Beware! Fxcryptominer 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.
When we open the Fxcryptominer website we first see claims that this is an award-winning forex broker whose history dates back to 1986, and who is licensed by some of the world’s leading regulatory bodies. But already the main page gives us many reasons to doubt these claims. The website is full of contradictions and lacks basic information and functionality that one would expect from a genuine broker.
Fact checking confirms beyond any doubt that this is just another fraudulent site trying to cash in on the excitement surrounding cryptocurrencies and scam naive people out of their money.
FXCRYPTOMINER REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Although the main page of the website lists an address in Jakarta, Indonesia, Fxcryptominer claims to be licensed and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom, Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC) and South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).
We checked to see if the company listed as the owner of the Fxcryptominer, Fxcryptominer Investment Inc., could be found in the records of any of these regulators. The answer is no:
Fxcryptomine is obviously lying about being licensed by these leading regulatory institutions. But the Fxcryptomine legal mishmash doesn’t end there. The Terms and Conditions, which are only available through the account registration form, state that the agreement between the Fxcryptomine and the client “shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the State of Georgia”:
To operate as a forex broker in the United States, a company must be registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and to be a member of the National Futures Association (NFA). Unsurprisingly, no broker with the name Fxcryptominer can be found in the NFA database:
In addition, on the Terms and Conditions page, the address changes from Indonesia to Iceland:
After registering an account and logging into the customer portal, a different brand is visible, Cryptos Gain. Fxcryptominer’s website is apparently frankensteined from multiple other websites, probably previous projects of the same scammers.
You should only trust legitimate brokers truly operating in one of the established financial centres like 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.
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 1000 000 in Australia and at least 20 million USD in the United States.
FXCRYPTOMINER TRADING SOFTWARE
Although the Fxcryptominer website mentions an award-winning trading platform, no such platform can be found anywhere. The Fxcryptominer does not even have any imitation trading software as can be found on many scam websites.
Legitimate brokers offer clients a wide selection of trading software, including desktop, mobile apps and web-based platforms. The most widely used platforms in the industry are MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (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.
FXCRYPTOMINER TRADING CONDITIONS
Despite claims on the main page of the website that Fxcryptominer offers forex and shares trading, nowhere is there any information on basic parameters associated with this trading, such as spreads and commissions.
Fxcryptominer does not even offer different types of trading accounts, but rather “investment plans” in cryptocurrencies promising very high returns. A minimum deposit size of 100 USD is specified. You should know that for the same amount you could open a micro account with many licensed brokers who, unlike Fxcryptominer, offer real trading.
Elsewhere on the website a statement can be seen that a leverage of 1:500 is offered. Such levels are prohibited in jurisdictions such as the UK, USA and Australia where the Fxcryptominer claims to operate.
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. The same rules currently apply to Australia. In the US, the maximum limit is slightly higher at 1:50.
The text of the Terms and Conditions deals exclusively with Bitcoin and does not contain clauses that can be expected from the legal documentation of a forex broker. We also find strange wording in the Terms and Conditions, which should imply that the only currency used is Thai Baht. This confirms the suspicion that this website was created by incoherent copy-pasting from other websites:
FXCRYPTOMINER DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The information about payment methods used by Fxcryptominer is contradictory, like everything else on this website. The logos of popular payment methods such as Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Skrill and Neteller can be seen on the main page. However, the “Payment Methods” section only mentions cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Tether. The deposit menu in the client portal has two options – PayPal and Bitcoin.
There is no information on fees and terms, other than a vague mention of “a small commission from the earnings we produce”.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
Many people are looking for ways to make money passively, but do not have the necessary knowledge to invest in the financial markets themselves. This makes them a target for the many online scammers posing as brokers. If you come across some of them and give them your contacts, you will be contacted by skilled scam artists who will assure you that they can take on the incomprehensible aspects of investing for you. You will only be required to invest and take profits.
But when you try to collect even just a fraction of your money, it will turn out to be impossible. Your supposed profits will suddenly evaporate, or you’ll find that you have to meet impossible traded volume requirements first. Fraudsters often insert huge withdrawal fees into client agreements amounting to 10%, 20% or even more. You won’t be able to hold scammers accountable because they hide behind fake names and shell-companies offshore. Scammers also typically use non-refundable payment methods.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
First of all, you should be very careful not to fall straight into the clutches of other scammers. Another common scam is to promise money recoveries from fake brokers for an upfront fee.
If you used a credit or debit card for the transactions, you can charge a chargeback. Visa and MasterCard have a long period in which they allow such requests – 540 days. But keep in mind that fraudsters can dispute if you have provided them with a copy of your ID and proof of address. It would also be helpful if you alerted the authorities in your country and other people online to the activities of the scammers.
