Beware! TAYA 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.
TAYA wants us to believe it is an award-winning broker that operates in some of the world’s leading financial hubs. However, closer inspection shows that this is definitely not true.
The TAYA website is full of false and misleading information. This is not a regulated broker, but a typical fraudulent scheme, which is why you should never trust TAYA with your money.
TAYA REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
According to the website, behind TAYA is a legal company called TAYA financial ltd. This company is said to have offices in the United States and the United Kingdom:
Immediately striking is the claim that in the USA TAYA is regulated by the “MSG Financial Conduct Authority”. No such institution exists.
To operate as a forex broker in the United States, a company must be registered as a futures commission merchant and foreign exchange dealer with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and to be a member of the National Futures Association (NFA).
The NFA register shows that although there is a company called TAYA financial limited, it is not a member of the NFA and is not subject to NFA oversight. This company is only registered with exemptions for commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor, which prevents it from providing financial services in the U.S. This deception scheme is often used by scam sites claiming to be brokers.
In order for the claim that TAYA has an office in the UK to be true, the company must be licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). However, there is no such broker on the UK regulator’s register:
TAYA also claims to be regulated by the Central Bank of Canada. But the institution that licenses and regulates brokers in Canada is the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC). TAYA financial ltd cannot be found in the register of IIROC:
All of TAYA’s claims to be a regulated broker turn out to be easily debunked lies. If you have decided to trade in the financial markets, you should first make sure that the broker you have chosen is indeed licensed and supervised by a powerful regulatory body such as Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) or 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. In the EU and the UK, brokers must also participate in guarantee schemes that cover a certain amount of the trader’s investment if the broker becomes insolvent. These guarantees amount to up to 20 000 EUR in the EU and 85 000 GBP in the UK. However, the likelihood of such a bankruptcy is low because regulators also have significant net capital requirements that companies must maintain – EUR 730 000 in UK and Cyprus, AUD 1 000 000 in Australia and at least 20 million USD in the United States.
TAYA TRADING SOFTWARE
TAYA tries to maintain the illusion of being a genuine broker by offering an actual trading platform – MetaTrader 4 (MT4).
At the time of writing this review, we were unable to register a live account with TAYA. Therefore, we tested the functionality of the platform with a demo account. Here is how the software looks like:
There are more than enough licensed brokers offering clients the MT4 experience and/or the newer version of the software MT5. These platforms have established themselves as industry standard because they offer a wide range of features, including a variety of options for customization, multiple account usage, designing and implementing custom scripts for automated trading and backtesting trade strategies.
TAYA TRADING CONDITIONS
TAYA offers only one type of trading account. The website claims that the minimum deposit is just 1 USD. In any case, it would be wiser to approach a licensed broker, many of whom also offer novice traders accounts with a very low minimum deposit.
In the description of the trading account, a leverage of 1:500 is specified. The same level can be seen in the MT4 platform. The FAQ section says that TAYA offers even higher leverage up to 1:1000. This in itself also proves that TAYA could not be a broker licensed in the US or UK.
High leverage creates the opportunity for more significant profit, but correspondingly increases the risk of sudden and excessive losses. All leading regulators therefore restrict leverage for retail traders. The FCA, like EU regulators, limits leverage to 1:30 for trading in major currency pairs and even lower levels for more volatile assets. In the US, the maximum limit is slightly higher at 1:50.
The TAYA website doesn’t mention anything about a spread. In the trading platform can be seen levels of about 2.2. pips. In the industry, a spread above 2 pips is considered too high and disadvantageous to the trader.
TAYA claims that it does not charge swap fees. However, there is no detailed information about commissions and fees on the website. In fact, there is no legal documentation such as Terms and Conditions.
TAYA advertises a “partnership” program on its website that promises “passive income” if you refer and mentor other traders. Such practices, as well as any bonuses, promotions and reward programs are prohibited for regulated brokers.
TAYA DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
TAYA claims to use multiple payment methods, including PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, credit/debit cards, bank transfers, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Due to the inability to register an account we were unable to verify which, if any, methods were indeed available. But it is doubtful that such a shady website really uses any transparent payment methods.
TAYA claims that there are no deposit fees. The minimum withdrawal amount is 500 USD by bank transfer and 100 USD by other methods. There is no information about fees and withdrawal conditions.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
Stories of people getting rich from cryptocurrencies tempt many to try their luck in the financial markets. But you have to be very careful not to fall into the clutches of the many scammers lurking in the online space. These scammers only pose as brokers and lure you in with promises to take on the confusing aspects of investing for you.
If you make contact with such scammers they will first convince you to give them a small initial sum of a few hundred dollars. They may even fool you for a while that your investment is generating incredible profits to convince you to give them a larger amount. But your money won’t really be invested. And when you try to withdraw your supposed profits or even your deposit, you will find that it is impossible.
The scammers may tell you that all your investments have been lost by a sudden change in the market. Or they’ll point you to clauses hidden in their Terms and Conditions that say withdrawing your money is only possible after you meet impossibly high minimum trading volume requirements. And they can simply disappear because these scam sites hide behind fake names and offshore companies that are not subject to rules and regulations.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
If you find yourself a victim of scammers, you should inform the relevant authorities in your country and spread the word online to warn other potential victims. However, the chances of getting your money back are not high.
If you used a credit/debit card for the transactions, you could ask for a chargeback. However, such requests can be disputed if you have provided the fraudsters with proof of identity such as a copy of an ID. Under no circumstances should you trust people on the internet who claim they can recover your money for an upfront fee. These too are certainly scammers.
