Latest FCA fraud alerts affecting adviser firms

Firmwatcher checks the FCA register every morning and reads FCA announcements every hour. When a firm or individual on your watchlist gets a new requirement or disciplinary action, your compliance team gets an email.

This page collects the FCA's latest fraud alerts that matter to adviser firms: clone warnings, scams that impersonate the FCA, and recent enforcement against dishonest advisers. Last updated 6 November 2026.

At a glance

Clone firm warnings

A clone firm uses a real firm's name, FRN and address to win the trust of investors. Advice and wealth firms are a common target because their names already carry trust.

Recent FCA warnings:

• LW Management – 29 October 2026. A clone of Links Wealth Management Limited (FRN 1011435), using three lookalike websites, a mobile number and a City of London address. FCA warning
• callassists.com – 16 October 2026. A clone of Call Assist Limited (FRN 304838). FCA warning
• quorumcapitalltd.com – 14 October 2026. A clone of Quorum Capital Limited (FRN 601037). FCA warning
• Arbion Wealth Management – 9 October 2025. A clone of Arbion Limited (FRN 513138), with its own website and a London address. FCA warning

The genuine firms have no connection with the clones. The FCA warns that clones mix false details with real ones, and change phone numbers, emails and websites over time.

The FCA added 133 clone firm alerts in 2025 (to 8 December), down from 429 in 2020, according to a freedom of information response. The full, current list is the FCA Warning List.

If your firm is cloned:

1. Report it to the FCA: 0800 111 6768, or the FCA's online contact form.
2. Put a notice on your website giving your real contact details and telling clients how you contact them.
3. Watch for the FCA's warning and link to it.
4. Brief client-facing staff, since clients will call you to check.

Scams that impersonate the FCA

The FCA keeps a running alert for firms about fake FCA communications. Updates in 2026:

• Fake websites (June and September 2026). A site imitating the FCA at fca.org.lc, and cloned login pages on lookalike domains such as register-fca.org.uk.
• Fake texts (May 2026). Messages warning of a data breach and giving an 0800 number, some sent under the name used for MyFCA passcodes. Genuine MyFCA messages never include an 0800 number.
• Fake letters (March and April 2026). Letters claiming to be from an FCA deputy chief executive about a supervisory review, with a fake FCA phone number.
• Fake emails. Real FCA email comes only from addresses ending @fca.org.uk. The FCA lists spoofed domains including @fca.com, @secure-fca.org.uk, @mail-fca.org and @members-fca.org.

The FCA will never ask for bank details, PINs or passwords. If someone at your firm entered credentials on a cloned FCA page, change the password at once. Report suspected fraud to the FCA on 0300 500 0597.

Recent enforcement against dishonest advisers

Dolfin Financial (UK) Limited – August 2026

The FCA banned the former CEO and finance director of Dolfin Financial (UK), a wealth manager, and fined them £324,800 and £122,000. Between 2016 and 2019 most clients of its investor visa scheme paid a £400,000 fee instead of investing £2 million in UK companies, as the visa rules required. At least £35.5 million in fees went to Dolfin-connected businesses and introducers. The FCA found the two concealed how the scheme worked from the FCA and the Home Office.

The FCA restricted Dolfin in March 2021. It entered special administration in June 2021.

Bluesky Wealth Management – May 2026

Frank Breuer, sole director of Bluesky Wealth Management, was fined £755,000 and banned. The firm had no professional indemnity insurance from April 2019, yet he advised on at least 16 defined benefit pension transfers knowing it was uninsured. He misled the FCA, ignored restrictions it imposed in October 2019, and took money out of the firm. Bluesky became insolvent in April 2023, and the FSCS has paid customers at least £214,772.

Active Wealth (UK) Limited – January 2026

The Upper Tribunal upheld a £2,037,892 fine and a ban for Darren Reynolds of Active Wealth (UK). He advised British Steel Pension Scheme members to transfer out, hid exit fees, falsified documents and let unapproved people give pension advice. More than £17.6 million has been paid in compensation to over 470 customers.

The FCA's 2026 fines table lists every fine this year. Firmwatcher's enforcement tracker has a page for each one.

What these alerts mean for your firm

1. Check the register, not the caller. Confirm firms and individuals by FRN or IRN on the FCA register, and use the contact details listed there.
2. Watch your counterparties. Two of these cases showed on the register years before the outcome: the FCA restricted Dolfin five years before the bans, and Bluesky three and a half years before it became insolvent. Requirements on a firm you work with should reach you the day they appear.
3. Verify PI cover yourself. Bluesky advised for years without it. Ask for evidence at onboarding and at every renewal.
4. Treat any FCA contact as unverified until checked. Call the FCA on a number from fca.org.uk, never one in the message.
5. Keep a record. Note when you checked, what you found and what you did. That record is what a regulator or auditor will ask for.

Regulatory alerts and FRN monitoring cover the second point. Firmwatcher does not monitor the FCA Warning List, so check that directly.

Firmwatcher checks the FCA register every morning, reads FCA announcements hourly, and emails your compliance team when a new requirement or disciplinary action appears for a firm or individual on your watchlist. Start a 14-day trial to automate your monitoring.