Beware! EspaceMarkets 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.
EspaceMarkets manages to look legit enough at first glance – their website functions and looks far better than those of many other scammers, they provide users with extensive Terms and Conditions and download links for MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 and claim to be a multiregulated broker with the license numbers to match. The scam is not that well thought-through though – soon enough you will be able to establish that those license numbers are fake, the MT the broker has provided is only the generic version of the software and there are shady clauses in the Terms and Conditions designed to make robbing you a lot easier. EspaceMarkets is very far away from legitimate – read our review to find out why.
EspaceMarkets REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
EspaceMarkets claims to be a UK-based broker that is regulated by the FCA, ASIC, and CySEC. A quick check established that the broker’s CySEC license number is fake and that they are not regulated by either ASIC or the FCA.
A broker that is comfortable with lying about regulations is not to be trusted under any circumstance. They are not answering to any regulatory body and therefore cannot be held accountable for their actions. The only way to turn a profit is with a legitimate, regulated broker that takes requirements and laws seriously and does everything by the book.
Turn to a legitimate UK broker, regulated by the FCA if you want to be sure your funds are in good hands. These brokers must maintain a minimum capital of €730 000 – this money cannot be used for the broker’s daily financial activities and instead serves as proof that the company is well-capitalized enough and plans on offering services in the long run. UK licensed brokers must participate in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which means that in case a licensed broker goes bankrupt, their clients could receive compensation of up to £85 000. Negative balance protection is a huge plus – this means the amount of money you lose cannot exceed the amount of money you have in your account.
Never trust unlicensed companies that try to gain your trust by providing fake license numbers – putting your money in the hands of such people will surely lead to you losing everything you have invested.
EspaceMarkets TRADING SOFTWARE
EspaceMarkets promises access to the two most popular platforms in the trading industry – MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. We would strongly recommend that you try those platforms as they are indeed the best choice for trading software you could do right now – the platforms are stacked with useful tools like Expert Advisors, VPSs that keep your trading bots operating even when your computer is off, signals you could set up for prices going above or below a certain predetermined value and a built-in economic calendar.
When we downloaded MT5 from EspaceMarkets’ website, we only got the generic version of the software – which could be downloaded completely for free from the MetaQuotes website.
We encountered another problem in the broker’s client area – there, we found a trading platform that was functional but could not be used for forex or CFD trading. This was a binary options platform – and binary options have been banned by most jurisdictions in the world because they are an extremely high-risk trading tool and are borderline gambling.
With binary options you bet a certain amount of money on the price of an asset – will it go up or down. Such guesses are exactly that – a sheer guess – and have led to huge losses for many people which is why they are banned pretty much everywhere other than on three US exchanges.
EspaceMarkets TRADING CONDITIONS
You could deposit pretty much any amount with EspaceMarkets – even as little as $1. Many legitimate brokers also have the practice of opening Micro accounts for a minimal amount of money but that is surely not the case with EspaceMarkets. They probably would just take whatever money you are ready to offer them.
As for leverage, the broker offers the obscene rate of 1:1000. This is another proof this broker could not be regulated in Europe because strict restrictions on leverage have been imposed in the region – as low as 1:30 for forex majors. This is not even the lowest rate since some countries like Turkey have set the leverage restriction to as low as 1:10. This is so because high leverage can be dangerous for inexperienced traders – it could lead to huge profits and huge losses alike.
EspaceMarkets DEPOSIT/WITHDRAWAL METHODS AND FEES
When we tried to deposit money with the broker, we soon found out that we could only do so in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash – we saw the logos of Skrill, Neteller, and PayPal among the payment methods but we were unable to use any of these providers to deposit. Refrain from using the services of brokers that only take cryptocurrency payments – such transactions are irreversible and you would never be able to ask for a chargeback. Enough legitimate brokers accept such payments but they do so alongside other payment methods.
EspaceMarkets supposedly offers bonuses – exactly what kind, we could not establish. But the broker has the following unclear clause in the Terms and Conditions:
The broker does not specify what specific terms and conditions means. Such bonuses are often used by scammers to prevent you from withdrawing funds from your account – not only the bonus but also any profits made on account on it and sometimes anything at all – even your deposits. Furthermore, bonuses are not even allowed in the UK, EU, or Australia – and this is one more proof that EspaceMarkets under any of these jurisdictions.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK?
Scams like this have become more popular in recent years and have almost gained the status of an industry. It is important to know how such schemes work to avoid them.
The whole thing usually starts pretty innocently – you see an ad on the Internet for some scam broker’s website and are drowned in promises of immense wealth and luxury. So you decide there is no harm in earning a little extra money and provide the scammers with your contact details. This is when the game begins – you will start receiving calls and emails asking you to invest. These sort of people specialize in the art of smooth-talking and you will soon find yourself transferring your first deposit. After that, they won’t leave you alone asking for more money. You might see you are even turning a profit – it is easy for scammers to manipulate platforms to make it seem like your trading strategy is incredibly lucrative. The problems will start when you try to withdraw and are unable to do so for some crazy reason – like additional taxes, for example. At some point, you will start sensing that something is wrong – and that is when the scammers will disappear into thin air and stop answering your calls.
WHAT TO DO IF SCAMMED?
Be prepared that the chances of recovering your deposits are slim and such cases rarely have a happy ending. Still, if you have deposited with a credit or debit card, you could file for chargeback within 540 days. Change any passwords or banking details you have provided the scammers with. Notify your local authorities and try sharing your story with as many people as possible – this way, they won’t get scammed the same way you did. Last but not least, don’t trust any so-called ‘recovery agents’ that promise to retrieve your money for a fee – this is just another type of scam praying on desperate victims.
