Beware! Extra Global Trading 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.
Extra Global Trading presents itself as a highly successful broker of currencies, stocks, indices and cryptocurrencies. It’s website, extragt.com, cites hard-to-believe statistics, such as that the broker operates in over 132 countries and serves over 184,000 traders.
However, it is very easy to find out that this is just another offshore company that only poses as a legitimate broker. The website is filled with misleading and contradictory information, which is typical of fraudulent schemes. In short, your money would not be safe with the Extra Global Trading and it is advisable to avoid them.
REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Regulated brokers are required to provide clear information about where they are based and by which regulatory institutions they are supervised. But nowhere prominently on the website is it stated which is the legal entity behind the Extra Global Trading. Not even basic contact information such as address and phone number is provided, only contact emails are listed.
Only in the Terms and Conditions can it be seen that Extra Global Trading is a brand name owned and operated by Pine Consulting LTD – a company based in Marshall Islands. This offshore zone is a favourite base of operations for fraudsters because the Marshall Islands has no financial regulator. Thus the activities of scammers posing as brokers are completely uncontrolled and unregulated.
If you want to trade cryptocurrencies or other financial assets and instruments, it is highly advisable to do so through legitimate brokers operating in one of the established financial centres in the UK, EU, USA or Australia. There, the activities of brokers are controlled by powerful regulatory bodies such as Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC).
Clients of these brokers receive protections such as negative balance protection and segregation of the client’s funds from the broker’s funds, as well as guarantee for their funds in case the broker goes bankrupt. These guarantees amount to up to EUR 20,000 EU and 85,000 GBP in the UK. Regulators also have significant net capital requirements that companies must maintain – EUR 730 000 in UK and Cyprus, AUD 1000 000 in Australia and at least 20 million USD in the United States.
TRADING SOFTWARE
In many places on the Extra Global Trading website it is stated that the trading software used is the web platform Activ8, which has applications for Android and iOS. However, the links to download the software from the website are not active. After registering an account and logging into the client portal, the web platform is nowhere to be seen.
Instead, there is a link to download MetaTrader 5 (MT5). This is one of the most widely used platforms in the industry, but the problem is that the installation file is not configured for the Extra Global Trading, but for a completely different broker – the InvestoUniTrade. This is actually another scam site that we have reviewed. In all likelihood, the same scammers are behind both sites.
Such dubious sites should be avoided. Instead, you can use the services of some of the many legitimate brokers who offer their clients a wide selection of quality trading software, including MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). These platforms provide a variety of options for customization, multiple account usage, designing and implementing custom scripts for automated trading and backtesting trade strategies.
TRADING CONDITIONS
Extra Global Trading offers three account types – Micro, Standard and Premium, with a minimum deposit of EUR 500, EUR 5,000 and EUR 50,000 respectively. Regulated brokers usually offer more favorable conditions for beginner traders, including micro accounts with a minimum deposit of 100 EUR or USD.
The leverage offered far exceeds the levels allowed to regulated brokers – 1:200 for Micro account, 1:300 for Standard and 1:400 for Premium. High leverage creates the opportunity for higher profits, but also leads to increased risk, which leading regulators consider unacceptable for retail traders. EU and UK regulators limit leverage to 1:30, while in the US the limit is 1:50.
The spread is only described as “static”. In the trading platform the spread is below 1 pip, which in theory is a very competitive level, but in practice it does not matter because the platform is not even configured for this broker.
Extra Global Trading also offers bonuses to clients, which is also banned by all major regulators.
DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The logos of online payment platforms such as Neteller, Skrill, WebMoney and AstroPay can be seen on the Extra Global Trading website. However, these options do not appear in the deposit menu. There the choice is between credit card, bank transfer and Bitcoin, and only the first one is active if you have not confirmed your identity by uploading documents.
Minimum withdrawal amount for wire transfers is 250 EUR and 100 EUR for any other method. The withdrawal fee is between 25 and 50 EUR depending on the payment method.
In addition to this, a levy of 10% of the withdrawal amount will be charged to any withdrawal from an account that “has not executed more than 200 in turnover and/or from accounts that have not been verified”. It is not specified 200 of what. Such vague wording is common in fraudulent schemes. It could even mean 200 lots, i.e. the customer has to trade 20 000 000 currency units to be able to withdraw money without such an excessive fee.
Another similar trap set in the Terms and Conditions is that “bonuses issued to Client by Extra Global Trading may only be withdrawn subject to execution of a minimum trading volume of 25 times the deposit amount plus the bonus issued”.
There is also a monthly fee for dormant accounts of 10% of the account balance, which is activated after 6 months of inactivity.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
The online space is full of ads promising easy money. They sound too good to be true, because they are not – they are outright scams. Many of these fraudsters pose as brokers and take advantage of the general public’s ignorance of the capital markets.
If you give your contact details to one of the flashy sites promising to make you rich, you will be contacted by experienced scammers who will start convincing you to “invest” in their scheme. Initially they will ask for a small amount, say USD 250 or USD 500. If you agree, they will begin to persuade you to give them larger sums.
However, your money will never be truly invested in the market, and you will not be able to receive either the supposed profits or the money from your deposit. Your attempts to withdraw your money will be blocked by deliberately confusing clauses in the terms and conditions. Some of the most commonly used traps are extremely high minimum trading volume requirements or withdrawal fees equal to 10%, 20% or more of your funds.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
It is very important not to rush into trusting people on the internet who offer to magically refund your money for a fee. These are also scammers, and they may even be the same ones who scammed you in the first place.
If you have made the transfers using credit or debit card, you can claim a chargeback. Visa and MasterCard allow this to be done within 540 days. However, such a request may not be approved if you have given the fraudsters documents such as a copy of an ID and proof of address. This will allow them to claim that the transaction is legitimate and approved by both parties. Wire and cryptocurrency transfers unfortunately are not refundable.
