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Twenty firms added to the FCA Warning List in the week to 24 August, six of them clones

Our archive recorded twenty new or updated entries on the Financial Conduct Authority's Warning List over the past week. Six copied the identity of an authorised firm.

By Priya Raghavan, Reporter, investment and firms · Updated

Printed pages of company names with entries marked in red pen
Illustrative picture. It does not depict any firm or individual named in this report.

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Scam types

Published
24 Aug 2026
Last revised
27 Aug 2026
Sources cited
6
Names named
3 on file
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Six firms were added to the FCA Warning List in the week to 24 August 2026, four of them presented to consumers as providers of fixed-return bonds and two as portfolio managers using the identity of firms that are genuinely authorised.

What the entries show

The regulator publishes the name in use, the websites, telephone numbers and email addresses associated with it, and the date the warning was first issued. Read across the six entries, three patterns stand out.

  • Fixed returns quoted between 6.5 and 9 per cent, described as capital protected.
  • Two entries using the reference number of an authorised firm alongside a mobile phone number.
  • Domains registered within the last three months, several sharing a single hosting provider.

The recycled details problem

Two of this week's entries list a London landline that appeared on an entry published in June under a different company name. We have flagged the overlap in our archive; the number is now searchable there in any format. Where an operation keeps its infrastructure and changes only the trading name, the phone number is a better search term than the name.

What it means for readers

A listing is a warning, not a criminal finding, and the list is not exhaustive. The practical use is narrow and real: before you pay anyone, search the name, the website and the phone number, then check the firm on the FCA register and ring the number published there rather than the one you were given.

If you have already paid one of the firms listed, contact your bank immediately, report to Action Fraud, and use the Financial Ombudsman Service if the bank's answer is unsatisfactory. The FCA consumer helpline is 0800 111 6768. All of these are free.

Source: FCA Warning List. We publish the headline facts, a short summary and a link; the full entries remain on the regulator's own site.

Named in this report

Each file gathers every warning, published contact detail and update we hold on that name.

Firm warnings published each month

98 in this window · down 17 on the month before

  • 2Apr
  • 1May
  • 2Jun
  • 4Jul
  • 53Aug
  • 36Sept

Counted from the warning notices in our own archive. One notice can name several trading styles.

The wider record

Counts from our own archive, for context around this report. Not an estimate of fraud across the UK.

Clone firms as a share of our Warning List archive

Clone firms copy the name or details of a genuine authorised business.

106
  • Clone of an authorised firm17(16%)
  • Not recorded as a clone89(84%)

Contact details recorded against warned firms

One firm can appear in more than one row.

  • Website recorded76(35%)

    Website recorded: 76 entries
  • Phone recorded39(18%)

    Phone recorded: 39 entries
  • Email recorded85(39%)

    Email recorded: 85 entries
  • No contact details held16(7%)

    No contact details held: 16 entries

Open the data page to see how each figure is counted.

See all of our fraud data

How this report was made

Updated
3 times
Primary sources
6 sources
Following this subject
0 readers
Reader comments
0 comments

Checked against the published record

Sourcing. Every claim is tied to a published record — a regulator's notice, a court or ombudsman decision, or a document we hold. We quote a headline and a short summary and link the original.

Right of reply. Firms and people we criticise are put on notice before publication and their response is carried in the piece.

Independence. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements and no referrals to solicitors or claims firms. The only routes we point to are free. Read the full method · first published 24/08/2026

Trust and sourcing

  • Reported by

    Priya Raghavan

    Reporter, investment and firms

    Bylined
  • Approved for publication by

    Helen Marsden

    Editor

    Editor approved
  • Legal review

    Not required

    No individual or firm is criticised, so no right of reply was required.

    Not flagged for review

Source URLs behind this report

What changed in each update

First published 24 August 2026 at 17:00 · last updated 27 August 2026 at 19:00

  1. Added the current free reporting routes and clarified what the reimbursement rules do and do not cover.

    Payment Systems Regulator
  2. Checked against the source record and refreshed the figures and dates in the panels. No findings changed.

    FCA Financial Services Register
  3. First published.

    FCA Warning List
How we source and correct our reporting

Updates and change log

First published
Last updated
  1. Added the current free reporting routes and clarified what the reimbursement rules do and do not cover.

    Payment Systems Regulator
  2. Checked against the source record and refreshed the figures and dates in the panels. No findings changed.

    FCA Financial Services Register
  3. First published.

    FCA Warning List

Sources for this report

Sources for this report

  • FCA logo

    FCA Warning List additions feed

    FCA

    The weekly additions this report counts.

    Read the original source
  • FCA logo

    Financial Conduct Authority Warning List

    FCA

    Primary record of firms the FCA says may be operating without authorisation.

    Read the original source
  • FCA logo

    FCA Financial Services Register

    FCA

    Authoritative check on whether a firm is authorised and for what.

    Read the original source
  • PSR logo

    Payment Systems Regulator — APP fraud reimbursement

    PSR

    The reimbursement requirement for authorised push payment fraud.

    Read the original source
  • FOS logo

    Financial Ombudsman Service

    FOS

    Free, independent adjudication and published decision data.

    Read the original source
  • Action Fraud logo

    Action Fraud reporting service

    Action Fraud

    The UK national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.

    Read the original source

We link directly to the original source wherever possible. A source may update its own page after we publish; we show the date we last recorded or updated the citation.

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  • Clone firms
  • Warning list additions

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About the author

Byline portrait of Priya Raghavan

Priya Raghavan Priya tracks the FCA Warning List, clone firms and unauthorised investment promotions, and writes the reference explainers.