Beware! LTM Trade 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.
According to a page on the website, thanks to its long history in the industry, an established and satisfied customer base and an impressive network among its peers, LTM Trade enjoys a strong market share in the Hong Kong stock market. However, on other pages, the broker also claims to be a well-established EU broker, Cayman Islands legendary broker, top Australian Forex provider and so on. Well, none of it is true. In fact, LTM Trade is a scam scheme, and we are going to prove it in the following review.
LTM Trade REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
The screenshot above shows the office locations of LTM Trade, so it needs a bunch of licenses as each country has a strict regulator disallowing entities that are not locally authorised to offer their services. We started our research with the British FCA, and as you can see from the picture below, LTM Trade has no license, meaning that it can’t operate legally in the UK. We also checked the Cypriot regulator CySEC to find nothing about the broker, just as expected. So, LTM Trade is a scam fraudulently pretending to be a worldwide recognised brokerage. Well, if it weren’t so noisy about its regulatory status, we would still remain merely suspicious, but LTM Trade claims to be CIMA regulated, EU regulated, FCA regulated and so forth. No doubt, that’s a scam!
However, on the website footer, one can see LTM Trade claiming that the website is operated by some Ukrainian company, which also happens to be untraceable. It’s most probably fictitious, which further proves that LTM Trade is just a scam. Nevertheless, we need to talk about regulations because every scam broker out there is unregulated. What does that mean, actually? Well, each trustworthy financial authority imposes numerous rules to guarantee transparency, ethical business behaviour, fraud prevention and safety for the clients’ funds. So, as you can guess, scammers can’t carry out their fraudulent business if they should abide by regulations and laws, meaning that every scam broker should remain unregulated, i.e., anonymous and unaccountable.
That’s why you should always stick with companies authorised by trustworthy financial regulators like CySEC (Cyprus) and FCA (Britain). Both mentioned force brokers to keep deposits segregated local banks, thus ensuring that clients won’t lose their capital if something wrong happens. The segregation improves transparency, speeds withdrawals up, makes chargebacks easier and generally helps prevent fraud. What’s more, the European FX companies are covered by deposit insurance funds laid down to compensate clients in case of unforeseen events- CySEC brokers’ clients can claim up to €20 000 per person, while the British guarantees are even up to £85 000.
At the end of this section, we can assert that you’ll waste time on fraud if you deposit with LTM Trade. Avoid it at every cost.
LTM Trade TRADING SOFTWARE
Now, we got on to more fraudulent claims- LTM Trade lies about its software. The broker says that MetaTrader 4 is available, but that’s not true. In fact, we could get no platform whatsoever because the sign-up page turned out to be broken, so the trading software remained out of reach. In any case, LTM Trade is a scam, so its software isn’t really an important aspect.
As a result, we can’t discuss trading costs (spreads) or risks (leverage). However, LTM Trade claims to provide leverage of up to 1:200, so it single-handedly exposes itself as illegal because neither FCA nor CySEC allows such ratios- both regulators impose a cap of 1:30. Avoid!
LTM Trade DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The minimum deposit is unknown, but Clients can deposit no more than $1999 to open a Bronze account (for beginners). The funding methods are unknown, but LTM Trade indicates that bank transfers are possible. Still, the broker is a scam, so you shouldn’t send even a dime to these scammers.
As for withdrawals, there is nothing to talk about as the link to the Terms is also broken. Even more so, even if LTM Trade provided information about withdrawals and fees, it would be strictly fraudulent.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
We exposed LTM Trade as fraudulent, so make sure to stay away from this sham enterprise at every cost. That being so, we’ll now describe what fraudsters usually do while carrying out their crooked activities.
So, when fraudsters get hold of your contact numbers, you’ll get a call, promised the moon and the stars if you deposit immediately. And to gain trust, those criminals will usually pretend to work for governments, financial authorities, banks, other reputable companies and so on. Scammers will be confident in what they say, so if you don’t see the warning signs, you may end up depositing fascinated by their fake commitment. However, the fraudulent game actually begins after you send the money. Once they have the desired deposit, the cons will distort prices and forge fake reports to make you believe you are on the winning side, manipulating you to start thinking big and consider more deposits.
Then, the fraudsters will continuously ask you to increase the size of the investment and invent stories to make you deposits over and over again. Sooner or later, though, you’ll get determined to withdraw some money, and then the scammers will ask you to deposit again because, according to their words, there are taxes and fees that you should pay. At this point, you’ll probably realise something wrong is going on, and when the scam becomes too apparent, the cons will simply stop answering your calls and e-mails.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
It would be best if you first call your bank to inform it and then deactivate your card to avoid any additional risks, as the scammers may as well have obtained your details.
Then, call the police, inform the financial authorities, file complaints and don’t forget to spread the word online so that other people can find out about the particular scam, too. Still, it’s crucial not to rush trying to reclaim your funds as numerous scams are disguised as chargeback agencies set up to double-scam victims.
Finally, we know it’s an awful experience to get scammed, but please share your story to help protect others!
