Beware! CBFX Global Options is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
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CBFX Global Options says to be a STP (Straight Through Processing) broker offering CFDs on over 1000 trading instruments, including forex pairs, precious metals, stocks, indices, commodities, bonds, ETFs and crypto currencies, with four account types and a choice between the MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader5 trading platforms.
On top of that CBFX Global Options says to be licensed and authorized by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and several other European regulators and to be a member of the Cyprus Investor Compensation Fund.
As good as all of this may sound, it turned out CBFX Global Options is just a clone website, using corporate details of a legit business in an apparent attempt to scam investors. So if you are considering depositing your finds with CBFX Global be sure to read the following lines.
CBFX Global Options regulation & safety of funds
CBFX Global Options says to be owned and operated by CBFX Global Options Group Ltd, which is supposedly licensed and authorized by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), and several major EU regulators among which the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, BaFin in Germany and the regulators in France and Italy.
On top of that through an offshore subsidiary CBFX Global Options Overseas Ltd the broker says to be regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission as well.
All of that however, turned out not to be true. The CySEC license number CBFX Global Options is giving us – 150/11 belongs to another company – the Cypriot Investment Firm JFD Group ltd. which runs two brands – JFD Brokers and JFD Bank.
And what is more CBFX Global Options even tries to mirror the JFD Brokers homepage.
So basically here we are dealing with outright scammers.
CBFX Global Options deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
CBFX Global Options says to accept payments with VISA, MasterCard, Skrill, Sofort and bank wire, but we were not able to verify this as the registration process with the website requires users to upload documents with personal information, which of course we were not willing to share.
And as we already established that we are dealing with a clone website, we may safely assume that the above mentioned payment methods apply to JFD Brokers, whose homepage the scammers have cloned.
Other wise the 500 USD CBFX Global Options requires as a minimum investment is at least twice as higher than the usual deposit most brokers ask for.
How does the scam work?
Scammers spare no resources to get to new victims. They use social media channels, call centers and the so called robo scam websites like Bitcoin Profit and Brexit Trader, which are quite popular lately. So if you happen to visit one of those sites, you will be greeted by a nicely cut video ad, with an “irresistible” offer for fast and easy returns, with some “revolutionary” trading app. And if you get interested, all you will be asked to do in the beginning will be to leave your e-mail and phone, filling a simple registration form.
Take a note that after you register you will be automatically transferred to the web page of a unregulated, offshore scam broker, where you will be asked to deposit about 250 USD initially.
And either you will be offered a managed account, which is a favorite scam techniques – virtually all brokers are market makers and as such they make money whenever their clients lose. So basically if a market maker offers to manage your account, it will be in a conflict of interest.
The other way around is that scammers will let you trade, but basically will be manipulating your account with the sole intention to trick you to deposit more. An you will be getting phone calls as well. It will be your “senior account manager”, who basically will be insisting that if you really want to make some real cash, you will definitely have to invest more- like at least 10 000 USD or so.
And believe it or not but at that stage most people do invest that kind of money without realizing they have been scammed until the moment they decide to request a withdraw. Than suddenly it turns out they are not eligible to request a withdraw because of some minimum trade volume requirement, possibly linked to a trading bonus. Whatever the pretext, scammers will simply refuse all withdraw requests.
What to do if scammed?
Your only chance to recover your deposits is to file for a charge back with your credit card company. Fortunately that will be possible within 540 days since you have made the deposit, both with VISA and MasterCard.
And if by any chance scammers have tricked you to tel them your personal banking details, like your credit card number and online banking password, immediately change the password and block your credit card.
Finally, if any of the so called recovery agencies approaches you with an offer to recover your funds, do not trust them. They will not help, but simply will charge you some fees in advance and basically that will be the end of the story.
