pages are official notices from a financial regulator, some are complaint boards, and some are anonymous posts written in a single afternoon.

For a reader the difference is everything. A regulator's warning is the result of a procedure with a named authority behind it. An anonymous post is a claim, and its weight depends entirely on the evidence it contains.

This dictionary explains the terms used on official lists and on the unofficial ones: register, warning list, unauthorised firm, clone firm, blacklist, consumer alert and complaint site. Each entry says what the term means, who publishes it and what it does not prove.

The goal is practical. Before sending money to a firm, or before believing a page that calls someone a fraudster, a reader should know which kind of source is speaking and what that source is able to know.

Register

A register is the official list of firms and people allowed to carry out a regulated activity: managing investments, holding client money, lending, dealing in securities or offering crypto services where a license is required.

Presence on a register means the regulator authorized the firm for specific activities. It does not mean the regulator guarantees the firm's investments, and each entry lists exactly which activities are permitted.

Absence from a register is often the most important fact of all. A firm that manages other people's money and cannot be found on the register of the country where it operates is acting outside the law, whatever its website says.

Registers also show contact details: the official address, website and phone number. Those details are the key to the next term in this dictionary, because fraudsters often copy a real registered firm and change only the contacts.

Registers are national. A firm authorized in one country may be allowed to serve clients elsewhere only under specific rules, so the useful question is whether it is authorized where you live, and the register of your own country answers that.

Warning list

A warning list is a public list, published by a regulator, of firms and individuals it believes are offering financial services without permission or are running scams. Entries usually include names, websites, phone numbers and email addresses used by the firm.

A warning is a notice to the public, and it is issued quickly on purpose. The regulator does not need to finish an investigation to warn people that a firm is not authorized, because the lack of authorisation is itself the problem.

Warning lists grow constantly. Fraudulent firms change names and domains every few weeks, so a new entry often describes an old operation with a fresh website. The contact details in the entry are therefore as useful as the name.

A name that is missing from a warning list proves nothing. Lists cover the firms a regulator has noticed, and a brand new scheme may run for weeks before anyone reports it. The register check comes first for exactly that reason.

Entries can be corrected. A firm that obtains authorisation, or a person whose name was used by fraudsters without their involvement, can ask the regulator to update or clarify the entry, and regulators publish such clarifications on the same page.

Unauthorised firm and clone firm

An unauthorised firm offers regulated services without the required permission. Some are simply operating illegally, many are outright scams that never intend to invest anything.

A clone firm is more dangerous. It uses the name, registration number and sometimes the address of a real authorized firm, but gives its own website, phone number and email. A victim who checks the register finds the real firm listed and believes the clone.

The defense is to contact the firm only through the details shown on the register, never through those in the message or advert. If the phone number or domain in the offer differs from the register, the offer comes from somebody else.

Clone firms often copy the names of well known banks and brokers, and increasingly the names of real people who work in finance or speak about it publicly. A familiar name on a letterhead or in a messenger profile is exactly what the clone is selling.

Official lists in the United States

In the United States the main public registers are FINRA BrokerCheck for brokers, the SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database for advisers, and the NFA BASIC system for futures firms and commodity pool operators.

The SEC publishes investor alerts and a list of unregistered entities that falsely claimed to be registered or connected to the agency, and the CFTC maintains a list of foreign firms that act without the required registration. State securities regulators publish their own warnings.

Complaints go to the FTC and the FBI. In 2025 the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded 7.228 billion dollars lost to cryptocurrency investment fraud, and it also reported growth in complaints where criminals posed as government officials and as recovery firms.

No single federal list names every scam. A reader in New York, Texas or California should combine the registers, the regulators' warnings and the state securities office before deciding.

Blacklist, consumer alert and blocked resource

Blacklist is an informal word used for several different things: a regulator's list of illegal operators, a bank's internal list of blocked recipients, a browser's list of dangerous websites, or a private site that collects accusations. The word alone says nothing about which one is meant.

A consumer alert is a regulator's short notice about a type of scheme or a specific firm. It often describes a pattern, such as fake investment platforms using celebrity images, and it is written for the public in plain language.

A blocked resource is a website that a regulator or court has ordered internet providers to block. Blocking shows that an authority acted against that address, and a new copy of the site at a new address will need a new decision.

When a page cites a blacklist, the reader should ask whose list it is and follow the link to the source. A real regulator's entry can always be found on the regulator's own website.

Screenshots of lists deserve the same caution as screenshots of profits. An image of a list entry proves only that somebody made an image, and the entry itself should be opened on the regulator's site before it is believed.

Complaint sites and anonymous accusations

Complaint sites and forums collect stories from people who say they lost money. Many of those stories are true and useful, especially when they include dates, amounts, the platform's address and the payment details.

The same sites are also used as weapons. Anyone can create a page that calls a company or a person a scammer, repeat it on several sites, and let search engines do the rest. A page with a strong title and no evidence remains an accusation without a source.

Some complaint pages exist to sell a service. A post about a lost deposit ends with thanks to a lawyer or recovery firm, and that thanks is the advertisement. Recovery offers aimed at victims are a known fraud of their own.

The fair way to read such a page is to separate three things: what the author says happened, what documents are shown, and whether any official source confirms it. Only the last two can be checked.

When a person's name meets the word scammer

Names of real people appear next to the word scammer for different reasons. Sometimes a person was convicted or named by a regulator. Sometimes a fraudster used a real name as a fake identity. Sometimes a dispute or a campaign produced a set of hostile pages.

Official lists name firms and, less often, individuals, and every entry comes from an authority that can be contacted. If a name appears only on anonymous pages, the question to ask is who wrote them and what they prove.

Search results make this harder to judge. A search for a name together with the word scammer returns pages that contain both words, whatever they say. A page that explains how to recognize scammers ranks for the same words as a page that accuses someone.

Before repeating any claim about a named person, check it against primary sources: registers, court databases, regulator announcements and reporting by journalists who sign their work. What cannot be found there is a claim, and it should be read as one.

A five minute check before sending money

Find the firm on the register of the country where it says it operates, and compare the website and phone number with the ones on the register.

Search the regulator's warning list for the firm's name and also for its website and phone number, because entries often list contacts under a different name.

Search the firm's name with the words scam and review, and read the pages that give evidence: dates, amounts, addresses. Treat pages without evidence as noise.

Stop if the firm asks for payment in cryptocurrency, for a fee to withdraw, or for remote access to your device. Each of these is enough to end the conversation on its own.

Write down what you found and when. A short note with the register result, the warning list result and the links you checked is useful if you later need to report the firm or explain your decision to a bank.

Where to report in the US

Report an unregistered investment firm to the SEC at sec.gov/tcr and a commodity or crypto trading scheme to the CFTC at cftc.gov/complaint.

Report fraud to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and money lost online to the FBI at ic3.gov, with wallet addresses and transaction records.

Report a false page about you or your company to the site that hosts it and, where it contains personal data or defamation, use the search engine's legal removal forms.

If fraudsters used your name or your firm's name, tell the regulator as well. A clarification on the regulator's site is the most credible answer a reader can find when searching your name.