Beware! Europa Trade Capital 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.
At first glance, Europa Trade Capital might appear as a new broker who has just opened an offshore office while trying to obtain a solid license. The broker’s website looks good, the Terms and Conditions are comprehensive, the trading conditions offered are decent. However, there is no way this is a legitimate broker you could trust – there are enough hidden clauses in the broker’s Terms to make your head spin. Moreover, Europa Trade Capital offers a very poor choice of deposit methods – those that are available are less than convenient when it comes to getting a chargeback. Read the review to find out more.
Europa Trade Capital REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Europa Trade Capital states that it is based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and is guided by the laws of that country.
However, the local financial authority of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has stated on multiple occasions that it does not regulate the activity of forex brokers, or impose any laws in that sphere of business. For this very reason, many scammers have set up companies there.
Europa Trade Capital claims that it strives to be regulated by a tier-one regulator by the end of 2022. We will have to wait and see if respected regulators like ASIC (Australia), or the FCA (the UK) would actually want to give a license to a broker with so many problems – more on that later. But as of the moment of writing this review, Europa Trade Capital is not regulated by any authority and is based at an offshore location without being a branch of a bigger international brokerage. Such things automatically make a broker potentially dangerous.
The right choice here would be to turn to a broker regulated in a strict jurisdiction – UK, EU, and Australian brokers are all great choices. Such brokers have to prove that they are financially stable by maintaining a minimum capital of €730 000 in the UK and the EU, and A$1 million in Australia. Client funds are kept in segregated accounts managed by third parties – this ensures the broker would not be able to reinvest your deposits elsewhere. Negative balance protection is ensured – you could never lose more money than you have in your account. Additionally, licensed brokers are asked to report all transactions to ensure transparency. That is why trading with such a broker is much safer than choosing someone no authority has ever heard of – like Europa Trade Capital.
Europa Trade Capital TRADING SOFTWARE
Europa Trade Capital gives access to an unimpressive Webtrader.
While such platforms are perfectly fine we would advise you, even as a beginner, to use trading software that offers a higher number of useful trading tools and better functionality. That is where MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 come in. These two platforms have become household names in the industry by now – both are beloved by many for their intuitive interface, and many amazing features. Clients would be able to use preprogrammed Expert Advisors that track the markets and trade automatically, or develop your own trading bots and indicators with the platforms’ coding languages, set up signals, subscribe to other traders’ signals, purchase various add-ons on the MT market, and much more.
Europa Trade Capital TRADING CONDITIONS
The minimum amount of money you would have to deposit with Europa Trade Capital is $250 – when so many great brokers would ask for no more than $100. Additionally, the deposit threshold you would have to pass in order to upgrade your account and get access to higher leverage and more advanced features is really high – as much as $10 000.
The leverage we were able to trade with was 1:200 on forex majors. However, the broker mentions that it is possible to get access to leverage as high as 1:500 if you upgrade your account. It is usually the other way around – the less money you have in your account, the less you have to lose – so brokers are willing to give access to higher leverage. That is not always the case but it is a tendency. The leverage retail clients could get access to is actually restricted in many jurisdictions – the UK, the EU, and Australia, for example, only allow rates of up to 1:30. This is because high leverage could lead both to bigger profits, and to bigger losses – trading with lower leverage minimizes the risk.
The spreads with Europa Trade Capital were very tight – 0.2 pips on EURUSD. However, the broker has mentioned nothing about its commissions – those could be very high. Additionally, the broker might have played with the platform a little so that it shows a tighter, more attractive spread – such tricks are not unheard of.
Europa Trade Capital DEPOSIT/WITHDRAWAL METHODS AND FEES
The only way to deposit with Europa Trade Capital is to use a cryptocurrency of your choice – the broker accepts Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin.
Although legitimate brokers have also started accepting crypto payments, they always do so alongside more conventional alternatives such as credit or debit card, and wire transfer. Scammers, however, adore crypto since such transactions cannot be reversed – which means you would not be able to get a chargeback. Be wary of brokers who only accept crypto payments.
The broker charges a huge inactivity fee – $100 after 30 days of no trading activity. With legitimate brokers, such fees rarely exceed $15.
There is also an account verification fee which is quite unusual. After 31 days of not verifying your account, the broker will deduct 5% of it. Legitimate brokers will always ask you to verify your account at some point – so they could know you are who you say you are – but would never pressure you in such a way. In the case of Europa Trade Capital, however, the broker probably has a different objective not related to your safety. If your account has been verified such scammers will deny that they have robbed you and simply claim that your losses are the result of your own bad decisions. This means that no chargebacks would be voluntarily granted by Europa Trade Capital.
Finally, the broker offers a few types of bonuses. But before reaching certain turnover requirements, no withdrawals will be possible – this includes your profits and deposits. Needless to say, this was a clause specifically designed to prevent you from withdrawing.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK?
Read the following paragraphs carefully – such scams have become quite the industry in recent years which is why it is important to know how they work in order to protect yourself from them.
It all starts innocently enough – you see an ad on the Internet for a broker who promises you fast, secure returns and entry into a life of luxury. Maybe you have heard about people earning a month’s pay by trading – so you decide to check out the website, and set up an account. After all, there is no harm in seeing what the company has to offer – and those promises are often extremely attractive. The moment you give the scammers your phone number or email, they will constantly be trying to get in touch with you and make you invest. Keep in mind that these are professional scammers so they can be very convincing. Once you have made your first deposit – and if they don’t run off with your money immediately – the scammers will ask you for bigger and bigger deposits. And you will gladly transfer this money since you will probably be turning a profit – on a manipulated platform.
Once you try to withdraw, however, you will run into trouble – the broker will make up reasons why this cannot happen – be it additional taxes, or shady clauses in the Terms and Conditions. At some point, you will figure out something is wrong – but the broker will be long-gone by then. Don’t count on them returning any of your calls.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED?
Keep in mind that, sadly, there is not a big chance of you getting your money back. There are, however, some things you can do – and hope for the best.
Firstly, change all the passwords and banking details you have given the scammers access to. If you have given them remote access to your computer, remove the software immediately.
If you have deposited using Visa or MasterCard, file for a chargeback – both card providers try to fight scams and allow such chargebacks within 540 days. Retrieving money if you have used a wire transfer, or an electronic payment solution is much harder – but still, contact your bank or payment method provider to see if anything can be done.
Notify authorities, and share your story online and in your acquaintance circle – this way, more people will know about such scams and try to stay away from them.
Finally, don’t trust any “recovery agents” promising to hunt down the scammers and retrieve your money for a fee – this is just another type of scam.
Halyna
I give them 256 euros and when I ask them to close my account and give me back my money they decline.
SCAM, SCAM SCAM !
John Mclean
I gave them $250 and then on their manipulative platform they showed me huge returns of 19% in the first 10 days. Then their scam started in earnest and unfortunately I was stupid enough to fall for it. I deposited 6,000 and then they once again showed excellent profit of 22%. A game as has been shown in this website they asked for contract to sign for 3 Bitcoins at 106,000. Boy they were smooth.. I signed a “contract” with them to do so and ALMOST tranferred the requested $ until I conducted due diligence which I should have done from the beginning I found this site as well as others warning of being scammed. I contacted them again after they kept contacting me many times and told them I was not going to invest anymore and requested my money back immediately. Of course they gave a long story of how they couldn’t return the money right now but that after I honoured their contract I would be much better off. I called them on their scam and I started receiving phone calls from sales persons quote supervisor oh, and then the next supervisor and I kept telling him to go away. They tried to put pressure on saying that I had signed a contract and that I had honour it. I told him to go to hell and knowing the Hat in Ontario we have 10 days to withdraw from the contract regardless and I told him that their contract was just bs anyway. They kept pestering and phoning many times over the next two days. Then when I made it very clear that I wanted no more contact with them I received more than one dozen calls one after the other. I informed them that they called one more time I would have him charged with harassment. Naturally tried blocking the number they were calling from and they just kept calling from new numbers. Be careful I almost lost my life savings. They are very convincing scammers and all of us need to do due diligence to make sure those kind of scams never happen.
Joe Streeter
It’s a SCAM!!!
They will never pay you back.
I have sent them millions of emails and unlimited calls to return the money. But it’s all useless.
Ms Malini Maharasingam
Malini Maharasingam
Do not trade with Europa Trade Capital. They are a scam. They opened an account for me immediately with out explaining why they were doing this and did not allow me to decline this. They then took my money within half an hour of talking to them. They sounded so convincing. I have not signed anything thankfully but I did send a picture of my passport which I regret. They however wanted clearer documentation of my passport and a bill with my address which I have not sent and will not send.
I wrote to them within 24 hours asking them to close the account and return my money but they said they could not do this until I sent in the relevant documentation. I have not replied and have blocked them. I have therefore lost £250.00 . I have deleted their emails. I will report them to the relevant bodies. PLEASE NOT GO NEAR THEM. THEY ARE SCAMMERS.I have been scammed.