Beware! IFI Trading 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.
IFI Trading presents itself as a Forex and CFDs broker “providing an exceptional trading experience across a wide range of trading instruments”. But it doesn’t take much effort to establish that this is not a real broker at all, but a completely anonymous scam website. It is in your best interest to stay away from IFI Trading. Let’s see exactly why.
IFI TRADING REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
The most obvious sign that IFI Trading is not a legitimate business is that nowhere on the website or legal documentation is there any mention of the name of the company that owns and operates it. If you don’t know who you’re dealing with, it’s not a good idea to trust them with your money.
The main page of the website lists an address in Toledo, Spain:
To provide financial services anywhere in the European Union, a broker must meet the strict requirements of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ЕSМА), and be licensed by the local financial regulator. However, no broker whose name includes “IFI Trading” can be found in the Spanish Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) database:
According to the Terms and Conditions, the headquarters of the IFI Trading is not actually in Spain but in Vanuatu:
It is an offshore zone without any significant regulations for brokers or protections for clients of brokerage firms. However, we were also unable to locate IFI Trading in the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission registry. So even if the company behind IFI is registered there, it is under a different name.
The IFI Trading Client Agreement mentions “FCA Rules.” The FCA is an abbreviation of the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority. IFI Trading is not registered there either, and the text in the legal documentation is probably just copied from another website.
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.
IFI TRADING TRADING SOFTWARE
IFI Trading claims to offer a proprietary trading platform offering advanced functionality. After registering an account, however, we only get access to a standard web platform:
While the platform has the basic features for placing orders, customizing charts and application of technical indicators, it lacks the more advanced functionality found in the most widely used trading platforms in the industry, 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.
The presence of a trading platform does not make this website any more legitimate and does not guarantee that this alleged broker offers real trading. Many scammers have trading software to fool their victims that their money is being invested.
IFI TRADING TRADING CONDITIONS
While claiming to offer forex, stocks, commodities and crypto trading, the IFI Trading website provides absolutely no information about the terms of this trading. There is no mention of basic parameters such as leverage, spread, commissions or even minimum deposit.
Legitimate brokers provide clear and comprehensive information about trading conditions, as well as different types of trading accounts tailored to the needs of investors with different capital and experience. Many licensed brokers allow you to start trading with a minimum deposit of 100 USD or even less.
The trading platform shows a very low spread of 0.2 pips, but that doesn’t mean anything because the trading offered by scammers like IFI Trading is entirely fictitious. However, the 1:200 leverage set in the platform may serve as additional evidence that the IFI Trading could not be a legitimate broker based in Spain. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and accordingly all EU regulators limit leverage to 1:30 for major currency pairs and lower levels for more volatile assets. 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.
IFI Trading’s legal documentation mentions that the company offers bonuses, another practice prohibited to registered brokers. Nowhere is the nature of these bonuses and the conditions attached to them described. On the account registration form, there is a pre-ticked option that you accept promotions. Bonuses and promotions are often used by scammers to tie withdrawals to impossible conditions. In the case of IFI Trading, it is not clear what those conditions are.
IFI TRADING DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
IFI Trading’s terms and conditions mention payment methods such as Skrill and Neteller, but in the deposit menu we only see the unknown provider Paymaster and links to buy cryptocurrencies. Scammers prefer cryptocurrencies because these transactions are not subject to refunds.
Legitimate brokers typically offer clients a wide choice of transparent payment methods, including bank transfer, credit/debit cards and established e-wallets. If you are interested in licensed brokers that also accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, take a look at this list.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
The idea of passive income is increasingly attractive to more and more people. The Internet gives the impression that making money through investments in the financial markets is more accessible than ever to non-experts. But the online space is full of scammers who lure inexperienced wannabe traders through flashy advertisements and fake testimonials from satisfied clients. However, these fake brokers don’t really invest the money you give them – even though they very confidently assure you that you are generating great profits and should invest even more.
But when you try to withdraw some of your supposed winnings or deposit, it turns out to be impossible. Scammers will tell you that a sudden change in the market has wiped out all your money, or point you to vague clauses in the Terms and Conditions that require a huge minimum volume traded. The victim of such a scam may also be surprised with hidden fees and taxes amounting to tens of percentages of their funds.
Holding fraudsters accountable is difficult because they operate through offshore companies that are uncontrolled and unregulated. In addition, scammers require that you provide them with a copy of your ID and proof of address so that they can claim that all transactions were voluntary and agreed upon by both parties.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
First of all, you should know that there is another kind of scammers who prey on victims of fake brokers. They claim they can refund your money for an upfront fee. The most realistic option to get at least some of your money back is to request a chargeback, but this is only possible if you used a credit or debit card for the transactions. Scammers usually insist on using cryptocurrencies, direct bank transfers or shady online payment platforms where refunds are impossible.
