Germany’s
Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has issued a
warning to consumers about a series of nearly identical online platforms that
claim to offer automated trading of financial instruments using artificial
intelligence (AI).

According
to BaFin, these websites are operating without the necessary regulatory
approval and may pose significant risks to investors.

German Regulator BaFin
Warns Public About 20 Unlicensed AI Investment Platforms

The
regulator reports that the flagged platforms advertise AI-driven trading
services with a minimum investment requirement of 250 euros. None of the
websites provide clear information about their operators or a legal notice, and
none are supervised by BaFin. The authority has identified at least 20 such
websites, including geldgrix.de, immedintax.xyz, beraventex.org, invexorix.de, and
several others.

“We urge
the public to exercise extreme caution with online investment offers,
especially those that promise automated trading or unusually high returns.
Always check the legitimacy of providers before investing,” BaFin commented in
the warning.

Artificial
intelligence is playing an increasingly prominent role in the world of retail
trading. On one hand, it’s being used to
enhance services offered to traders; on the other, it introduces new risks
to the financial ecosystem.

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AI Risks in Retail Trading

At the
beginning of last year, AI-generated
explicit images of Taylor Swift spread rapidly across the internet. While
initially seen as a privacy issue for celebrities, the incident highlighted
broader concerns about deepfake technology, particularly its potential to
undermine identity verification in
sectors like banking and trading.

These
hyper-realistic forgeries could convincingly impersonate real individuals,
posing a serious threat to the integrity of financial institutions’ onboarding
and compliance procedures.

In a
digital world where many retail investors trust
online influencers more than their families or certified financial
advisors, the possibility of deepfakes impersonating figures like
Elon Musk or local “finfluencers” has become more alarming than ever.

Earlier
last year, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC ) also
flagged the growing use of AI in fraudulent investment schemes. Many of
these scams involve self-learning trading bots that promise unrealistically
high returns. More recently, the commission emphasized that AI applications in
trading should
be subject to regulation and fall under existing legal frameworks.

BaFin Powers

Under
German law, any entity offering financial or investment services must obtain a
license from BaFin. The regulator emphasizes that operating without such
authorization is illegal. Consumers can verify whether a company is licensed by
consulting BaFin’s official company database.

BaFin’s
warnings are based on Section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act, which
empowers the authority to alert the public about unauthorized financial service
providers. The regulator, along with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA)
and state criminal police offices, strongly advises consumers to be vigilant
when considering online investments. They recommend thorough research to
identify potential fraud before making any financial commitments.