Beware! Hitradex 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.
Hitradex claims to be a forex and CFD broker, who has received “multiple international awards for providing superior online trading services globally”. However, fact checking shows that this is a very shady and virtually anonymous website that displays many of the typical symptoms of a fraudulent scheme. It is in your best interest to stay away from Hitradex.
HITRADEX REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
At very first glance, Hitradex’s website could fool one into thinking it is legitimate. However, a closer look quickly dispels this impression. To begin with, it is very easy to establish that the praises for Hitradex quoted on the website from respected financial publications are fake. The main page of the website does not mention the name of the legal entity behind Hitradex, it does not even list an address and contact information.
Instead of a disclaimer about the risks of financial trading, as brokers are required to post on their websites, we see the exact opposite – assurances that “your capital is not at risk” and that Hitradex products “are suitable for non-experienced traders”:
Upon loading any of the subpages of the website, another footer appears stating that Hitradex is owned by Hitradex Trading Services LLC, a company incorporated in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
This in itself is not reassuring. Because of the lack of regulatory norms and oversight, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the favorite bases of operations for shady brokers. While this country has a financial regulator, unlike other offshore areas, it does not regulate the activities of forex and CFD brokers. Тhe Financial Services Authority (FSA) of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has repeatedly issued warnings on this issue, with the latest such warning dated 23 June 2021.
While the FSA does not regulate brokers, companies providing financial services must still appear on the institution’s database. However, there is no trace of Hitradex Trading Services LLC there. It seems that even Hitradex’s offshore registration with the SVG is a lie.
Buried in the text of the Terms and Conditions we find the wording that the relationship between Hitradexand the client is subject to the laws of the St. Kitts and Nevis – another offshore zone where there is absolutely no regulation for brokers.
All this shows that Hitradex is not just an unregulated offshore broker, but a fraudulent scheme, the people behind which strive to remain anonymous. Under no circumstances should you trust your money to such anonymous sites full of false and contradictory information. Instead, you can turn to one of the many companies that really work under the supervision of respected regulatory bodies like Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) or Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.
As their customer you will enjoy a number of guarantees including negative balance protection and guarantee for your funds if the broker goes bankrupt, which goes up to EUR 20,000 in EU and 85,000 GBP in the UK. Regulations in the UK and EU include some important measures designed to improve investor protection and promote market integrity and transparency, such as transaction reporting. Regulated brokers are also required to segregate their operational funds from the client’s money.
HITRADEX TRADING SOFTWARE
Hitradex claims to offer an advanced, award-winning web trading platform. The website even has video tutorials on how to use the platform in question.
However, after registering an account and logging into the client portal, this platform is nowhere to be found. In the dashboard we only see a simple chart taken from the free TradingView website, which cannot be used for trading. Below it is a poor imitation of an order placement menu, which is not functional at all, and in no way resembles the platform advertised on the website.
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.
HITRADEX TRADING CONDITIONS
There is no systematic and clear information on Hitradex’s website about the trading conditions offered by the alleged broker. There are three types of accounts mentioned – Margin, Covesting and Turbo. The minimum deposit is listed as 0.1 BTC, which at the time of writing this review equates to over 4900 USD. In comparison, most legitimate brokers offer starter accounts with a minimum deposit of 100 USD or even less.
The website mentions spreads “from 0.0 pips” and commissions “from 0.001%”. It is not clear what the maximum levels are and what exactly the amount of commissions depends precisely on.
A leverage of 1:1000 is specified for forex trading and 1:100 for cryptocurrency trading. These are extremely high levels, which cannot be seen with regulated brokers. 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. In the EU and the UK, for example, the maximum leverage allowed when trading major currency pairs is 1:30, while for cryptocurrencies the maximum is only 1:2.
HITRADEX DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
In the deposit menu of Hitradex you can see some popular payment methods such as MoneyGram, Neteller, PayPal and Skrill. However, selecting any of these methods brings up a message that you need to contact the support. The only actually active payment options are cryptocurrencies and an unknown payment system called Ada.
Cryptocurrencies are a favourite tool for fraudsters because transactions with them are difficult to trace and more importantly, non-refundable. While there are some legitimate brokers that accept Bitcoin, they do so alongside other transparent payment methods such as credit/debit card and bank transfer.
A lot of confusing wording can be found in the text of the Hitradex Terms and Conditions, such as: “The Client has a right to withdraw funds from his/her account only when the trading expiration period is reached depending on his/her investment plan” or “The client faces risk of having his/her account disabled if withdrawal is initiated before due date, which would attract a reconnection FEE of $250”. Nowhere on the website is there any mention of “investment plans” nor is an expiration period indicated. Scammers often use such calluses to block withdrawal requests.
There are references in the Terms and Conditions to the “Bonus Policy” and the “Deposit & Withdrawal Policy”, but these documents are nowhere to be found. It is therefore unclear what additional traps the fraudsters behind Hitradex may have set.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
Scammers who promise easy money without any effort are nothing new, especially on the internet. But given the excitement around bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in recent years, malicious actors have run rampant more than ever, capitalizing not only on people’s desire to solve their financial woes with a magic wand, but also ignorance and misunderstanding of how blockchain and complex financial instruments actually work.
If your curiosity is stirred by one of the many flashy websites promising easy riches, and you provide your contacts, you will soon be contacted by skillful and persuasive scammers who will convince you to start with a relatively small and “risk-free” investment. If you agree to this, you will be transferred to even more skilled at convincing scammers, who will persuade you to invest even more. Any money you give to such people is money you are unlikely to get back.
Any attempt to withdraw deposits or alleged profits will be hampered by numerous and significant fees, as well as harsh and often prohibitive conditions written into the terms and conditions – such as high trading volume requirements, unexpected “taxes”, or withdrawal fees as high as 10% or even 20% of your funds.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
When you find yourself scammed and seek advice and help online, you are likely to receive offers from individuals and companies who promise to refund your money for a fee that you have to pay in advance. Don’t trust such offers or recommendations from anonymous commentators on the internet – this is also a well established scam.
The best chance to get at least some of your money back is to request a chargeback, but this applies only if the transfer is made via credit card. It is of course advisable to notify the relevant authorities of the fraudsters’ activities and to spread the word online to warn other people who may fall victim to the same scammers.
