Beware! TradesPrime 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.
TradesPrime says to be a forex and CFD broker offering a choice of several account types on the MetaTrader4 platform and a leverage of up to 300:1. On their trading platform we came across a nice selection of currency pairs – over 50, with a number of exotic currencies like Singapore Dollar, Israeli Shekel, Danish Krone, Brazilian Real, Polish Zloty, Indian Rupee, Romanian Lei, Mexican Peso, Russian Ruble, Norwegian Krone, Hungarian Forint, Swedish Krona, Hong Kong Dollar and Turkish Lira.
Other trading assets include CFDs on sugar, corn, coffee, rice, soybean, cotton and wheat, oil and natural gas, aluminum, copper, gold, platinum, palladium and silver, as well as over 140 stocks and 10 indices. The bench mark EURUSD spread was fixed at 3 pips, which is twice higher than what traders would usually expect with a standard account, and yet our biggest concern is with the regulatory status of the broker.
Unfortunately TradesPrime is not regulated and there is a warning against it, issued by the Spanish National Securities Market Commission.
TradesPrime regulation & safety of funds
TradesPrime is owned by Black Parrot Limited – a company registered on the Marshall Islands, while all transactions and payments are processed by Blonde Bear OU – a company based in Tallinn, Estonia. Unfortunately neither TradesPrime nor the companies behind it have a license to operate as a retail forex and CFD broker on regulated markets such as EU, USA, Australia or Japan.
And as we already noted, in February 2018 the Spanish Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (National Securities Market Commission) has issued a warning against TradesPrime and Black Parrot Limited for offering financial services to citizens in EU without a license and proper authorization. On top of that Black Parrot Limited is known to have operated a notorious scam broker – Vortex Assets, about which there are numerous complaints by defrauded traders.
All that said, we strongly recommend to choose only form brokers, regulated by reputable financial watchdogs such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) or the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
Among many other advantages, regulated brokers provide their traders with a negative balance protection, keep their money in a segregated, protected form creditors account and in some cases even insure the trading capital.
Thus for example, if you are trading with a FCA broker, your account will be insured for up to 50 000 GBP. Similarly with CySEc regulated brokers you do not have to worry about the first 20 000 EUR of your trading funds, even if your broker files for bankruptcy.
TradesPrime deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
TradesPrime offers a lot of payment options – form major credit cards like VISA and MasterCard to e-wallets like Payeer, Klarna, QIWI and PayPal and of course bank wire.
Still we do not see some really popular payment venues like Neteller and Skrill and besides, talking about Skrill, since November the payment company adopted a new anti scam policy, according which all brokers that want to use its services have to prove they hold a legit forex license.
Also, be aware of any trading bonuses that TradesPrime may offer you, as they are linked to a minimum trade volume requirement – you will have to trade at least 1000 USD for every bonus dollar you have accepted, before you will be allowed to withdraw.
On top of that TradesPrime reserves the right to impose withdrawal limits and withdrawal fees at any time.
Otherwise the minimum deposit requirement to open a trading account with TradesPrime is 200 USD.
How does the scam work?
You may not be aware, but scammers often run elaborate and rather sophisticated schemes to get to your money.
They employ outsourced call centers in places like the Philippines that sometime “cold call” people with lucrative offers. Most often, however, you will be transferred to the website of a unregulated, offshore scam broker after visiting one of the so called robo scam websites like Crypto Revolt and Bitcoin Evolution.
Basically, on a robo -scam website you will watch a stylish video about how easily you can get instantly rich, after which you will be urged to fill a simple registration form with your e-mail and phone, and than you will be automatically transferred to the scam broker.
And there, if you get hooked and deposit about 250 USD – that is how much scammers usually ask for initially – the people running the robo scam website will get their commission.
Now, do not be surprised how profitable your first trades will happen to be. In truth your account will be manipulated so that you will be more easily tricked to invest a larger amount. That is also the moment when you will get a phone call as well. It will be form your “personal account manager”, who will expertly suggest, that if you want to make some real cash, you will simply have to invest more – let say 10 000 USD for a start.
And you will not realize that you have been scammed until the very moment you decide to withdraw some of your funds. Scammers will plainly refuse your withdraw request on the ground that you have not fulfilled some minimum trade volume requirement, possibly linked to the welcoming bonus you have so carelessly accepted, when you opened your account in the first place. Certainly it could be something else, but the bottom line will be the same – you will not be allowed to withdraw a single penny.
What to do if scammed?
The most important step, if you get scammed, is to immediately file for a charge back with your credit card provider. Take a note that with the new anti-scam regulations, adopted by MasterCard and VISA, now you can do that within 540 days after you have made the deposit.
Be aware that scammers might have tricked you to disclose your online banking password or credit card number. If that is the case, immediately change your password and block your credit card.
And do not be fooled by the offers of the so called recovery agencies. They will not retrieve a single penny back, but will simply charge you some money in advance and that is the last time you will hear form them.
