Beware! Mt4-Trades 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.
Mt4-Trades presents itself as a leading forex broker based close to the City of London, which offers over 200 trading instruments with an innovative, proprietary trading platform (despite their name Mt4-Trades does not offer MetaTarader4) and attractive welcome bonuses.
This surely might sound attractive, was it not for the fact that the Mt4-Trades website is virtually anonymous and the broker has already been blacklisted by the financial authorities in Austria. If you are still considering depositing any funds with Mt4-Trades better read the following lines.
Mt4-Trades regulation & safety of funds
To start with, as we noted, Mt4-Trades is almost completely anonymous – there is no mention of the company that owns the website, and there is not even a contact phone number – just a UK address, from which we cannot conclude with certainty that the broker is incorporated in the United Kingdome.
And unsurprisingly the broker is not regulated, as it should be, if they want to target customers on regulated markets like the European Union for example. What is even worse however, is the fact that Mt4-Trades has already been blacklisted by the financial authorities in Austria. You can see the warning here:
Otherwise from their Terms and Conditions we learn that all clearing and billing services are done by TLC CONSULTING LTD, an offshore company based on the Marshal Islands.
Our best advise in such cases is to trade only with properly regulated brokers, licensed and authorized by well respected financial watchdogs like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), or the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
Mt4-Trades deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
Mt4-Trades says to accept payments with Bitcoins, wire transfers, VISA and MasterCard and some e-wallets like Entropay Virtual Card and BPay, but not Skrill. The absence of Skrill is notable especially in the light of the new anti scam policy adopted by the money transfer company. According it Skrill partners only with licensed brokers and as we already discussed Mt4-Trades is just an anonymous, unregulated website.
As far as for the commissions and the fees, Mt4-Trades has plenty of them – a monthly maintenance fee, a clearance fee charged even if the trade is unsuccessful, a 3,5% withdraw fee and a 200 USD dormant fee, charged just after two months of inactivity. You can see for yourself:
Besides, such fees are almost never charged by legit brokers.
And besides, Mt4-Trades says it may take them up to 5 business days to process your withdraw request, while with legit brokers a withdraw request is processed within 24 hours. On top of that Mt4-Trades reserves the right “to refuse the Client the ability to withdraw funds” at their sole discretion. Check it out for yourself:
This is also something no legit broker will ever say.
Finally, be aware of any trading bonuses Mt4-Trades might offer you, because trading bonuses always come with additional withdraw conditions, like some minimum trade volume requirement, which quite too often scammers use as a pretext to cancel your withdraw requests.
Otherwise their minimum deposit requirement is set at 250 USD and this is in line with what most brokers would also ask for.
How does the scam work?
If you ever happen to come across one of the so called robo scam websites like Bitcoin Revival and Bitcoin Profit you will probably watch a rather convincing video telling you about the benefits of trading the crypto markets with some innovative trading platform, that is supposed to automatically generate profits, while you sit back and watch.
And if you get interested and register, by leaving your e-mail and phone in a second you will be transferred to the web page of a unregulated, offshore, scam broker, where you will be offered to open a trading account with about 250 USD.
And your initial trades might look spectacularly successful, but that will be just a part of the scam. Scammers will be manipulating your trading account with the sole intention that later you will be much more willing to deposit a larger sum. And that is exactly what your senior account manager will be suggesting on the phone – by that time you will be getting lots of phone calls – if you really want to make some real cash you will definitely have to invest more – like ta least 10 000 USD.
And believe it or not, but at that stage most people do invest that kind of money without realizing they have been tricked until the very moment they attempt to withdraw some of their cash. Than all of a sudden it turns out withdraws are not possible because of some minimum trade volume requirement, possibly linked to a welcome bonus. Whatever the excuse, be aware that scammers will not pay you a single penny back.
What to do if scammed?
If you are scammed you do have a chance to get your deposit back, but only if you have payed with VISA or MasterCard. This is because both VISA and MasterCard will allow you to file for a charge back within 540 days.
Also, be aware that if for some reason you have shared with scammers your personal banking details like your credit card number or online banking password, they may try to steal money directly from your bank account. If that is the case, immediately change the password and block your credit card.
Also, if you are approached by the so called recovery agencies do not trust them – they will not recover you a single penny, but simply will ask for some fees in advance, basically scamming you a second time.
