Press information: ASF warns citizens not to act on investment "recommendations" made on behalf of the Authority

Bucharest, 21 June 2023 - The Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) draws attention to the fact that recently, people claiming to be representatives of the Authority have been appearing in the public space, contacting citizens either by email or by telephone, offering investment recommendations and requesting, at the same time, the payment of sums of money.

If you have been contacted by such persons, you should be aware that the Financial Supervisory Authority does not initiate such approaches either by email or by telephone, does not offer investment advice, does not ask for money and does not ask for personal data.

In order to protect yourself from such fraudulent initiatives you should approach with caution any phone calls or emails you receive and always check the addresses from which you have been contacted.

You should be aware that those who resort to such illegal methods can clone the ASF website and alter the original information. Newly created websites can be very convincing as they contain visual identity elements similar to the real ones and include certain links and contact information copied from the Authority's official website.

To ensure that a website is genuine, check the address (URL) that appears in the address bar at the top of the webpage. The URL of the official website of the ASF is: https://asfromania.ro/ 

How to detect if you have been contacted fraudulently:

• Incoming phone calls are usually from a mobile phone number belonging to another country;
• the email address is a Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. account;
• written communications often contain grammatical or spelling mistakes;
• the website address and/or the name of the social networking account may contain small changes from the official ones, such as extra punctuation.

Please note that the end of the email addresses belonging to ASF employees is @asfromania.ro and the official ASF social media accounts are:

• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/asf.romania
• LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/autoritatea-de-supraveghere-financiar%C4%83/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/asf_romania
• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@asfromania5180
• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@asf_romania
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/autoritateadesupraveghere_fin/

The ASF has taken a number of measures to prevent the fraudulent copying and use of employee email addresses, but there is a possibility that people using illegal methods could still mislead you.

To protect yourself from fraud attempts, do not provide any personal information following an incoming call and do not call back using the contact details that callers provide!

If you are suspicious about a call, stop communication immediately. To make sure the call is genuine, contact us by phone (0800.825.627/021.668.1208) or by email  (office@asfromania.ro ).