Beware! ImperialCapitals 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.
ImperialCapitals says to provide premium forex and CFD services with a choice of three trading platforms, including MetaTrader4 and four account types. And the broker also says to be based in the UK and to operate another office in Denmark.
This sounds really reassuring, if only ImperialCapitals had a forex license, which they lack so we strongly advise you to read the following paragraphs before making any deposits with them.
ImperialCapitals regulation & safety of funds
Despite their purported offices in Denmark and the UK ImperialCapitals is owned and operated by an offshore company – Inter Media ltd, which is based on St. Vincent and the Grenadines. And while an offshore registration is not a crime per se, the fact that ImperialCapitals is not registered and regulated by any official financial authority, neither in the EU, nor in the UK, as they should be if they want to target those markets legally, means that most probably we are dealing with scammers.
And bear in mind as well that in their Terms and Conditions ImperialCapitals mention a couple of other companies as well, without giving any further details, so we can not even be sure which company truly represents the broker. The names of those companies are PRP Technologies LTD, Light Media LTD and West Media Group.
Bear in mind that your only insurance against getting scammed is a legit forex license issued by a respectable financial institution, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
A legit forex license means that your broker will be subject to a strict regulatory oversight, and that it will be completely transparent about the why it handles your funds.
On top of that with brokers regulated in the EU and the UK your funds will even be protected by a special client compensation funds, in practice insuring your trading balance for up to a certain amount – 20 000 EUR in most EU countries and 85 000 GBP in the UK.
ImperialCapitals deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
Although ImperialCapitals sports the logos of VISA and MasterCard on its homepage, when we registered and attempted to make a payment, it turned out our only option is to make a payment with bitcoins through cryptopaytech.com, where if you do not have a bitcoin wallet you are offered to register one and buy some bitcoins with which to pay the broker.
Be aware that bitcoin payments and crypto payments in general are preferred by scammers for a reason. For a start, crypto payments can not be reversed and are virtually anonymous. And that explains why ImperialCapitals does not offer you an option to pay with your card. If you have paid with your VISA or MasterCard you will have 540 days to file for a charge back in case you realize you have been scammed.
Also, be aware that ImperialCapitals offers trading bonuses, which are yet another tool in the scammers’ arsenal. Trading bonuses are linked to additional withdraw conditions – usually some minimum trade volume requirement, which you will have to meet before you will be allowed to make a withdraw. On top of that scammers usually reserve the right to change their bonus policy on their sole discretion, which is the reason, why you may never be eligible to withdraw.
How does the scam work?
You may not be aware, but scammers are pretty well organized and do not spare resources when it comes to stealing cash from careless investors. For a start they always use professional call centers and specially designed promo websites, which we call robo scam websites, like Crypto Engine and Crypto Master Bot, where you might be lured by promises of fast and easy profits, without any risk involved. And if you get hooked and register with your e-mail and phone, you will be transferred to the website of a unregulated scam broker and will be asked to deposit about 250 USD.
And then you will start receiving regular calls by people, who will present themselves as senior account managers and analysts, and who basically will be trying to convince you to deposit more money. And besides, your trading account might seem to be growing as well, but that will be only because your trading results will be manipulated.
Everything however will change the day you decide to withdraw some of your cash. Than you will be surprised to learn that you are not eligible to withdraw because you have not met your minimum trade volume requirement, usually linked to your trading bonus. The pretext might be different of course, but that will not change the fact that you will not be paid back.
What to do if scammed?
There is only one way to get your deposit back in case you have been scammed and it is to file for a charge back at the bank that has issued your credit card. Naturally, this will work only if you have paid with your VISA or MasterCard.
And you will have a similar option if you have paid with a major e-wallet like Skrill, PayPal, or Neteller – in this case however, you should make the charge back request directly to the payment provider.
If you have used a less conventional payment method like crypto coins however, you may not be that lucky. Crypto payments are more or less anonymous and are totally irreversible.
And you should be aware as well that if given an option, scammers would gladly steal money directly from your bank account. That may happen if you have been tricked to tell them your personal banking details like your credit card number and security code, or if they have convinced you to install a remote desktop application like AnyDesk or TemaViewer. In that case you should immediately cancel your credit card, delete the application and change your online banking password. Be aware that with a remote desktop application installed on your PC scammers will have full access to your files, card numbers and personal passwords.
Finally, you should be aware as well that sometimes scammers work with the so called recovery agencies. You get scammed and then you get approached by a recovery agency which claims that they will recover your stolen funds. This sounds great, except that first you will be asked to cover some fees in advance, which basically means that you will be scammed a second time. The recovery agencies will not help you in any way, if you have not already succeeded to recover your deposit with a charge back.
