Unauthorised firm was using a very similar name to that of the price comparison website to trick customers
The FCA has warned of a clone site purporting to be aggregator MoneySuperMarket.com.
The website, which has since been suspended, was using the name ‘the-money-supermarket.com’ and was unauthorised by the FCA.
The regulator warned that scammers create clones of authorised firms and use their details to trick customers into thinking it is the real firm.
A MoneySuperMarket spokesperson said: “We were made aware of this clone firm a couple of weeks ago and immediately reported it to the FCA. It’s good to see the FCA have quickly taken the necessary steps to register it as a cloned site and shut it down.
“Consumers need to know that sites like this are not authorised and not to be trusted, and we welcome the FCA’s intervention.”
The FCA said: “Almost all firms and individuals carrying out financial services activities in the UK have to be authorised or registered by us.
“This firm is not authorised or registered by us but has been targeting people in the UK, claiming to be an authorised firm.
“This is what we call a ‘clone firm’; and fraudsters usually use this tactic when contacting people out of the blue, so you should be especially wary if you have been cold called.
“They may use the name of the genuine firm, the ‘firm reference number’ (FRN) we have given the authorised firm or other details.”
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