Beware! ProFxTrades 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.
ProFxTrade claims to be a broker from Los Angeles, the United States, offering forex pairs and CFDs on over 100 assets, including crypto coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Dash, Monero and Litecoin on a web based trading platform.
As it turned out, however, the companies behind ProFxTrade are based offshore and what is worse, they already have been flagged by a number of financial regulators as potential scammers. So if you are considering depositing your funds with ProFxTrade, be sure to read the following lines.
ProFxTrades regulation & safety of funds
Let us start with the Los Angeles address ProFxTrade claims to be headquartered at. We checked it on Google maps and it turned out to be fake, which was not a surprise, as ProFxTrade is actually run by several offshore companies.
The company that owns the broker is FGC – Finance Group Corp., which is based on the small Pacific atoll of Vanuatu. FGC, however has authorized another offshore company to run the broker – Affort Projects S.A., which on its part is registered on the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
Finally, all payments are said to be processed by yet another company – Suomen Kerran LP, which seems to be registered in the UK.
On top of that FGC – Finance Group Corp. and Affort Projects S.A. have already been blacklisted for running scam broker websites by a number of regulators.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK has flagged Affort Projects S.A. for running the scam website binarymate.com; The Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand has warned about 24startrade.com and BinaryCent.com, also run by FGC – Finance Group Corp. and Affort Projects S.A., while Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) in France has blacklisted FGC – Finance Group Corp. and Affort Projects S.A. for running videforex.com and raceoption.com.
Obviously here we are dealing with professional scammers so our best advise is to trade only with brokers licensed and authorized by a reputable institution such as the FCA in the UK or the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
ProFxTrades deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
Although in its presentation ProFxTrades says to accept payments with e-wallets like PayPal and Skrill, when we proceeded with our registration, the only available payment method turned out to be a Bitcoin wallet. That is very typical for a scam broker, because bitcoin payments are more or less anonymous and can not be reversed. (If you are scammed and you have payed with VISA or MasterCard for example you can file for a charge back.)
Here we should mention as well a couple of highly unusual withdraw conditions, we came across in the ProFxTrade Terms and Conditions. For example they say you will be allowed to request a withdraw only after you have met some minimum trade volume requirement – and that is even without a trading bonus.
Be aware that such minimum trade volume requirements that go with all trading bonuses as well are a favorite pretext that scammers usually use to cancel your withdraw requests.
Also ProFxTrade offers some kind of a managed account, called Fixed income account, which basically represents another scam technique. Most brokers, even legit once, are market makers, which means they make money, whenever traders lose. So if a market maker offers a managed account, this is an obvious conflict of interest.
Otherwise the minimum deposit requirement with ProFxTrade is 250 USD, which is more or less what most other brokers would require.
How does the scam work?
Scammers use an elaborate network of websites and call centers to run their clandestine operations. But how they hunt for new victims? That is usually done through a robo scam website like Bitcoin Profit and Brexit Trader, where the potential investor will be lured by a promise of fast and easy cash in return of a tiny investment – and certainly you will be assured, your profits are guaranteed. And if you get hooked and do register by leaving your e-mail and phone, in a minute you will be transferred to the web page of unregulated, offshore broker, where finally you will have to deposit about 250 USD as a start.
Be aware that your initial trades will happen to be so successful, that in just a few days the money in your account will seem to have doubled. That however will all be fake. Scammers will simply be manipulating your account so that latter you will be more easily convinced to deposit more. And that is exactly what your senior account manager will suggest – if you want to see some real money you will surely have to deposit at least 10 000 USD.
And most people do not realize they have been robbed until the day they decide to withdraw some of their funds. Than, all of a sudden it turns out they can not withdraw anything because of some minimum trade volume requirement, possibly linked to a trading bonus.
The excuse might certainly be different, but in the end it will all come to the same – scammers will not pay a single dollar back
What to do if scammed?
The only plausible step you can take in case you have been scammed is to file for a charge back with your credit card company. And fortunately, both VISA and MasterCard will allow you to do that within 540 days.
Be aware that some scammers might even try to steal money directly form your bank account. So if for any reason you have told them your credit card number or online banking password, immediately change the password and block your credit card.
And do not trust the so called recovery agencies. They will not recover your funds, but will simply collect some fees in advance, basically leaving you with even less cash.
Mac Booysen
Can you tell me for what should I pay before I can get access to my profit?