The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division received a complaint from a Washington investor that Penumbras Trading or Penumbras Asset Management System (“Penumbras Trading”), whose website is https://pc-us.penumbras.cc, may be engaging in fraud. Penumbras Trading purports to offer cryptocurrency, options, and Forex trading, among other services. It calls itself “[t]he safe for your transactions.” Its website is still online.
The Washington investor was solicited by an unnamed individual to invest with Penumbras Trading. He appeared to have invested $50,000, and was ignored by Penumbras Trading when he requested a withdrawal of his funds.
The Penumbras Trading website contains several red flags indicating fraud, including:
The logo says “Penumbra” and does not match the name of the company. The logo also appears to have been taken from the website of another company with a similar name.
The links to download the Penumbras app for iPhone or Android do not go to the legitimate app store for those platforms, but instead takes the user to a different website, https://download.penumbras.cc. That website encourages people to “[e]mbark on a journey of meta-cosmic wealth.” Clicking the download buttons on that site prompts the user to download a file onto their computer.
Multiple spelling and grammatical errors, including “DeFi” being misspelled as “DiFi.”
No contact information is listed for the company.
Claims that “PENUMBRAS members have no risk of losing money on crypto digital assets stored or transferred.” There are always risks associated with storing cryptocurrency with a third-party platform or custodian.
The website was recently registered in September 2023 despite it claiming a copyright date beginning in 2017.
Certain “fine-print” notices and legal agreements appear to be templates or are incomplete.
DFI has not verified these allegations.
DFI urges consumers to exercise extreme caution before responding to any solicitation offering investment or financial services. Investment professionals need to be licensed with DFI to offer investments to Washington residents. In addition, most investment products sold need to be registered with DFI.
To check the licensing status and to find out if there are any complaints against an investment professional or investment product, please visit FINRA Brokercheck or contact the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division at (360) 902-8760. If you live outside of Washington State, contact your state securities regulator.
If a consumer believes a person or company has violated state law or acted improperly regarding an investment product or service, they may file a complaint with the Securities Division.
Additional Resources
Virtual Currency, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Assets Information for Consumers