Beware! PrimeStocks 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.
PrimeStocks claims to be a professional broker with excellent reputation, which offers scores of currency pairs and plenty of CFDs on indices, precious metals, energy commodities, futures and stocks, with low spreads, leverage of up to 1:100, trading bonuses, an option for an Islamic or swap free account, and the MetaTrader4 platform. And PrimeStocks also says to be authorized to provide trading services in the European Economic Area, which sounds reassuring as well.
Unfortunately you can not trust everything a broker might publish on its home page. PrimeStocks for example turned out to be a unregulated, offshore broker, with no legit license to target regulated markets like the EU or the UK. If you are still thinking about opening a trading account with them, think again and read the following review first.
PrimeStocks regulation & safety of funds
As we noted PrimeStocks claims to be licensed and authorized to offer trading services in the countries of the European Economic Area – the 27 EU member states plus the UK, Norway, Switzerland and Island. See for yourself:
Unfortunately, as we already noted, this is not the case. PrimeStocks is an offshore broker, registered in the Marshall Islands, and the company behind it – Prime Tech Ltd. is not regulated neither in Europe, nor anywhere else for that matter.This basically means that PrimeStocks is completely unaccountable for the way they run their business – they do not have to report to anyone, and even worse, because of their offshore registration they are virtually immune against any legal action.Why? Because offshore brokers are virtually anonymous. As a mater of fact you can open a Marshall Island company yourself right here over the internet, without ever having to set a foot on those remote Pacific islands.
Properly regulated brokers on the other hand are a completely different story. They have to report regularly to the official financial watchdogs, which oversee their operations, be it the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, or the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) .
And regulated brokers have to meet a series of fiscal and legal criteria, like for example to maintain a certain level of operational capital, with which to meet all outstanding payments towards clients, to keep all clients funds in a segregated, from their own, trust account, and to participate in client compensation schemes.
The last requirement is for all brokers regulated both in the EU and the UK, where your trading capital will be insured for up to 85 000 GBP.
PrimeStocks deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
PrimeStocks says to accept payments with credit cards like VISA and MasterCard, as well as bank wire. Unfortunately we were not able to verify this, nor do we know what is the broker’s minimum deposit requirement. Here, however, we would like to bring to your attention something that at first glance might seem benign, but in reality is what scammers use as a pretext, when they cancel your withdraw requests.
Trading bonuses might surely look attractive, but in practice they always come with strings attached – a minimum trade volume requirement, which unless met, makes you ineligible to withdraw. This is one of scammers favorite tools. See for yourself:
On top of that PrimeStocks reserves the right to change their bonus policy on their sole discretion, which makes it rather obvious, why you may never be eligible to withdraw anything.
How does the scam work?
Be aware that no one is immune to online scams. Scammers are extremely inventive and spare no resources, when it comes to hunting for new victims. They employ professional call centers and use the services of the so called robo scam websites like Crypto Engine and Crypto Master Bot, where potential investors are lured with promises of fast and easy returns – 100% risk free guaranteed.
And at first you will be asked for nothing more than your e-mail and phone, just to fill a simple registration form. And if you do register you will be transferred to another web page – that of a unregulated, offshore broker, where you will be offered to open a trading account with a small initial deposit – about 250 USD.
And then you will start receiving regular phone calls by your dedicated account managers, who basically will be trying to convince you to deposit more and more. And it will seem that you are making a lot of money – at least that is what your trading balance will appear to show. That however will not be real, because your trading results will surely be manipulated.
And then, when you decide to make a withdraw you will be told that you can not, because of the minimum trade volume requirement you have not met – a requirement, linked to your trading bonus. The excuse to cancel your withdraw requests might certainly be different, but the end result will always be that – your withdraw request will be canceled under various pretexts and pretty soon it will turn out that your money are lost.
What to do if scammed?
Honestly, in case you are a victim of a scam, your options to recover your funds will be quite limited and will depend on the payment method you have used to deposit them. You will be lucky if you have paid with a major credit or debit card like VISA or MasterCard, or a major e-wallet like Skrill, PayPal, or Neteller, because in that case you will be able to file for a charge back. If you have paid with bitcoins on the other hand you may forget about your money. Bitcoin payments and crypto payments in general are completely irreversible.
And be aware that some scammers might even try to steal cash directly from your bank account. That may happen if you have told them your personal banking details – credit card number, your security code or your online banking password. Another way around is if scammers have tricked you to install Team Viewer or Any Desk – remote desktop applications, which would give scammers access to your PC and banking details. In any of those circumstances, immediately block your credit card, delete the remote desktop application and change your online banking password.
And if you get approached by any of the so called recovery agencies, do not trust them. You will not be assisted to recover your money, but simply will be asked to pay some fees in advance and that will be the end of the story.
