Beware! Levicryptotrade 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.
Levicryptotrade wants you to believe that your investment is safe with this broker. How much of it is true though and is this broker reliable? We check the facts in order to advise you whether you can entrust your hard-earned money to this broker, or not.
Levicryptotrade Regulation and safety of funds
From the website of Levicryptotrade, we understand that the address of the company is in the UK. The official regulatory body for forex brokers in this jurisdiction is the Financial Conduct Authority, so we check its register to find out if this broker is legit. From the image below, you can see for yourself that the name of the company does not exist in it. This shows that Levicryptotrade is not a legitimate broker, therefore, making any investments with this broker will expose your funds to risk.
FCA is a strict regulator of UK brokers and many precautions are set in place to prevent scammers from infiltrating the ranks of legit brokers. To get a license, UK brokers must have an initial capital of no less than 730,000 EUR. As you can see, scammers will have trouble matching this amount of money just for the benefit of looking legit. The other measures to protect clients’ money include keeping clients’ funds segregated from the broker’s with tier-1 bank establishments, providing negative balance protection, keep low leverage, report transactions on a regular basis for the sake of transparency, allow external audits, etc. One of the biggest perks in trading with UK brokers is that they participate and deduct funds towards the local Financial Services Compensation Scheme which in case of bankruptcy can dispense up to 85,000 GBP per client.
Similar to their UK counterparts, EU brokers must abide by the same regulations. The major difference consists in the fact that they participate in a local investor compensation fund which can provide up to 20,000 EUR per client in the form of compensation if the broker becomes insolvent.
Levicryptotrade Trading software
If you decide to register a trading account with Levicryptotrade, you will find out that there is no trading platform as such. What you get is a dashboard (image below) with a third-party chart in the middle developed by TradingView showing the EUR/USD currency pair fluctuation in price in a given time frame. There is no button for executing any trades.
Yet, this broker assures you that you can trade in 4 simple steps which include the selection of the trading product, entering the expiring time and specific amount to trade, deciding whether the price will go up or down, and approving the trade. If you think that this resembles more doing guessing work rather than real trading, then you are right. In general, this is what trading with binary options is. However, you should know that trade in binary options is banned in the UK and the EU and this is another proof that this broker is a scammer.
If you are looking for a more conventional way of trading, you should turn your attention to licensed brokers offering good quality software, such as the MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 that are equipped with an excellent package of trading tools and instruments that enhance clients’ trading experience and offer a good range of advantages. For example, both platforms have an auto trading option, an app market, VPS, a financial calendar, trading signals, a code base with customs scripts, etc. The plethora of charting options combined with the technical analysis indicators helps traders predict the future direction of exchange rates and make a profit.
Levicryptotrade Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
Levicryptotrade offers 4 trading accounts (image below) – Mini, Standard, Executive, and VIP. The minimum initial deposit for the Mini account is $350. This may not look like a huge amount of money but legit brokers in comparison will ask for as little as $1-5. The other accounts start at $1,000, $2,500 and $5,000 respectively.
The information on the company’s website says that the payment methods are credit card, Bitcoin, and wire transfer. However, if you click on the deposit button on the dashboard, you will find out that payments can be made only via a Bitcoin wallet. Also, on the dashboard, it says that the minimum fund amount is $500!
The minimum withdrawal amount is $50. It takes up to 7 business days for the withdrawal request to be processed and another 7 to 10 business days for the withdrawal amount to show in the client’s account.
If you take a second look at the trading accounts image, you will notice that for each account this broker offers bonuses that range from 10% to 75% except for the VIP account where the bonus is custom made. The Terms and Conditions document is not available on this broker’s website, so we do not have any information as to what conditions these bonuses are submitted. However, you should know that bonuses may look attractive as it seems that they add extra trading power but in fact, they are funds belonging to the broker and usually traders are required to fulfill some very hard requirements to be eligible to withdraw the bonus amount. Accepting bonuses should be treated with caution as they may create a real mess with the client’s funds and withdrawal options. Besides, legit brokers are banned from offering bonuses and this is another proof that we are dealing with a scammer.
How does scam work?
Actually, it’s quite simple and people often fall into the trap of experienced scammers. We bet you have seen those attractive ads on the Internet promising big and quick profits over a short period of time. Just provide your personal information, and voila! The scam brokers are waiting for you and you will be inundated with phone calls promising easy profit. Tempting, right? You think ‘ok, I can spend $200-300 and see what profit it brings me’. Congratulations, you just provided a fat commission for your scammers that will be distributed down the food chain. Now you have ‘graduated’ to be handed over to a senior ‘broker’, a smooth talker who will try to convince you that there is no more perfect time like now to invest more money. After all, you want to make more profit, right? However, something starts to feel off and now you start asking yourself questions and all you want is to withdraw your money and get out fast.
Unfortunately, it is too late! Someone has pulled the cheese and you are trapped because scammers don’t give up easily. Scammers will do anything in order to delay you so that you miss the deadline for a chargeback.
What to do if scammed?
Our advice is to immediately file for a chargeback if you have been lucky enough to make your deposit via credit card. VISA and MasterCard allow for 540 days chargeback period, so you still have a chance to get your money back.
Things don’t look so good if your currency of choice has been Bitcoin or bank wire. In that case, you may have to wave your money goodbye.
There are some other things that you can do in case of being scammed – cancel your credit card if you have given your CVV code to the scammers. Also, erase any software from your computer that gives scammers access to your private data.
Be warned, as well, that some so-called ‘recovery agents’ may approach you promising to recover your funds for a fee. It could be another form of scam where scammers prey on your misfortune. Should you choose to use one, you must make sure that you are dealing with a genuine and legitimate agency by checking their credential and company’s information and transparency.
