Beware! This is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
FTO Capital or Financials Trading Online is a forex and CFD broker offering several account types – Silver, Gold and Platinum, with spreads starting between 2 and 3 pips, which honestly is not very impressive. Leverage ranges between 1:200 and 1:500 depending on the account type, while the minimum deposit requirement for the starting Silver Account is 250 USD. The broker supports the MetaTrader4 platform.
FTO Capital regulation & safety of funds
FTO Capital is owned and operated by Nona Marketing LTD, a company registered on the Marshal Islands and the broker mentions nothing about its regulatory status. This is unfortunate as regulation in the forex industry is the single most important factor for the safety of any investment. Basically, if you trade with an unregulated broker there is a huge risk that you will not be able to withdraw your money at all.
The Marshal Islands are a small atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about which the US Department of State warns its offshore corporate sector is vulnerable to money laundering and other clandestine activities.
Besides, it is very easy to register an international business companies on the Marshal Islands, as the whole process is done online. Corporate officers, directors, and shareholders may be of any nationality and live anywhere and the companies are not required to disclose the names of officers, directors, shareholders, or beneficial owners. On top of that corporate entities may act as directors, officers, and shareholders.
All that said, our research shows FTO Capital is an unregulated offshore brokers with very limited credibility.
Regulation is the single most important factor for the safety of any investment, we strongly advice potential traders to invest only with brokers, licensed by well established financial authorities such as the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Licensed brokers are obliged to follow strict fiscal and ethical rules, including to maintain a minimum capital adequacy ratio, to keep all clients money in protected, segregated accounts and in some cases even to insure traders capital.
With the FCA backed Financial Services Compensation Scheme for example, if the broker goes insolvent, traders can receive back up to 50 000 GBP of their capital. Similar compensation scheme with the CySEC guarantees traders up to 20 000 EUR of the investment.
FTO Capital deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
With FTO Capital you can deposit funds with major credit cards like VISA and MasterCard, as well as e-wallets like Neteller, Qiwi, WebMoney and Yandex Money.
How does the scam work?
There are many scheme designed to defraud traders by convincing them they can gain high profit by trading the forex market, but usually the scam works as follows:
You may happen to see a cheap video ad, aimed to convince you, you can get instantly rich, by just making a modest investment with a cutting-edge financial company, or just stumble upon a forex broker web site and simply decide to open a demo account for the fun of it. But once you leave your phone you will receive a call almost instantly. You may ignore it, but they will call again and again and finally, if you decide to pick up the phone to refuse their offer politely, in no time you will be depositing 200 USD in your brand new trading account with the promise of an effortless and good profit.
And its true, your first two or three trades will go smoothly and within a few hours your account will more than double – 100% profit just for a few trades. Than a “Senior Account Manager” will contact you to convince you that if you want to make real money, you will surely have to invest more. Let say 10 000 USD. And as most traders happen to be male, your Senior Account Manager will most probably be charming and female, and you will just love talking to her and again, chances are high that you will deposit those 10 000 USD.
After you do that your trades will turn into red, but your Account Manager will try to convince you not to close them. She may even say it would make her look bad and lower her standing at her job. And the only solution she will offer is that you deposit another 10 000 USD. You may do that or you may not, but soon the margin call will happen and all your money will be gone. Besides, that will happen not because you have necessarily made bad trading decisions, but simply because scammers do manipulate the trading platform you use.
Also, beware that some scammers may even convince you to install TeamViewer, under the pretext to assist you with software installation and funding your trading account. In such cases latter it will turn out they have stolen your credit card number and bank security code and your card is depleted.
What to do if scammed?
You should immediately contact your bank or credit card provider and file for a charge back . Unfortunately that may work only within a 6 month period. And also, if you have voluntarily provided the scammers with your ID and a proof of address, they will have a much stronger case, if you file for a charge back.
In case you have given any banking details to the “broker” – you credit card number for instance, or they have convinced you to install a TeamViewer – immediately cancel your credit card. If you have given them the pass for your online banking service, change the password immediately.
And finally, if you have lost money with scammers, do not loose even more with the so called “recovery agencies”. Those companies are on a hunt for desperate traders, who have been stinged by scammers and will simply ask you to make an up-front payment without any result.
