Beware! This 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.
TRA Markets is an offshore forex and CFD broker offering 60 currency pairs and a range of other CFDs with a standard and a swap free account, leverage as high as 1:300 (when we opened a demo account we were offered even higher leverage – 1:500), and the MetaTrader4 platform.
And their spreads looked good too, starting from 1,1 pips – 1,2 pips.
As attractive as all of this may sound, you should beware that the broker is not regulated and that significantly lowers their credibility.
TRA Markets regulation & safety of funds
TRA Markets is owned and operated by Tra Markets Limited – an offshore company based on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which claims to be regulated by the local Financial Services Authority of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (FSA).
So what is the problem? FSA simply does not regulate forex and CFD brokers, and they have explicitly stated this in a warning, that can be seen on their homepage.
So basically we are talking about a unregulated, offshore broker with rather limited credibility.
Trading with unregulated brokers has always been extremely risky as quite to often they are simply involved in scam. Unregulated brokers are also totally unaccountable for the way they handle your money, and basically if you decide to deposit your funds with one of them, you will have to rely entirely on the integrity of the people who run the broker.
So our general advise is to avoid unregulated brokers altogether and to trade only with properly regulated companies, licensed and authorized by one of the official financial regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) or the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
TRA Markets deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
Although Tra Markets displays the logos of Neteller and Skrill on their homepage, as it turned out the only payment methods they accept are credit and debit cards like VISA and MasterCard and bank wire. This especially notable in the light of the new anti scam policy recently adopted by Skrill, according which Skrill partners only with regulated brokers. As we already noted Tra Markets does not have a legit forex license.
Beware as well of the various kinds of trading bonuses the broker might offer you. Invariably all bonuses come with strings attached – some minimum trade volume requirement or another withdraw condition, which might be used as a pretext to cancel your withdraw requests. On top of that TRA Markets reserve the right to change the terms of their bonus policy on their sole discretion, which means you may never be able to reach the above mentioned minimum trade volume.
And besides Tra Markets will charge you an inactivity fee if you have not traded for just 30 days, without bothering to tell us the amount of that fee. This is highly unusual – legit brokers may charge you an inactivity fee only if you have not logged into your account for more than a year. The broker also reserves the right to change their fee policy on their sole discretion.
The minimum deposit requirement of 500 USD is also unacceptably high. Most brokers require not more than 250 USD as an initial deposit.
How does the scam work?
Scammers use highly elaborate techniques to get to their victims. They employ call centers and use highly aggressive marketing strategies, including the so called robo scam websites like Bitcoin Profit and Brexit Trader, where you might be tempted by an offer of fast and easy money, with a minimum investment and immediate returns. And if you get hooked and do leave your e-mail and phone, filling the simple registration form, immediately you will be transferred to the web page of a unregulated, offshore scam broker, where you will have to deposit about 250 USD.
An do not be fooled by the rate of success of your initial trades. Scammers will surely be manipulating your trading account with the sole idea that latter you will deposit a much larger sum. And you will be getting regular phone calls as well. It will be your “senior account manager” with the latest trading signals, but who will also 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 chances are that you will invest that kind of money without realizing you have been scammed until the very moment you decide to withdraw some of your funds. Than, all of a sudden it will turn out you are not allowed to withdraw because of some minimum trade volume requirement, possibly linked to your welcoming bonus. Of course the pretext to cancel your withdraw request might be different, but in the end the result will invariably be the same – scammers will not pay you a single penny back.
What to do if scammed?
Among the few options you will still have in case you have been scammed, the first one is to immediately file for a charge back with your credit card company. The good news here is that both VISA and MasterCard now allow their clients to file for a charge back within 540 days of the day the deposit has been made.
Some scammers might even try to steal money directly form your bank account, so if by any chance you have revealed your online banking password and credit card number, immediately change the password and cancel your credit card.
And one final piece of advise. If you are approached by the so called recovery agencies, do not trust them. Those people will not recover your money, but rather will scam you a second time. You will be asked to pay some fees in advance and basically that will be the end of the story.