Beware! 360TradeHubFX 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.
360TradeHubFX claims to be a regulated and award-winning broker. Fact checking quickly reveals that this is not true. 360TradeHubFX is in fact a poorly disguised scam.
Under no circumstances should you trust your money to 360TradeHubFX . Let’s see exactly why.
360TRADEHUBFX REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
First of all, it should be noted that 360TradeHubFX is part of a long line of nearly identical scam websites that we have reviewed. Trading Option Xchange, Fx Bit Option and SwiftPayOptions are just a few examples of such websites that are likely part of a single fraudulent scheme.
Second, it is not clear who is the legal entity behind 360TradeHubFX. In the footer of the website one can see two different company names – 360TradeHubFX LTD and 360TradeHubFX Inc. However, the limited legal documentation available on the website does not mention a company name at all.
If you open the website of a legitimate broker you can expect not only clear information about the firm that runs it, but also a detailed description of its regulatory status. In the case of 360TradeHubFX, we see many conflicting statements. The main page of the website claims that this broker is simultaneously licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom, the Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC) and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) of South Africa:
The same claims can be seen on the other scam sites mentioned. As with them, these claims are false. 360TradeHubFX claims to be based in London, so we checked the FCA database first. We found no licensed broker with that name there:
Searching the records of other regulators yielded the same result. The FAQ section shows a claim that 360TradeHubFX is actually based in the US:
To operate as a broker in the US, 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). There is no 360TradeHubFX in the NFA’s register:
You should only trust legitimate brokers which are indeed licensed and supervised by respected regulatory bodies 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 1000 000 in Australia and at least 20 million USD in the United States.
360TRADEHUBFX TRADING SOFTWARE
On its website 360TradeHubFX promises “world class platform” for trading. However, after registering an account and logging into the client portal, it becomes obvious that 360TradeHubFX has no trading platform at all. All we see there is a poor imitation of one, consisting of simple asset price charts, such as can be obtained for free from the TradingView website:
Clicking the “start tradе” button brings up a strange message that “auto copy trading robot is currently activated” and you have to contact support to use “manual trade action”:
This is clearly part of a fraudulent scheme to profit from people’s ignorance of how financial markets work. There is a legitimate service for copying the trades of selected investors that is offered by many brokers. But it has nothing to do with what can be seen on the 360TradeHubFX website. It is not a real broker and does not provide real trading, be it automatic or “manual”.
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.
360TRADEHUBFX TRADING CONDITIONS
As mentioned, 360TradeHubFX is a scam aimed at people who have no idea what to expect from a forex broker. Because of this, not much effort has been made to look like a legitimate broker.
There is no information on the website about the basic trading parameters that 360TradeHubFX supposedly offers – leverage, spread, commissions, etc. The only specific information about the two types of trading accounts is the minimum deposit – 500 USD. In contrast, most legitimate brokers offer starter accounts with a minimum deposit of just 100 USD.
360TRADEHUBFX DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The 360TradeHubFX website makes no mention of payment methods, fees or deposit and withdrawal terms. The deposit menu on the customer dashboard shows three options – Bitcoin, bank transfer and the Skrill e-wallet. However, selecting either of the last two options brings up a message that you need to contact the support. The only actually active option is Bitcoin.
Scammers prefer cryptocurrencies because these transactions are not subject to refunds. While there are some legitimate brokers that accept Bitcoin, they do so alongside other transparent payment methods such as credit/debit card, bank transfer or popular e-wallets like PayPal, Neteller or FasaPay.
The minimum allowed withdrawal amount is the same as the minimum deposit – 500 USD.
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.
