AI in action · Investor protection
Italy's Market Regulator Has Now Blocked 1,853 Scam Websites, and It Says AI-Generated Voices and Videos Are Doing the Selling
CONSOB, Italy's securities regulator, ordered five more investment websites blocked on October 23, 2026, bringing the total since July 2019 to 1,853. Three offered unauthorised investment services and two unauthorised crypto-asset services. The regulator warned that scams increasingly use AI-generated images, voices and videos of politicians and celebrities, alongside cloned websites and fake profiles. One of the five sites called itself an AI trading service.
CONSOB's blocking orders are among the most regular publications of any European market regulator: every week or two it names a handful of websites that Italian internet providers must make unreachable. The release of October 23, 2026 named five. Three were offering investment services without authorisation, RLMAsstStrategy, Ava Invest and GMTrade, and two were offering crypto-asset services without authorisation, "Brelliozo IA" and IncomeMax. With them, the number of sites CONSOB has blocked since it gained the power in July 2019 reached 1,853, of which 242 were crypto-asset sites.
The legal basis is worth knowing because it explains the split. For unauthorised investment firms, CONSOB acts under the 2019 Growth Decree, Law 58/2019; for crypto services, under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, MiCA, and Italy's Legislative Decree 129/2024, which implemented it. Since MiCA took full effect, a company offering crypto services to Italian residents needs a licence in Italy or in another EU country passported in, and the absence of one is enough for a blocking order, whatever the site claims about returns.
The release went further than a list. CONSOB said it was seeing a rise in emails, "cloned" websites that copy authorised firms, and fake profiles of politicians and well-known people, and named a newer ingredient: "content generated by artificial intelligence systems – such as images, voices or videos –" used to push investors into decisions that harm them. It linked to a 2026 factsheet from ESMA, the EU securities regulator, on AI-enabled investment fraud. One of the five names makes the point on its own: a site that brands itself with the Italian abbreviation for artificial intelligence, offering crypto services that no authority had approved.
Blocking is a blunt tool, and CONSOB does not pretend otherwise: scam operators move to new domains quickly, which is why the count keeps rising. The more durable protection is the check the regulator recommends before any transfer, which takes less time than a deepfake video lasts. Search the firm's name in CONSOB's register of authorised intermediaries or, for crypto, in ESMA's MiCA register; if it is not there, an endorsement from a famous face is not a reason to send money, and in 2026 it is more likely to be a reason not to.
Sources: CONSOB — Watch out for scams: CONSOB blocks 5 websites, press release of 23 October 2026; ESMA — Factsheet on AI-enabled investment fraud (2026), hosted by CONSOB