Beware! Kodin Markets 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.

 

If you are looking now at Kodin Markets, what would be your first impression – a forex company set to offer a variety of trading activities. Sounds good? Let’s check it out!

To its clients, Kodin Markets offers trading in forex, CFD, metals, indices and commodities. The company offers 4 different accounts (as per the screenshot below) – ECN, Pro, VIP and Islamic. To open an account is a straightforward procedure. You register by entering your name, phone number, email address. After that, almost instantly, you get a verification email that asks you to provide personal and address identification before your account is activated. However, when completing the registration, we noticed something odd – to finalise your registration you need to agree to Kodin Markets Privacy Policy. However, when you click the link to read the document, nothing happens. The link is broken, yet you cannot register if you do not tick off the box that you agree to this policy. Immediately a red alarm is turned on because with a genuine and legitimate forex company this wouldn’t happen. We searched further to read the Terms and Conditions document and guess what? Such document does not seem to exist on the company’s website. Now we are openly suspicious, but let’s look further.

Kodin Markets Regulation and safety of funds

Next we looked into the company address and registration. The company’s address is in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). What you need to know is that SVG is an offshore zone and the Financial Services Authority of SVG does not regulate forex and CFD brokers. What does this tell you? Yes, Kodin Markets appears to be a scam! 

In addition to that, the information on their website saying that the company is licensed in UK is also false. Scammers in this era of IT must have a really hard time trying to create something that can pass as credible without realising that only by one click on the computer their lies will be exposed.

If you are planning to engage in forex trading, you should choose a forex company that is registered, regulated and provides some set precautions to guarantee the safety of your funds. Please check out legitimate forex brokers in the well-established jurisdictions, such as EU, UK and US. Why? Because to open a company, brokers from these jurisdictions need to meet rigid requirements and audits. They must have a trading capital of no less than 730,000 EUR for EU and UK. In addition to that, they must contribute to compensation funds, so that in the unlikely case of going bankrupt, their clients will be compensated by up to 20,000 EUR if the broker is regulated by CySEC and up to 85,000 GBP if the broker is regulated by FCA.

The only safety and protection Kodin Markets can do for you (as per the information on their website) is put your deposit into a segregated account. Do you think this guarantees safety and protection of your funds? Of course not! Scammers won’t go through any hassle just to look legitimate. So, please, do your research when choosing your forex trading broker and do not take unnecessary risks. A company without a proper registration and regulation is a big NO!

Kodin Markets Trading software

Although Kodin Markets is clearly a scam, at least they have the decency to offer a topnotch trading platform. We are talking about MetaTrader 5, of course, one of the reputed and very popular among forex brokers trading softwares. MetaTrader5 along with its older version, MetaTrader 4, offers a lot of perks to the traders – a great charting package, various tools and instruments, a code base with customs scripts, an app market, trading signals (for subscription fee), VPS and others.

Let’s take a look at Kodin Markets MT5 Terminal (screenshot below). We see on the left hand side the forex pairs with their bid/ask prices and below that, the menu for navigating tools and instruments. In the middle, we have a display of 4 different forex pairs which gives you the opportunity to trade simultaneously. If you look at the spread for EUR/USD, you will see that it is o,8 pips which comes close to the spread advertised in the VIP account.

 

You may have noticed that the company’s trading accounts offer different spreads  and leverages. The lowest spread of 0.03 pips and the lowest leverage 1:300 is for the ECN account. Although the perks of the ECN trade are quick and easy trade without a middleman and the possibility to trade outside of trading hours, traders have to pay per-trade-based commission which can affect the profitability. In the case of Kodin Market, the commission is $3 per standard per lot.

Another feature we want to comment on is the high leverage varying from 1:300 to 1:400 and 1:500 depending on which account you will choose to trade with. Please take a moment and compare these leverages with the leverages that registered and regulated brokers in EU and US can have. Did you know that in Europe legitimate brokers cannot exceed a leverage higher than 1:30 and in the US, higher than 1:50. Compare this with the leverages Kodin Markets offer and think why legitimate brokers have  leverage caps imposed on? To prevent traders from taking huge risks with their funds. High leverage can mean big win or big loss.

And so, here is another proof that Kodin Markets is out there to rob you off your hard-earned money. Do not get tempted and do not get duped. We don’t want you crying in your ice cream!

Kodin Markets Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees

On the company’s account information page, we see that the minimum initial deposit is $100 but contrary to that, in the ribbon across the company’s website, we see also a minimum deposit of $1. We do not know how to explain this discrepancy in the deposit information but want to ask you – would trade via such broker that displays conflicting information on its website? The other 2 accounts – VIP and ECN have much higher initial deposits – $1,000 and $5,000 respectively.

To fund your account, you have a variety of choices – Neteller, Skrill, Giropay, American Express, JCB, Payeer, WebMoney, Visa/MasterCard to name a few. Most of the deposits are instant an there is no fee.

The same methods apply for withdrawal and again the processing time for most methods is instant or up to 2 hours.

No matter how good the payment and withdrawal methods may seem to you, do not forget that you are dealing with a shady brokerage without proper registration, so stay on your guard!

How does scam work?

A lot of people get scammed everyday, not because they are naive or stupid, but because scammers are inventive and they are masters of manipulation. Often, as you scroll up and down on the Internet or social media, you come across ads for a quick and easy profit which sometimes sound too tempting not to fall into their traps. So you deposit some money into the account and what happens next is the incessant calls of the scammers. First, they congratulate you for taking the first steps towards becoming rich and next, they try to convince you to invest even more money into their ‘profitable’ business. What you probably don’t know is that your money has just gone as a commission to some scammers. And so, you wait and build the sandcastles of your dreams for a better and ‘richer’ future. And you wait, and you wait, for the money to come. But where is it? Now is your turn to call the scammers and to ask what’s going on. They try to placate you and ask you to be more patient. But have had enough and all you want is to get your money back. The scammers kind of promise, but now they are asking you to provide this document or fill out that form, etc., etc., all done in an attempt to delay you from filing for chargeback.

What to do if scammed?

If this happens to you, our advice is to act immediately and if you have paid your deposit via credit/debit card, to file for chargeback which is retroactive cancellation and refund of your previous transaction. Visa and MasterCard give you 540 days time limit to file for chargeback which gives you a fighting chance to recover your money.

However, if you have used bitcoin or bank wire for your payment, the chances of you recovering your money are really slim.

Whatever you do to recover your funds, beware of the so-called recovery agents. Please make sure that you are dealing with a genuine one by checking their credentials and company’s information transparency. Otherwise, you may fall victim to another form of scam.

Cancelling your credit/debit card in case you have given the scammers your CVV code may be another good idea. Also, make sure to remove from your PC any software that my give scammers access to your private data stored on your computer.

Top Forex Brokers

BrokerCountryRatingMin. DepositWebsite
US4.99/5$50 Click for a special offerWebsite

1 Comment

  1. Hello am using this kodin markets since 1.5 years… till now no issues for me.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *