Beware! AlphaProTraders 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.
AlphaProTraders is a Forex broker providing a lot of information about itself, there are two different addresses, in Estonia and USA. The account types, the trading conditions, the funding methods and the trading platforms are presented in a great detail, we can safely say that efforts were put in order to build an adequate website. However, while browsing through their website we found plenty of disturbing facts, which made us wary and very very suspicious. You can read more about the unsettling nature of this Forex broker in the full AlphaProTraders review.
AlphaProTraders REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
AlphaProTraders does actually withhold important information about its legal status, regardless of the fact that there are plenty of details about their products and conditions, we could not find sufficient information which would prove that AlphaProTraders is a legit Forex broker. In fact, they claim that the website is owned and operated by GoldTech Media Services OÜ, which is an Estonian Company with registered capital of only 2500 EUR. If this is true, AlphaProTraders should not offer Forex products and services in the territory of EU, because the licensed broker need to comply with the minimum capital requirements of 730 000 EUR. But the worse is yet to come, this very company was blacklisted by FCA in 2018, the UK financial watchdog issued warning against GoldTech Media Services OU with trading name S2Trade(s2trade.com).
AlphaProTraders is an unlicensed, unauthorized, unregulated, and also blacklisted Forex broker and you should avoid dealing with it! Such enterprises are risky and unstable and might disappear at any given moment, leaving the traders with losses that are almost impossible to recover.
You should choose a Forex broker which is legit, transparent and regulated in EU, UK, USA or Australia. These Forex brokers put the customer protection on top of their priority list and will treat your funds with an utmost care, not because they want to, but because they have to. In EU, for example, complying with the product intervention measures that the European Securities and Markets Authority has agreed, which further CySEC and FCA have implemented, the Forex brokers are required:
- to limit the leverage to between 1:30 (Forex majors) and 2:1(cryptocurrencies);
- to close out a customer position when the funds fall to 50% of the margin needed;
- to provide negative balance protection on a per account basis, meaning that losses cannot exceed the total funds;
- to restrict or completely obliterate the incentives offered to trade Forex and CFDs;
- to provide a standardised risk warning to the customers.
Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action such as salty fines or license being suspended/revoked.
AlphaProTraders TRADING SOFTWARE
First we have to start with the fact that AlphaProTraders.com and S2Trade.com are identical websites, the only difference is the names, everything else is the same. Or, we can say that AlphaProTraders is cloning the other one, but that statement is funny, no one is going to clone a proven scam!
Here you can see the Front page of AlphaProTraders.
Here you can see the Front page of S2Trade.
AlphaProTraders says to offer MT4 accounts, but this is a lie, because there is no link to an .exe file, what is more, upon registration you cannot download Metatrader, either. There is only a TradingView chart available, which serves for informational purposes only, and the well-known Demo Trader, the casino game we’ve seen many times before. The so-called Demo Trader is actually a Binary Options demo platform with prices being manipulated! On the picture you can see EUR/USD slightly above 1.13, while at the same time the real price was 1.18770.
The EUR/USD average spread is said to be 2.4 pips, the leverage level 1:200, which is another evidence that AlphaProTraders has nothing to do with US or EU regulation, because in USA there is a leverage cap of 1:50.
In fact, AlphaProTraders offers some ambiguous investment plans, with daily profits starting from 2.5%. If you make a deposit of over 100 000 USD it means that you are going to win 30 000 USD overnight, this is ridiculous! Stay away from AlphaProTraders it is a confirmed scam!
AlphaProTraders DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The minimum deposit with AlphaProTraders is 250 USD, that is what we found on their Account Funding page. At the same time on their Account Types page the minimum deposit is said to be 300 USD, which is another red flag, too many already, but there are more to come.
The funding methods listed include bank cards, wire transfers, Skrill, Neteller and Bitcoin payment. We cannot actually confirm that these are valid, because we are required to provide Proof of Identity, which we decidedly refused to do. It is a proven scam, do not ever upload copies of personal documents or bank account information!
No minimum withdrawal specified, but the fees applied are quite handsome- a flat fee of 25 USD is applicable, no matter the sum. The request may take up to 21 business days to be processed!
The dormant account is as harsh! After 60 days of inactivity they will charge the trading account with 50 Units! After 6 months of inactivity, the Company will move the account under the dormant status and after 12 months it reserves the right to steal the money!
There are bonuses, but with unbearable trading conditions. For 1000 USD the minimum trading volume stands at 200 lots, if you want to withdraw! It is a massive number, you should trade 20 000 000 USD in order to withdraw some bonus funds! On the other hand, on their web page they do advertise investment plans, there is no trading platform to download, and on top of that they have minimum trading volume requirements! It’s ridiculous, the discrepancy is as big as the Grand Canyon! Stay away from AlphaProTrades, it is a confirmed scam.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
A group of scammers usually operates many different scam brokers, scam websites and call centers. Sometimes they will simply rely on the quantity, they will publish tens or hundreds of websites and will just wait for traders and investors with little or no experience to bite. Nowadays, it’s very cheap to create one, and it looks like a profitable strategy, as they carry on doing it.
Scammers introduce financial or investment opportunities which are often too good to be true. Lucrative returns with low or no risk at all, groundbreaking trading conditions, trading robots and bots that always execute the winning trades, the scammers will promise you the moon and the stars only to gain your trust.
There is no true protection against scam, but you will be safer if you do a thorough research, get familiar with the trading conditions offered by the brokers, read their Client Agreements, use demo accounts, read reviews, be alert. With charlatans adapting their tactics daily, you’d better be always up to date with the newest scammers’ tactics!
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
No one is immune to scam, anyone can fall into the trap. Scammers are constantly looking for new and different ways to scam consumers. What you need to do first, in case you got scammed, is to protect yourself from further risks. Contact your bank and explain to them your situation, they will give you important instructions to follow and will help you, if possible, recover your money.
Report what happened to you, file a complaint, contact the financial regulator, contact other government institutions related to trading and investing. Seek help actively!
Share online your experience, it is important to protect others, as well. Be responsible!
Avoid AlphaProTraders, it is a pure scam!
