On 2 August 2021, the Spanish regulator CNMV has issued an investor warning against the Blumanstock broker scam (www.blumanstock.com). The Austrian FMA and German BaFin did so in May and June 2021, respectively. The Marshall Islands-registered Blumanstock Limited is allegedly the operator of the scam. As the facilitating payment processors, we found the Israeli-Cypriot BridgerPay of Ran Cohen and the Slovak Global DLT Exchange S.R.O d/b/a Jubiter.
Through VISA partner BridgerPay, victims can lose their money via credit and debit card deposits. Deposits from victims are also possible via cryptocurrencies. However, for this purpose, one must first buy cryptocurrencies on Jubiter (www.jubiter.com) via credit or debit card, bank transfer, or Klarna, which can then be transferred to Blumanstock‘s wallet. It is not a deep integration as the BTC address has to be entered manually by the victim.
It is not the first warning issued by a financial market regulator against Blumanstock. On May 21, 2021, the Austrian FMA and on July 6, 2021, the German BaFin issued an investor warning against the illegally operating broker.
These warnings apparently do not bother BridgerPay as in facilitating the payments of its scam client. When it comes to KYC/AML and fraud, the CEO and co-founder Ran Cohen is really very generous and super-flexible. Does he care about the losses of the victims? Surely not! How would he? The relevant authorities in Cyprus do not bother though. As an unlicensed and regulated PayTech, BridgerPay apparently doesn’t need to worry about the relevant regulator Central Bank of Cyprus. BridgerPay is an excellent example of how bad unregulated PayTechs can be for the security of cyberfinance.
Stay far away from Blumanstock and all brokers working with BridgerPay.
