Belgium Financial Services and Markets Authority dashboard shows more than EUR 12.7 million in reported fraud losses in the first half of 2026

The Belgium Financial Services and Markets Authority has published its dashboard on investment fraud and unlawful offers for the first half of 2026, showing that Belgian consumers reported losses of more than EUR 12.7 million. Fraudulent trading platforms and scams linked to cryptocurrencies remained the main source of losses, accounting for 66.5% of the total, or nearly EUR 8.5 million, and nearly half of the consumer fraud reports received by the authority. The dashboard records 1,277 consumer reports about unlawful activities in the first half of 2026, broadly in line with previous periods at a monthly average of 213 reports. Almost 54% of the reports involved consumers who had already lost money through investment fraud or fake credit offers, while the remainder were requests for information about dubious entities before any transfer was made. Losses of more than EUR 2 million were linked to fake stock tips sent via WhatsApp, a fraud pattern that emerged in summer 2025, although the authority observed a sharp decline in complaints in that category since February. The authority also highlighted fake credit scams, which again represented about 20% of fraud reports and have increased since last year, with victims reporting average losses of EUR 3,000. In the first half of 2026, the authority issued nine new warnings covering 157 fraudulent entities and 185 websites, with more than 62% of the entities identified as illicit trading platforms.