Beware! Livia Options 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.
Do not trade with Livia Options as the information on its website is misleading and full of lies!
This company trades in forex, commodities, shares and energy. Although the company’s website claims to have a demo account, the moment you decide to open it, the system doesn’t let you and takes you directly to opening a live account. This problem does not allow newbies in forex trade to practice and gain some knowledge and experience before starting to trade for real.
Livia Options Regulation and safety of funds
LvO Ltd is the company that owns Livia Options website and its trading platform. The company claims to be registered in Malta and regulated by the Maltese Financial Services Authority (MFSA). This is a big fat lie! MFSA has already issued a warning (screenshot below) that this company is scam!
The first thing you should do before choosing a forex company to trade with, is to confirm that the forex broker you are considering is legitimate – has a registration and is regulated by the country’s financial services authority. Without that, do not invest your money as there won’t be any guarantee for their safety! We suggest that you look into forex brokers from well-established jurisdictions. Why? Because only they will provide you with guarantee for your funds. Forex brokers from EU, UK and US must meet a lot of requirements in order to be licensed and regulated. For example, there is a requirement for an initial capital that for the brokers from EU and UK is 730,000 EUR and for the US is $20 million. Scammers won’t invest so much money just to look legitimate. In addition to that, legit brokers must participate in compensation schemes and deduct money to the compensation fund. This is a measure in case the broker goes bankrupt to compensate the clients with up to 20,000 EUR per person if the company is regulated by CySEC or 85,000 GBP per person if the company is regulated by FCA. As a prevention from scam, these brokers must report about their transactions on a daily basis to provide transparency. So, as you can see, selecting a legitimately registered and regulated forex broker is the wise thing to do!
Livia Options Trading software
The trading platform for Livia Options is MetaTrader5. On the screenshot below, you can see an unbranded MetaTrader 5. On the left hand side, you see the menu for the different forex pairs and their bid/ask price. Beneath is the navigator for the different tools and instruments. In the middle of the screen you see displayed 4 charts each one containing a pair of forex currencies with the fluctuation in price for a given time frame. If we look at the first currency pair, EUR/USD, we see that the spread is 3 pips. MetaTrader 5 is considered one of the best trading platforms and is preferred by over 80% of forex brokers for its many advantages. For example, there is practically no limit to the number of charts that can be displayed in various designs. Other advantages include code base with custom scripts, auto trading option, an app market, a financial calendar, VPS, trading signals that come with a subscription fee, etc.
However, please do not forget, that offering an excellent trading platform does not preclude the fact that this company is scam!
Livia Options Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
From the company’s website we understand that there are 5 accounts to choose from: Starter, Platinum, Bronze, Gold and Diamond. The minimum initial deposit is $500 for the Starter. However, in the Terms and Conditions document as the minimum initial deposit is shown $300. The quotation of different amounts for the initial deposit is a contradictory information that will confuse the client. The other initial deposits start at $1,500, 4,500, 9,100 and 15,000 respectively. To make a deposit, clients have a choice between VISA/MasterCard, Bitcoin, Yandex Money, bank transfer, QIWI Wallet, Neteller, WebMoney and Skrill. There is no processing fee.
To withdraw funds, clients can use the same payment methods as for deposits. To process a withdrawal request takes between 1 and 2 business days. Only Bitcoin is instant. For withdrawals via Skrill and Neteller, there is 2.9% fee and for the others, clients need to inquire with the account manager. We can conclude that the policy on withdrawals is not transparent and may contain some hidden traps.
How does scam work?
As you have seen already, scammers try to look legitimate and fool the potential clients with false information. But actually, scam works in different ways. It could be either that you receive an unsolicited telephone call or you see one of these flashy ads on the Internet or the social media promising you a quick and easy profit. Scammers will promise you the sky and the earth until you give way to temptation and deposit money. Once you give them money you get caught in the scammers’ mouse trap and the cheese in the shape of a big fat money fall is gone! It may take some time before you realise that you are being scammed. Scammers are smooth talkers and they are masters of deception. They will give you some excuses as to why the big profit hasn’t come yet and will try to lure you to make even a bigger investment because according to them, the more you invest, the more you profit. After you have been waiting for awhile and you finally come to your senses, you realise that you are being scammed. All you want now is to get your money back and get out of there. However, the scammers won’t make it easy for you! They will try to delay you so that you miss the deadline for applying for chargeback.
What to do if scammed?
There are a few things that you must do immediately – file for chargeback if you have paid using a VISA or MasterCard. Those two payment providers allow you 540 days time frame within which you may file for chargeback.
However, the chances are grim if you have used bank transfer or Bitcoin as a payment method. There is no chance you’ll be able to recover your money.
In such desperate situation, some so-called ‘recovery agents’ may approach you with offers to recover your money for a fee. Be cautious as you may be dealing with another type of scammers. Always check the information about the recovery agency – make sure it is legitimate and transparent in the public eye. Also, some scammers publish personal comments after our review about how they have been scammed and how they found a recovery agent who helped them get their money back. Do not trust such comments and do not use the published contact info in them as it will lead you to another scammer!
And lastly, a reminder to cancel your credit card if you have given your CVV code to the scammers and erase any software from you PC that gives scammer access to your personal data.
