Beware! ActiveOptionTrade 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.
ActiveOptionTrade is a suspicious bitcoin broker that lacks some key information concerning its legitimacy. The trading conditions details have also not been disclosed, which further reveals the true nature of this brokerage firm.
ACTIVEOPTIONTRADE REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
The broker claims at one point that it is located in the United States, which is the most demanding forex ground in the world. Brokers in the United States must hold licenses/ be approved by both the National Futures Association (NFA) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). These two agencies require from any wanna be broker some extreme conditions that only a handful of firms can cover. For example, each new broker must hold a capital of a minimum of $20 000 000. This condition alone can rule out ActiveOptionTrade as being located in the US. Aside from that, ActiveOptionTrade mentions no actual regulation. Furthermore, the broker has no Terms and Conditions documents, therefore there is no binding legal document that guarantees the trader’s rights to be met. We can easily and surely conclude that ActiveOptionTrade is UNLICENSED, and as such is a risk to all investments.
Traders should be trading with risk-free brokers, that hold licensed from renowned and austere agencies, like the FCA or CySec , which have made a name for themselves as some of the top regulators. Readers should be aware that both agencies have adapted very strict rules of conduct, and their licensing framework guarantees safety and security for all clientele. A good example of this is the segregation of accounts which assures that client money and broker money are kept in separate accounts. Furthermore, FCA/CySEC brokers participate in a financial reimbursement scheme that cover traders losses in case the broker becomes insolvent. The FCA provides up to 85 000 pounds per person, while CySEC guarantees up to 20 000 euros.
ACTIVEOPTIONTRADE TRADING SOFTWARE
For a bitcoin investor to function properly it must include a trading software that allows the exchange of btc. ActiveOptionTrade has not include such a terminal; we opened an account and were redirected to the client portal which harbors no platform for conducting trades. The website is also unhelpful, as it does not disclose any details concerning a platform. Unfortunately, we cannot give you any trading conditions details for the reasons just stated.
ACTIVEOPTIONTRADE DEPOSIT/WITHDRAWAL METHODS AND FEES
The minimum deposit is $300. There are multiple accounts each with its own minimum deposit amount. The largest minimum deposit is $10 000. Deposits are made via Bitcoin, Wire Transfer, Western Union, Money Gram, Skrill, and Paypal. There are no deposit fees, as per the client area.
Withdrawals can be done via Bitcoin and Bank Transfer. However, there is no further info on withdrawals. Fees and a minimum withdrawal amount, are unfortunately, kept a secret.
We strongly advise traders to only deposit the minimum deposit, or better yet- not deposit at all! As for the withdrawals, scammers are known to either deny such requests, or impose incoming and unexpected charges.
How does the scam work?
Users will be in the middle of a scam without even knowing it, that’s how efficient these scams are. Yet, clients will also be surprised that the most utilized scammer structure is laughably easy to grasp, making it predictable. We have dedicated the following section to the reveal of how the scam works.
The internet is filled with ads, it’s the fuel of the industry, and a big chunk of said advertisements are misleading and some are downright deceitful. The ads concerned with unregulated forex brokers are often very promising, and most of the times utilize completely false claims of immediate profit. Those tempted enough will be redirected to a robo-scam website that further guarantees profits. The only thing that separates the user from the unrealistic promises is a fast registration process that requires a phone number and an email address. After inputting this info unsuspecting users will start getting phone calls from illicit broker representatives, whose one and only job is to initialize the scheme by pushing a trader to make that first deposit of around $250. After that’s done, the senior representatives will be calling. These expert scammers are extremely good talkers, and will start working on you to start putting even more money in. They say that the more money invested, the higher the profit will be. At this point most traders start seeing the big picture, and will want to withdrawal their money and get out fast.
However, the scammers have anticipated this development, and are ready to counter any withdrawal request. Typically they find excuses for delaying the request in the legal documents that hold specific clauses for these purposes. The reasons are many. One thing to remember is that all illicit brokerage firms will deny the withdrawal request for as long as they can, because of the imposed time limit traders have for filling a chargeback. Once the crucial due date is not met, any chargeback requests will be denied.
What to do if scammed?
Those of you who deposited using VISA and MasterCard wil be glad to know that both companies have extended their chargeback time span to 540 days, especially if the reason for it is an online scam.
Scammers will steal directly from a bank account, if the traders has provided crucial details, like banking password or security code. If it get down to this, be sure to either block the account or change the password.
Sometime victimized users will stumble upon the so called recovery agents that promises to magically reclaim all lost investments, for a fee that is. Needless to say, they will not get back any of the lost funds, and will basically scam you a second time.
