Beware! Crests Financial 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.
Crests Financial presents itself as a Texas based fund management company, ensuring 90% success rate with their innovative trading software, that is supposed to generate between 20% and 40% guaranteed monthly returns depending on your investment plan.
And Crests Financial seem to offer a broad range of services from forex and crypto trading to binary options and bitcoin mining.
As nice as all of this may sound we have a number of issues about this broker, starting with the fact that their website is virtually anonymous, and what is even more disturbing, they have already been added to the warning list of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in New Zealand as potential scammers.
Crests Financial regulation & safety of funds
As we already noted the Crests Financial is virtually anonymous – except for some address in Texas US there is no other information about who actually operates the broker – no company name for example. Also, if this is really a US broker, it should be licensed and authorized both by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a futures commission merchants (FCM) and a retail foreign exchange dealer (RFED), and the National Futures Association (NFA). On top of that a US license comes with a hefty capital requirement. The broker should hold a minimum operational capital of no less than 20 000 000 USD.
Unsurprisingly Crests Financial do not hold an American license nor any other license whatsoever. And on top of that the website is already blacklisted by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in New Zealand as a probable scam. So our best advise in such cases is to trade only with brokers regulated by the official financial authorities in the U.S., the European Union, Canada or Australia.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) are among the most popular regulators in the industry.
Crests Financial deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
Crests Financial says you can pay with some e-wallets like Perfect Money, Payeer and Advanced Cash, bank wire and bitcoins. However, there is no option to pay with credit cards like VISA and MasterCard and Skrill. This is notable for two reasons. First, according to their new anti scam policy, Skrill partners only with licensed brokers, and as we already established, Crests Financial does not have a license whatsoever. Second, if you have paid with VISA or MasterCard you can always file for a charge back, if you feel you have been scammed, while bitcoin payments and wire transfers simply can not be reversed.
Besides, Crests Financial seems to be offering managed accounts with some trading software, which as we noted is supposed to generate between 20% and 40% guaranteed monthly returns. And this should be yet another warning sign to any investor. Bear in mind that virtually all brokers act as market makers, and if a market maker like Crests Financial offers to manage your account, it will simply be in a conflict of interest – the people behind the broker will have an incentive to mismanage your account and to lose your money in their own pockets.
Also, be aware that Crests Financial reserves the right to change their commissions at any time and at their sole discretion without a notice.
But what is even more peculiar is that with Crests Financial you can request a withdraw for no less than 1000 USD, while their minimum deposit requirement is 500 USD, (which by the way is twice the amount most other brokers would ask for.)
How does the scam work?
How so many people get scammed? You may happen to follow a link somewhere on the internet, possibly on the social networks like Facebook or Instagram, that will lead you to one of the so called robo scam websites like Bitcoin Revival and Bitcoin Profit. There you will probably watch a rather convincing video ad that will tell you how easily you can get filthy rich, if you just join some innovative trading platform, which will trade by itself, while you sit back and watch your funds multiply.
And if you get hooked and register, by leaving your e-mail and phone, instantly you will be redirected to the web page of a unregulated, offshore scam broker, where finally you will be asked to deposit about 250 USD.
And scammers will do anything possible to make you deposit as much as you can. For instance, they may manipulate your account so that your trades will look amazingly successful. And of course you will be getting lots of phone calls as well. It will be your senior account manager, who basically will be trying to convince you exactly this – if you really want to make some real cash you surely have to invest more, like at least 10 000 USD.
As strange as this may sound to any one who has not been in such a situation, most people do invest that kind of money, without realizing they have been scammed until the very day they request to withdraw some of their funds, Than out of the blue they are told they have no right to withdraw, because of some minimum trade volume requirement, possibly linked to their welcoming bonus. Whatever the excuse, the end result will always be the same – scammers will not pay back a single dollar.
What to do if scammed?
In case you have paid with a credit card like VISA or MasterCard, you do have a chance to get your deposit back, if you file for a charge back with your bank. And the good news here is that both VISA and MasterCard have extended the period in which you will be able to do that to 540 days.
Also, if by any chance scammers have managed to get to your banking details, like your credit card number and online banking password, immediately change the password and block your credit card.
And if you get approached by one of the so called recovery agencies, do not trust them. They will not recover your money, but simply will charge you some fees in advance, leaving you even deeper into the red.
