An investment services firm has been hit by fraudsters who cloned its name and details to dupe individuals looking to invest money.

The legitimate company ALB Limited was cloned by a CapitaliaFX “in an effort to deceive the public”, the Malta Financial Services Authority warned.

It said CapitaliaFX – which has an internet presence at www.capitaliafx.com – was not a registered company in Malta, nor was it authorised to provide financial services.

The authority reminded the public that a list of reputable operators is available on the MFSA website and that it should be alerted in instances of any suspicious transactions or companies.

The website belonging to the purported company CapitaliaFX appears to be a direct clone of that of ALB Limited, featuring the same layout and identical graphics. The site also lists the Ta’ Xbiex address of ALB Limited in its contact details.

It claims to offer investments in a range of products including currencies, commodities, bonds and cryptocurrencies, among others.

While the legitimate site (alb.com) is in English, the clone is in Italian, however. This, in addition to the Italian phone number listed on the site, indicates it is being used to mainly target Italian internet users. When Times of Malta tried to call the number listed, the call did not connect.

According to records for the domain of the cloned site, it was created in September last year.

In 2021, the MFSA warned that another website mimicking the details of registered company Alpha Global Limited had been created in an attempt to scam investors.

Victims of a scam or people who think they might be dealing with an unauthorised entity or any other type of financial scam should stop all transactions with the company and contact the MFSA.