Central Bank investigating fraudulent finance firm

The Central Bank is investigating after it emerged a financial firm calling itself Zanta Ventures has been operating in the State without appropriate authorisation.

This "unauthorised firm" cloned the details, including the name and Irish registered address, of a company called Zanta Ventures, which is a company registered with the Irish Companies Registration Office (CRO) but which does not deal in financial services.

“It should be noted that there is no connection whatsoever between Zanta Ventures Limited which is a company registered with the CRO, and the unauthorised entity Zanta Ventures (www.zanta.tk) that has cloned its details,” said the Central Bank.

“It is a criminal offence for an unauthorised firm to provide financial services in Ireland that would require an authorisation under the relevant legislation for which the Central Bank is the responsible body for enforcing.

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“Consumers should be aware that, if they deal with a firm which is not authorised, they are not eligible for compensation from the Investor Compensation Scheme.”

The bank added that fraudsters are “increasingly using legitimate firms’ details to add an air of legitimacy to their fraud”.

“The fraudsters will borrow all of the legitimate information of an authorised/legitimate firm for the purpose of this fraud,” it said.

“They may quote authorisation numbers/company registration numbers and links to seemingly legitimate websites and even provide the real address of an authorised/legitimate firm.

“Consumers are advised to check our register to verify a firm’s details and to call the firm back directly using its advertised phone number.”