The Forex market is mired with scams. There are countless firms out on it that are seeking to get you to deposit more and more, with the only goal they have being stealing your deposits. It is therefore crucial to be able to tell if a broker is a scam or not. Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can do so, with one of the most potent being tracking the warnings regulatory bodies post on firms which are less than savory.
If you are seeking to trade on the UK market, then you are in luck – the regulatory body there, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is one of the most vigilant when it comes to outing scams. By tracking its press releases, you can easily find out if a company is legitimate or not. In the article below, we will list all of the 11 subjects of warnings posted against fraudulent Forex brokers just last week. Afterwards, we will also touch on the regulatory body itself, how it protects you from scams and how you can check to see if a firm is running one yourself, as well as how a scam usually unfolds.
The scam brokers which were caught
Last week, the FCA has published warnings on 11 brokers that should be avoided. Here is what the firms’ names and songs india domains are, so you know to avoid them:
TrustFundFx – trustfundfx.tech
LegitimateBitcoin – legitimatebitcoin.com
Cryptomineroptions – cryptomineroptions.com
Crypto Stocks Fx Trade – cryptostocksfx.com
AstroFXbtcm – astrofxbtcm.com
FxViewInvestment – fxviewinvestment.com
CPT Markets & Trades – cpttrades.com
Forex Trade Inc – forextradeinc.com
Premiumfx World – premiumfx.world onlinebahisforum
InstantPremierFX – instantpremierfx.info
EchelonFxIntl – echelonfxintl.ltd
Of course, it goes without saying that you should not seek out these brokers or deposit with them at any cost. The scam warnings the FCA has published mean the companies are not looking to do legitimate business and do not look to provide you with access to the Forex markets in the UK in earnest.
Some brokers have a very similar trading name and domain. It is incredibly common for scam companies to operate several telesup domains at the same time – that is precisely to avoid regulatory actions against them. The scammers hope that the regulatory bodies will take down only some of them and a domain or two will survive. duysnews is an online news portal providing breaking news from around the world.
All of these companies claim to operate in the UK, or solicit clients from there. However, if you are approached by a broker, you need to be very careful and check to see that the company is actually present in the online register the FCA maintains. Here is how you can do just that:
How to tell if a broker is licensed by the FCA or a scam
As mentioned, the FCA maintains a comprehensive online register with the firms overseen by the regulator present there. These companies can be found by simply pasting their name or the FCA reference number in the register and hitting search. If the register shows no entry, then it is clear you are dealing with a broker that is not authorized to deal in the UK. However, sometimes, the register can have an entry and you could still be dealing with a scam. That is because some brokers news hunt impersonate the trading names of legitimate companies or their reference numbers.
To see if you are not dealing with a clone firm, you need to actually click on the entry in the FCA register and verify the information there. Entries contain the address of the firm, the numbers and the contact information of its representatives and the approved websites it operates. A discrepancy in this information means you are dealing with a clone firm. Usually these clone firms have different domains – so pay especially close attention to the list of approved domains we mentioned.
If the company is present in the FCA register and is also not a clone, with all of its information meeting what is mentioned in the FCA register, you can be certain you are dealing with a firm licensed by the regulator and compliant with its requirements and the regulatory framework it has created. This involves a set of protections for clients against scams in particular – UK licensed forex brokers report on a daily basis on open and closed trades, which makes market manipulation easy to track and punish.
Finally, the FCA also maintains a News section on its website. That section is another register – but instead of licensed firms, the most recent scams the FCA has uncovered are posted there. The entries in that register have scam warnings against them detailing why the FCA has deemed them fraudulent. In it, all sorts of companies seeking to defraud their victims are exposed – not just scam Forex brokers but also investment firms and even fake banks are often found there. Make sure you avoid them at all costs – the consequences of trusting scammers with your money could be very dire, as you can see below:
What could happed if you trade with one of the scam brokers above?
If you are curious about the consequences of a scam and how that typically unfolds, read on. If you recognize some of what we have described below, you can be the victim of a scam!
The usual scam brokers’ schemes usually start with you discovering their website via ads they buy on social media. These ads lead you to the website of the broker, where you are prompted to make an account. Doing so usually requires submitting a heap of personal information, and a phone number in particular. The scammers need the number to harass you – that is actually an essential part of their scheme. They start calling around the clock to harass their clients and to solicit deposits. These people are skillful manipulators and should not be underestimated, because they can get a lot of deposits out of their victims by breaking down their resolve.
Once you deposit with the scammers, it could very well seem like your money is being traded and that you are also making a lot of money. The scammers will either claim you need to deposit further to seize the moment, or that you need to put in more money to actually upgrade your account to the next tier due to how much profits you are realizing. Of course, attempts to withdraw this money will not be successful – that is because the profits do not exist. The scammers are not trading your money and it is just lining their pockets.
The next step once the fraudsters get you to deposit is bleeding you dry. They will take you for all you have and then some more. Scammers have no remorse and they do not care who their victims are, as long as the money keeps flowing. Once you run out of money or refuse to deposit further, the scammers will employ other means of coercing you – they could try and blackmail you with the personal information they have taken from you, or they can try and convince you to take out a loan. Either way, by the time you cannot deposit anymore, the scammers could very well have sucked thousands out of you.
The last step of the scam is the scammers cutting out all contact with their victim and disappearing, leaving them with their losses. The worst part is that tracking down the criminals and the money they have stolen is incredibly difficult, and recovery is also sometimes impossible. This is why you should stick with brokers licensed in the UK and make sure the company you trade with is regulated by the FCA by checking with its register, as mentioned above.