Beware! Encore Capitals 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.
What hides behind the kind of childish and bland interface of Encore Capitals? We are looking at some key features to advise you if it is safe or not to trade with this broker.
Encore Capitals Regulation and safety of funds
The site of Encore Capitals is owned and operated by Encore FX Ltd with address in the UK. We searched the register of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which regulates forex brokers in the UK to see if the name of the company is in it. Our search came up blank. Such a company is not registered or licensed by FCA (screenshot below) which means that Encore Capitals is non-legit, non-licensed and is possibly a scammer. We do not advise you to trade with this broker. Besides, we found on its website that Encore Capitals does not provide services to residents of the EU. Why then pretend to be registered in the UK?
To be licensed with FCA, forex brokers must jump through various hoops. First of all, they must have an initial capital that is no less than 730,000 EUR. This, among other things, serves as a barrier against scammers as they would never invest such a big amount of money just to look legit. Other measures to protect clients and their funds include keeping clients’ accounts separately with tier-1 banks, reporting transactions on a daily basis to avoid shady deals, providing protection against negative balance, etc. One of the biggest benefits for traders though is the existence of the local Financial Services Compensation Scheme from which, if their broker is regulated by FCA and deducts funds towards this scheme, traders can be compensated up to 85,000 GBP per person if the broker goes bankrupt.
Encore Capitals Trading software
The trading products offered by Encore Capitals are forex, CFDs and metals and the trading software consist of MetaTrader 5 platform. Unfortunately, due to some error in Encore Capitals system, the email that was supposed to verify the email address did not contain the login details, hence we were not able to open the live account in order to check the platform’s parameters.
However, we can advise you from the information that we found on the website, that the leverage offered by this broker is way too high. Depending on the trading account, it can reach 1:1000. If you are familiar with the implications high leverage may have on your funds, you’ll realise that such high leverage amplifies traders’ exposure to the risk of losing in a big way. We absolutely do not advise you to use such leverage for your transactions. Also, be aware that forex brokers regulated in the UK cannot exceed leverage higher than 1:30. This is another proof that this forex broker is not reliable to trade with.
We must say that the trading platform offered by Encore Capitals, MT5, is one of the best platforms in the forex trade world. This platform comes equipped with one of the best trading tools and instruments package and contains an auto trading option, trading signals, code base with customs scripts, VPS, an app market, a financial calendar, etc. After adding the hedging option in 2016, the popularity of this platform increased even more. However, you should know that a platform is as good as its broker is reliable and, unfortunately, here is not the case!
Encore Capitals Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
Encore Capitals offers 5 trading accounts – Rookie, Scalper, Standard, Elite and Islamic. The minimum initial deposit for the Rookie account is $10.
As you can see from the image below, payment methods include credit card, Skrill, Neteller, PerfectMoney, Bitcoin and wire transfer.
Similarly to other shady brokers, this one too offers different types of bonuses – $50 No Deposit Bonus, 15% Tradable Bonus and Invite Your Friends Bonus. Offering bonuses is a good way to mess up with traders’ accounts and withdrawal options. Although they appear in the traders’ accounts, bonuses are funds that belong to the broker and they have different conditions attached to them. For example, in the 15% Tradable Bonus, traders must invest $100 to be eligible for this bonus and they must trade at least 15% volume to be able to withdraw the profits.
For your information licensed brokers never offer bonuses or other free gifts and this is another way to distinguish them from the fake brokers.
How does scam work?
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’ mousetrap 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 a while 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 a chargeback.
What to do if scammed?
There are a few things that you must do immediately – file for a 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 a 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 a 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 the scammer access to your personal data.
