The unknown perpetrators also operate the website bestdirect-finance.com. On this website, they advertise other services, e.g. in the areas of time deposits or overnight money, asset management, investment advice or securities trading. Until recently, the website included a legal notice. There, the operator referred to itself as a “Zurich branch (...) of the parent company, Best Direct Finance LTD, from the United Kingdom”. According to information available to BaFin, there is no such connection. This is a case of identity theft.

In the past, there have been frequent reports of attempted fraud where shares in well-known companies are offered for subscription. However, these shares are not delivered to the clients after payment is made, and the offerors can no longer be reached; in some cases, the offered shares do not even exist.

BaFin, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt – BKA) and the German state criminal police offices (Landeskriminalämter) recommend that consumers seeking to invest money online should exercise the utmost caution and do the necessary research beforehand in order to identify attempted fraud at an early stage.

Background information:

Unless an exemption from the prospectus requirement applies, securities may be offered to the public in Germany only if a prospectus approved by BaFin in advance has been published. During the approval process, BaFin checks whether the minimum information required by law is included in the prospectus and whether its content is understandable, coherent and consistent. However, BaFin does not check whether the information contained in the prospectus is correct. Moreover, it does not check whether the issuer is reliable nor does it examine the product in question.

No securities prospectus relating to OpenAI shares has been submitted to BaFin for approval. You can check whether an approved prospectus for an offer of securities to the public has been filed with BaFin by consulting the Prospectuses filed database on the BaFin website.

In addition, companies offering shares of other companies to consumers need prior authorisation from BaFin. The same applies for pre-IPO shares. Information on whether particular companies have been authorised by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies.

The information provided by BaFin is based on section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG).