Guides
A firm's own account of itself is not evidence. These guides set out what the official record actually shows, and how to read it, before any payment is made.
Buying a painting and putting money into an art scheme are treated very differently in law. Before you pay, establish which of the two you are being offered, whether the dealer is supervised by HMRC, and exactly what you would own.
An authorised fund has its own entry on the FCA Register, quite separate from the entry for the firm selling the fund. Checking that entry, the fund's product summary and the firm you are paying shows whether all three describe the same fund.
A telephone number is one of the easiest details for a fraudster to choose, and the number on your screen may not belong to the person calling. Several firms added to the FCA Warning List in October 2026 paired a UK address with a number in North America.
Some firms on the FCA Warning List give three, four or five website addresses, often the same name with a different ending. The address an authorised firm has given the FCA is the one to compare with the site in front of you.
Only a provider approved by HMRC can offer an ISA, and HMRC publishes the list of approved managers every month. Fraudsters borrow the word because savers trust ISAs, so the provider is worth finding on that list and on the FCA Register before any money moves.
An office in Canary Wharf or Mayfair can be rented by the month, and several firms on the FCA Warning List this month gave addresses in exactly those places. An address becomes useful evidence only when it agrees with the official record and with the other details you were given.
The FCA Register shows whether a firm is allowed to offer you financial products. This guide explains how to search the FCA Register, and what to check next if you find the firm listed.
You can check whether a company is real in a few minutes, using free official records. This guide shows you where to look and what to compare.
Claims management companies have been regulated by the FCA since April 2019, so a genuine firm can be found on the FCA Register with permission for the kind of claim it is offering to handle. That record, and the website you were given, are worth checking before you share any personal details.
An email can carry a genuine firm's name, logo and reference number and still come from someone else. The address it was sent from, and especially the domain after the @ sign, is where the difference usually shows, and comparing it with the firm's own record takes only a few moments.
Investment offers increasingly claim that artificial intelligence will trade on the investor's behalf. The software cannot be checked, but the firm behind the platform can, and the same authorisation rules apply to it as to any other trading firm.
Many financial advisers are not authorised in their own right. They act as appointed representatives of an authorised firm, which takes responsibility for their regulated work, and the FCA Register records the relationship so that it can be confirmed.
Wine sold as an investment is not regulated by the FCA, and the FCA lists it among the products investment fraudsters most often use. This guide explains how to confirm that the wine exists, where it is stored and in whose name it is held.
Romance fraud cost UK victims more than £106m in 2024/25, and the FCA reports that most cases begin online. When a new contact suggests an investment, the platform they recommend can be checked independently before any money moves.
The FCA, the police and banks never ask anyone to move money to another account or to pay before receiving money. A caller who asks for either is not who they claim to be, whatever number appears on the screen.
Anyone who promotes an investment in the course of business must be authorised by the FCA or have the promotion approved by an authorised firm. An influencer, advert or group that can show neither may be committing a criminal offence.
A pension can be moved with a signature, which makes it a target. The law already treats a cold call, early access and an unregulated adviser as warning signs, and each can be checked before you sign.
A firm offering UK clients trading in shares, currencies or contracts for difference must be authorised by the FCA, and the law limits how much a client can lose. An offer that goes beyond those limits shows the firm is not working under UK rules.
A genuine savings account is held by an authorised bank, building society or credit union that can be named and found on the FCA Register. The checks that confirm it take a few minutes and happen before any money moves.
Companies House shows that a company exists, who runs it and what it has filed. Read carefully, the record can also show where a firm's account of itself differs from what it has filed.
After a loss, the next approach often promises to recover the money for a fee. This guide explains how a recovery scam works, why a genuine recovery service must be regulated, and the free routes open to anyone who has lost money to fraud.
This guide explains who to contact after an investment scam, in which order, and what to keep. Acting quickly protects your chance of reimbursement, and the right report reaches the people able to act.
A convincing website is the cheapest part of an investment fraud to produce. This guide explains how to test a website against the records it cannot fake: when the domain was registered, the official register entry, the contact details and the account the money would go to.
A clone firm borrows the identity of a genuine, FCA-authorised company, so the usual check of searching the register appears to pass. This guide explains where a clone gives itself away, and how to confirm that you are dealing with the real firm.
A company issuing its own loan note or mini-bond does not need FCA authorisation to do so, and several well-publicised collapses have exploited exactly that. This guide explains what can legitimately be unauthorised, what cannot, and the checks that tell the two apart.
A carbon credit or green energy scheme often points to something real, such as a registered project or an existing registry. Whether the seller has any right to sell it is a separate question, and it is the one that is usually left unchecked.
A cask of maturing whisky can be sold without FCA authorisation, and the cask itself is held somewhere the buyer will rarely see. This guide explains which register confirms a distillery, and why the warehouse holding the cask matters more than any certificate.
The FCA Warning List is widely used and often misread. This guide explains what an entry means and, just as importantly, what the absence of an entry does not mean.
A firm that says it is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority has made a claim, and the claim can be tested. This guide explains how to check it on the FCA Register, and the tactic that most often gets past that check: a clone using a genuine firm's details.
Most investment scams follow a recognisable pattern. This guide sets out the warning signs that recur across almost every case, in the order an investor usually meets them.
Most cryptoasset activity in the United Kingdom is not regulated in the way a bank or an investment firm is. This guide explains what FCA registration establishes, how to check it, and what a registered platform can and cannot promise.
Dealing in physical gold needs no authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority, so the check most people rely on elsewhere is not available. This guide sets out the records that can still be checked, and why the question of who holds the metal matters most.
Confirmation of Payee checks whether the name on a bank account matches the name of the person or firm you intend to pay. This guide explains what the check confirms, and why no document a firm sends you can take its place.
Verify any firm against the official record before money changes hands.
