Eastpac Capital Limited review – 5 things you should know about eastpac.live

Beware! Eastpac Capital Limited is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.

RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS

Visit Site

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.

Eastpac Capital Limited claims to be a regulated, high-quality forex broker with 13 years of experience. But fact checking quickly reveals that this is not a real broker at all, but a typical scam website. It is highly advisable to stay away from Eastpac Capital Limited.

EASTPAC CAPITAL LIMITED REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS

Upon opening the website of the Eastpac Capital Limited, it immediately stands out that there is no address, nor information about the license under which this alleged broker operates. There is also no disclaimer about the risks of trading in the financial markets, as required of brokers. The Eastpac Capital Limited also lacks Terms of use or any kind of legal documentation.

In the “Regulation” section of the website we find the statement that Eastpac Capital Limited has a “money services business license” in the US and is overseen by the “financial crime enforcement bureau under the U.S. Department of Finance”:

This dispels any doubt that Eastpac Capital Limited are scammers. 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). There is no Eastpac Capital Limited in the NFA’s register:

The trading platform used by Eastpac Capital Limited is the only place where we find an address. It is not in the US, where the Eastpac Capital Limited claims to be regulated, but in the UK:

To operate in the UK, a broker must be licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). However, no company with that name can be found in that regulator’s database either:

Eastpac Capital Limited is obviously not the regulated broker it claims to be. It is a completely anonymous website full of false and misleading information. Under no circumstances should you trust your money to such fishy websites. 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.

EASTPAC CAPITAL LIMITED TRADING SOFTWARE

Eastpac Capital Limited uses one of the most popular trading software in the industry, MetaTrader 5 (MT5). However, after registering an account, Eastpac Capital Limited does not provide login credentials to the platform, so we were only able to test its functionality with a Demo account. Here’s what it looks like:

Having a trading platform does not make Eastpac Capital Limited more credible. It is advisable to contact one of the many legitimate brokers that offer MT5 or the still very popular MT4. These platforms have established themselves as leaders because they offer a wide range of features, including a wide variety of options for customization, multiple account usage, designing and implementing custom scripts for automated trading and backtesting trade strategies.

EASTPAC CAPITAL LIMITED TRADING CONDITIONS

There is no description of the different types of trading accounts on the Eastpac Capital Limited website, nor is there systematised information on trading conditions.

Legitimate brokers provide clear and detailed information on trading conditions and typically offer different accounts tailored to the needs of clients with different experience and capital. Many brokers offer micro accounts with a minimum deposit of as little as 100 USD or even less.

In the FAQ section it is stated that Eastpac Capital Limited offers a leverage of 1:400. In the MT 5 platform we see an even higher level of 1:500.

This in itself proves that Eastpac Capital Limited could not be a licensed broker based in the US or the UK. 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.

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 website has tables with average spreads that show very competitive levels of 0.5 pips for the benchmark currency pair EUR/USD.  However, the MT 5 platform shows significantly higher and unfavourable levels of 3 pips. It is very doubtful, however, that Eastpac Capital Limited even offers real trading.

EASTPAC CAPITAL LIMITED DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES

The Eastpac Capital Limited website mentions a single payment method – bank transfer. However, in the deposit menu itself there are two options – cryptocurrencies and “telegraphic transfer”. If the second option is selected a message comes up that we need to consult the customer service:

So the only option that is actually available is cryptocurrencies. This is typical of scam websites. 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, Skrill or Neteller.

Information on fees, commissions and withdrawal terms is nowhere to be found. It is therefore unclear what traps the scammers may have set.

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.