Recently, there have been a number of reports of fraud attempts where shares of well-known companies are offered for subscription. However, these shares are not delivered to the clients after payment is made, and the offerors can no longer be reached; in some cases, the offered shares do not even exist.

BaFin therefore recommends that consumers seeking to invest money online should exercise the utmost caution and do the necessary research beforehand in order to identify fraud attempts at an early stage.

Unless an exemption from the prospectus requirement applies, securities may be offered to the public in Germany only if a prospectus approved by BaFin in advance has been published. During the approval process, BaFin checks whether the minimum information required by law is included in the prospectus and whether its content is understandable, coherent and consistent. However, BaFin does not check whether the information contained in the prospectus is correct. Moreover, it does not check whether the issuer is reliable nor does it examine the product in question.

No securities prospectus has been submitted to BaFin for approval in connection with the above-mentioned shares. Information on whether an approved prospectus for an offer of securities to the public has been filed with BaFin can be found in the database of prospectuses filed on the BaFin website.

In addition, companies offering shares of other companies to consumers need prior authorisation from BaFin. The same applies for shares prior to their offer to the public. Information on whether a particular company has been granted such authorisation by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies.