A man pretending to be from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is cold calling people in an attempt to defraud them, the regulator has warned.
The FCA said it believes the individual has been providing financial services or products in the UK without authorisation.
A person introducing himself as William Howarth has been cold calling consumers and trying to persuade them to send him advance fees in order to invest in products such as fine wine or to allow him to buy shares that they already own, the FCA said.
Howarth is fraudulently telling consumers that he is calling from FCA.
"Mr Howarth is not in any way affiliated with the FCA and any calls recieved from him are not from the FCA. The FCA do not cold call consumers," the regulator said.
Howarth has given the FCA's contact details, including address and telephone number as his own.
Further numbers provided by him are:
The FCA said it strongly advises people to only deal with financial firms that are authorised by it, and check the Financial Services Register to ensure they are.
Almost all firms and individuals offering, promoting or selling financial services or products in the UK have to be authorised by the FCA.
However, some firms act without authorisation and some knowingly run scams like share fraud.
If investors give money to an unauthorised firm, they will not be covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) if things go wrong.
The FCA is urging those approached by an unauthorised firm to report it to the regulator.
