Japanese
Updated on July 8, 2025
Financial Services Agency

"Cold Calling" - Investors Alert

"Cold-calling"

"Cold-calling" is a fraudulent practice where by an entity disguises itself as a brokerage firm or an asset management firm and approaches potential investors via non face-to-face channels, such as by phone, fax, and emails, in order to solicit investment in securities or financial products. 

Typical characteristics of “cold-callers” include:

• Lack of registration or authorization to solicit securities transactions
• Difficulty in identifying their location
• Pretending to be trustworthy entities

Investors are strongly advised to check the list of registered entities on the Financial Services Agency (FSA) website, such as the “List of licensed (registered) Financial Institutions,” to verify whether a company is properly registered in Japan as a securities firm or investment advisor. If the company is not registered, investors should exercise extreme caution and consider refraining from any transactions with it.

Suspected Cold-callers

If any of the following entities are soliciting securities investments, there is a strong suspicion of cold calling.

"Cold Calling" - Non-Registered and/or Non-Authorized Entities, "Cold Calling" - Non-Registered and/or Non-Authorized Entities (as of June 20, 2025)

If an entity claims to be registered or authorized by any of the following non-existent Japanese government agencies, it is likely to be a cold caller.

Non-Existing Governmental Bodies, Non-Existing Governmental Bodies (as of June 20, 2025)

• * These lists include information provided to the FSA by foreign authorities and investors who have suffered losses overseas. Some listed cold-callers may not actually exist, and there may be other suspicious entities not included in the list. New entities may be added in the future.

• * There have been cases where different companies were located in addresses indicated in the list. The fact that the address is put in the list does not mean that such companies have any connection to the listed entities. There have been cases where the address does not exist.

• * The entities and agencies that have been listed for more than five years are deleted from the above lists. Please visit the web archiving project website of National Diet Library to see the previous lists.

Investors Alert by the IOSCO

[Attachment]

1. In February, 2002, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) released a statement of "Investors Alert on cold calling, (PDF:98KB)"
2. In March 2025, IOSCO also launched new alerts portal called I-SCAN (International Securities & Commodities Alerts Network) to publish a list of firms that have been alerted by securities regulators in various jurisdictions for providing unauthorized investment services.