Law says no way to two-way bets

SPEAKING OUT Shmuel Hauser Israel is the epicentre of global binary options scam websites which offer two-way bets on the price of a commodity or currency going up or down.

Winners realise too late that it can

SCANDAL Expose on be impossible to binary options scam withdraw their money and, as I’ve warned in the past, the websites then disappear.

On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet approved a new law banning the sale of binary options, with a maximum two-year jail sentence for offenders.

Shmuel Hauser, chairman of the Israel Securities Authority, said: “Beyond the severe economic harm to citizens around the world, marketers of binary options are increasingly causing reputational damage and inflaming anti-Semitism towards Jews and Israelis.”

While the new law is good news, it will not stop people being stung by binary options firms in other countries. The Times of Israel newspaper has warned that some of the scammers have already relocated to Eastern Europe or branched out into slightly different financial bets, such as contracts for differences (CFDs), which they hope might escape the ban. He might be 84, but Mirror reader Raymond Fields knows how to deal with a scammer.

The retired railway worker was targeted by rogues claiming to be from HM Revenue and Customs, saying he owed tax dating back 10 years.

Raymond said: “I asked the caller to send the details in writing, and he told me there is an arrest warrant out for me and the police would be at my home in 10 minutes.

“He said if that I went to Sainsbury’s and bought £500 of iTunes vouchers and gave them to the man who brings the warrant, then I will not be arrested.”

These vouchers have become a common form of payment demanded by crooks because they don’t leave a paper trail like a bank transfer.

Thankfully, Raymond was having none of it and he put the phone down, then called a friend who’s a lawyer.

“I’m 84 and fit as a fiddle, but if I had suffered with heart trouble it could have killed me,” he said.