The Financial Conduct Authority posted 28 alerts about firms operating without permission or impersonating legitimate businesses in a single week, urging consumers to check its warning list before transferring any money.
Twenty-eight warnings in seven days — that’s the figure the FCA posted on 25 September 2026, covering firms it suspects of operating without authorisation or cloning the identities of legitimate businesses. The regulator urged consumers to verify any firm through its Financial Services Register before handing over money or personal details.
Clone firms are chiefly difficult to spot. They copy genuine firms’ names, addresses, websites and Firm Reference Numbers to appear legitimate — and by the time a warning is published, approaches may already have been made. The FCA’s own warning list is not a complete record of every unauthorised firm operating in the UK.
The figures show the 28-warning week sits within a much larger pattern. The FCA recorded 2,240 alerts about unauthorised firms and individuals across the whole of 2024, compared with 2,286 in 2023. In the final quarter of 2024 alone, it issued 584 alerts, with 11 per cent relating to clone scams. The third quarter produced 552 alerts, with clone scams accounting for 12 per cent.
Scale matters here. The FCA said it identified or assessed around 480,000 new websites in 2024 that could be providing or promoting financial services without permission. That’s a vast pool against which any weekly warning count is a narrow slice.
Among the individual entries on the FCA warning database, FxBlue Bridge was first listed on 10 September 2026 and Capital Zodiac on 7 September 2026 — both cited as suspected unauthorised or clone operations. The FCA has not confirmed either entry as part of the specific 28 warnings referenced in the tweet.
The regulator advises consumers not to assume a firm is genuine simply because it appears in an unsolicited message, on a website or in a social-media post.
Key information
- Check any firm on the FCA Financial Services Register before using it
- View the FCA’s warning list of suspected unauthorised and clone firms at the FCA website
- Contact the FCA Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768 if you believe you have been approached by an unauthorised or clone firm
Source: @TheFCA
FCA issues 28 warnings about unauthorised and clone firms in seven days Quiz
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