The German financial regulator BaFin has issued a public warning regarding a scam involving alleged links to Wellington Management.
According to BaFin, unknown individuals are operating WhatsApp groups under names such as ‘Wellington Market Strategy Centre’ or ‘Wellington Strategy Exchange Centre,’ and using purported identities of senior staff and assistants to promote trading in financial instruments and cryptocurrencies. These operations falsely claim that trading can be done via institutional accounts. BaFin clarifies that these offers do not come from Wellington Management Europe GmbH or its employees and therefore represent a case of identity fraud.
The implicated groups include ‘O-02 Trendhandelsclub,’ ‘P-02’ and ‘Wegfinder im Aktienmarkt-B2.’ Offers such as opening institutional accounts are promoted within these chats. It’s worth pointing out that any provider offering banking, investment or crypto-asset services in Germany must have explicit BaFin authorisation. The entities behind these WhatsApp groups do not meet that standard.
Context of regulatory warnings
As part of a wider trend, BaFin has recently increased warnings about similar impersonation and fraud schemes. For instance, earlier this year, it alerted the public to social media and WhatsApp-based scams involving false affiliation claims by firms such as MFS Investment Management, Invesco, and others. In many cases, scammers have used company names, fake experts and cloned documents to attract unsuspecting investors and channel funds into illicit platforms.
BaFin’s warnings are based on the requirements laid out under section 37(4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz - KWG). The regulator and German police bodies urge individuals to verify any firm’s licence status via BaFin’s official registry before committing funds.
Consumers are reminded to exercise caution when encountering unsolicited investment offers, especially via private-message applications, and to treat high-promise schemes as potentially fraudulent until proven otherwise.
