Beware! Fxtrade777 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.
FXtrade777 is an offshore broker offering a wide variety of forex pairs and CFDs on stocks, indices, precious metals, commodities and even cryoto coins on the MetaTrader4 platform and a choice of several account types.
Unfortunately the broker is not regulated and that is a major issue, combined with some rather unusual withdraw conditions.
Fxtrade777 regulation & safety of funds
Fxtrade777 says to be owned by Silver Wolf Limited, a company based on the Marshall Islands, while all payments are processed by Blond Bear OU – an Estonian company, which is also associated with other unregulated, offshore brokers like TradesPrime, MarketGBP, TradeGBP and Trade 111.
Our research actually shows that all those websites are run by one and the same people, who are most probably based in Estonia and use various companies, registered on the Marshal Islands as a decoy for legal purposes. And besides, have in mind that any one can register a company on the Marshal Islands right form home over the internet.
All that said we will repeat our warning that trading with unregulated brokers in general is associated with a substantial risk of loosing your money to scammers.
Properly regulated brokers on the other hand are obliged to follow strict rules, among which to file regular report and to allow external audits, to provide a negative balance protection to their clients and to keep all trading capital in a protected account, segregated form the capital of the broker.
And besides all regulators in Europe like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK or the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) are required to maintain at all times at least 730 000 EUR of operational capital.
On top of that all FCA and CySEC brokers are obliged to participate in client compensation schemes, which in the case of FCA guarantees up to 50 000 GBP of your capital, while with CySEC the insured amount is up to 20 000 EUR.
Fxtrade777 regulation deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
Fxtrade777 offers an investment option called Algo Trading, which is basically a managed account, with which you do not have the right to withdraw your funds for at least 6 months and that is absurd. Have in mind as well that if a broker offers to manage your account, it will surely be in a conflict of interest, because as a rule when you lose money the broker profits and vice versa – that is way if a broker manages your money it will have the incentive to loose them.
In addition Fxtrade777 offers a trading bonus, which is linked to a minimum trade volume requirement – basically you should trade 10 000 USD for every 10 USD bonus you have received. So be careful with the bonuses.
On top of that be ware that Fxtrade777 reserves the right to impose withdrawal limits and withdrawal fees in its system. That is also totally unacceptable. A legit broker can not impose withdraw limits.
Otherwise Fxtrade777 accepts payments with VISA, MasterCard and American Express, as well as e-wallets like CashU, Skrill, Neteller, Poli and Klarna. And of course you can pay with a bank wire. The minimum deposit requirement is set at 250 USD.
How does the scam work?
Although scam scenarios may vary, in the past months fraudsters quite often rely on the so called robo scam websites like Crypto Revolt and Bitcoin Evolution. They are especially designed to hook gullible investors with a promise of easy and risk free money. And all you have to do is register, leaving your e-mail and phone.
If you do that you will be transferred to the website of an offshore, unregulated broker, where you will be asked to deposit about 250 USD. And take a note that your first trades will be rather successful, but not because of your trading strategy- your account will simply be manipulated. That way scammers hope to persuade you to invest a large amount. And you will receive phone calls as well. It will be ‘your senior account manager’, who will basically advise you, that if you want to make a real hit, you will simply have to invest more – at least 10 000 USD.
And besides, you may not realize you have been scammed until the very moment you decide to withdraw some of your funds. Than it will suddenly turn out you are not allowed to withdraw anything, because of some minimum volume requirement, most probably linked to the welcoming bonus you have accepted in the first place. The pretext might be different, but the result will be the same – you will not get a single dollar back.
What to do if scammed?
The most adequate step to be taken, if you are victim of a scam, is to immediately file for a charge back with your credit card company. The good news here is that recently VISA and MasterCard extended the maximum period in which you will be able to do that to 540 days.
Also, if somehow scammers have gotten to your credit card number and online banking password, be sure to immediately cancel your credit card and change the password for your online banking service.
Finally do not waste your money and time with the so called recovery agencies. They will not help you get your money back, but will simply collect an upfront payment and that will be the end of the story.
