Beware! FXBase 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.
FXBase says to be a reliable broker with over 50 000 clients all around the world. They offer various trading instruments, including lots of forex pairs and other CFDs on commodities, precious metals, indices, stocks and crypto coins with a choice of three account types, leverage as high as 500:1 and a web based trading platform.
FXBase says to have offices all over the place – from London and New York to Berlin and Singapore and to be licensed in Cyprus, the UK, Germany and Mauritius. As exciting as all of this may sound, bear in mind that the regulatory authorities in Germany have blacklisted FX Base as a scam, while upon checking the FXBase license number with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, it turned out it belongs to different broker.
FXBase regulation & safety of funds
FXBase has a somewhat complex corporate background. There is a holding company by the name of FX Base Holding Limited, which consists of FX Base Limited, presumably regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, and FX Base Global Limited, based and regulated on Mauritius. And FXBase says to be owned by FX Base Holding Limited, but to be operated by FX Base Global Limited, which basically means they are operated by an offshore company.
We should also mention that the broker says to be licensed by a number of other regulators, including BaFin in Germany and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. Take a look:
So far so good, except that the license number from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, provided by FXBase, belongs to another company – ORBEX Ltd., which has absolutely nothing to do with FXBase, and which basically means that FXBase is unlawfully using corporate and license details of a legit business in an apparent attempt to scam investors. On the screenshot below you can check out the ORBEX Ltd. license and compare the license number:
And if that is not enough, here is also a screenshot with the recent warning by the German financial regulator, because FXBase falsely claims to be regulated by them:
So our advice here is always to double check any license information a broker might share and compare the license details in the register of the respective regulator – CySEC, FCA, or let say the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
FXBase deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
FXBase accepts payments with MasterCard and VISA, wire transfers and several crypto coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but not popular e-wallets like Skrill and PayPal.
The minimum deposit requirement is twice the amount most brokers would ask for, but this is a minor issue compared to the malicious practice of offering trading bonuses with nasty withdraw conditions.
FXBase does exactly this – they offer a welcome bonus and an additional bonus awarded with every subsequent deposit. As fine as this may sound, be aware that trading bonuses come with strings attached – some minimum trade volume requirement, which you should fulfil, before you will be eligible to withdraw. And that, combined with the fact that scam brokers always reserve the right to change their bonus policies any time and on their sole discretion, makes it quite obvious why you may never be able to reach the above mentioned minimum trade volume requirement.
How does the scam work?
Probably you may not have heard of the so called robo scam websites like Bitcoin Revival and Bitcoin Profit. They are a key segment of the scammers network, and they sever as trap gateways for gullible investors. Basically such websites feature a video ad, sometimes quite well edited, which may use various techniques to convince you that you are just a step away from making a fortune, if only you agree to join some ground breaking trading platform, which actually is designed to trade on your behalf, while you sit back and watch. As easy as that. And if you get hooked by the idea, the only thing that you will have to do will be to fill a simple registration form with your e-mail and phone.
Than two things will happen almost simultaneously – you will be transferred to the web page of a unregulated, offshore scam broker, where you will open an account with about 250 USD, and you will receive a call from your personal account manager with the latest signals and market advises.
Now, do not be elated by the initial success of your trades, because that will be a part of the scam. The idea here is that latter you will be much more easily convinced to deposit a larger amount – let say 10 000 USD. And that is exactly what your “senior account manager” will be telling you – if you want to make some real cash you will surely have to invest more.
And you may be surprised by how many people at that stage do invest as much as they can without realizing they have been scammed until the very moment they attempt to request a withdraw. Then, all of a sudden it will turn out this is not possible, because they have not met some minimum trade volume requirement, possibly linked to their trading bonus. Of course the pretext might be different, but the end result will always be the same – scammers will not be paying a single dollar back.
What to do if scammed?
Probably your best and only chance to recover your deposit, in case you have been scammed, is to file for a charge back with your bank. Of course that will work only if you have paid with a credit card. Fortunately both VISA and MasterCard presently allow their customers to file for a charge back within 540 days since the deposit was made.
And be aware that often scammers will try to steal money directly from your bank account. For that they will need your online banking password and credit card number. If by any chance you have been tricked into revealing such kind of information, or if the scammers have tricked you into installing Any Deck or TeamViewer – two popular remote decktop applications, immediately delete the program, block your credit card and change your banking password.
Finally if you are approached by one of the so called recovery agencies – do not trust them. They will not be helping you in any way. They will just collect some fees in advance, and basically that will be the end of the story.
