Beware! WandaFX is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
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WandaFX is a unregulated, anonymous broker that says to be offering over 250 trading instruments, including lots of crypto CFDs with 5 account types and a leverage of up to 400:1.
As they do not offer a demo account, however, we were not able to check their web based trading platform and to taste the trading conditions first hand.
Still, what we do know is that WandaFX is offering something they call “algorithmic trading assistance”, which basically means that they offer to manage you account. This is a very controversial practice, because most brokers, including WandaFX act as market makers – they profit, when you lose money.
Our main concern with WandaFX, however, is their regulatory status and the fact that we are not sure, which is the company that runs the website.
WandaFX Review regulation & safety of funds
As we already noted WandaFX is an anonymous website. Nowhere in their presentation do they mention the name of their company, nor do they bother to tell us their address. There are just a couple of telephone numbers from Estonia, Russia, Bulgaria and the UK.
Trading with unregulated brokers has always been extremely risky as most often such entities are involved in scam. On top of that WandaFX are completely anonymous and this further diminishes their credibility.
Bear in mind that your funds are protected solely with brokers regulated by official financial authorities such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), or by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
Apart from the strict regulatory regime they are subject to, FCA licensed brokers are even obliged to participate in client compensation schemes, where your funds will be insured up to 50 000 GBP.
Similarly, if you are trading with a CySEC regulated broker, your insurance will cover up to 20 000 EUR, even if your broker files for bankruptcy.
WandaFX Review deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
WandaFX has some rather unusual withdraw conditions and fees. For example in addition to the 50 USD or the 25 USD fee that they charge, depending whether you withdraw via a bank transfer or credit card/e-wallet, they will also charge you a 10 USD processing fee. On top of that if you have traded less than 200 standard lots, or 20 million USD, additional 10% levy will be applied on your withdraw amount.
Take a note as well that the minimum withdraw amount with a wire transfer is 250 USD, while with any other method is 100 USD. Also the minimum deposit requirement is at least four times higher than the one most brokers have. For a trading account WandaFX asks for a deposit of at least 1000 USD.
Otherwise WandaFX accepts payments with major credit cards like VISA and MasterCard, e-wallets like Skrill, iDeal, GiroPay and Sofort and bank wire transfer.
And one final note – WandaFX says they offer various trading bonuses, including a welcoming bonus of between 30% and 100%. Those bonuses, however, come with some special withdraw conditions – namely you will not be allowed to withdraw until you reach a trading volume of at least 30 times the bonus plus your deposit.
And besides WandaFX states that they reserves the right to change those terms, whenever they want and on their sole discretion.
How does the scam work?
Until a couple of years ago scammers would mainly “cold call” their victims, meaning that they call you out of the blue with some irresistible investment proposal. Nowadays scammers use more and more the internet and the social media. For example, you may happen to come across one of the so called robo scam websites like CryptoContractsApp or Crypto Revolt where you will be invited to join some innovative trading platform or app, probably focused on the crypto market with.
And all you will have to do in the beginning is to leave your e-mail and phone. Then, if you fill the simple registration form you will be promptly transferred to the web page of a unregulated scam broker, where you will have to deposit your firs 250 USD.
And besides you will be amazed how successful your first trades will be, probably doubling your 250 USD in a matter of days. That however will not be real – scammers just want to make sure you will deposit a greater amount. And by the same time you will start receiving phone calls as well. It will be your senior account manager, who will basically explain precisely this – if you want to make some real money you will definitely have to invest more, at least 10 000 USD as a start.
And you may never realize you have been scammed until the very moment you decide to withdraw some of your funds. When you do, it will suddenly turn out you do not have right to withdraw because you have not met some minimum trade volume requirement, possibly linked to the welcoming bonus you have received in the first place. Certainly the excuse might be different, but in the end it will all come to the same – you will not be given a single penny back, all your positions will suddenly turn red, and pretty soon your account will be depleted.
What to do if scammed?
If you are a victim of a scam, honestly your options are pretty limited. Basically, the best chance to get your deposit back is to file for a charge back with your credit card provider. Fortunately since last year both VISA and MasterCard extended the period in which you will be able to do that to 540 days.
And if somehow scammers have managed to get to your banking details be sure to immediately block your credit card and change the password for our online banking service.
Finally if you do not want to be scammed a second time do not accept the offers of the so called recovery agencies. Those people will not recover your money, but will simply charge you some cash in advance and basically that will be the end of the story.
