Beware! Getprimecrypto 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.
Getprimecrypto, or Get Prime Crypto, presents itself as “the finest crypto trading platform designed for you”. But even a basic fact check reveals that this is a completely anonymous website designed to cash in on the hype around cryptocurrencies and scam naive people. There’s no good reason to believe the generous promises of Getprimecrypto, much less trust them with your money.
GETPRIMECRYPTO REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Getprimecrypto claims to be owned and operated by a company identified only as “BHVN”, and based in the Marshall Islands.
This is an offshore zone with no financial regulator at all, let alone regulations for brokers. Moreover, you can register a company there entirely online, without setting foot on the island country. This makes the Marshall Islands an ideal base for financial fraudsters.
Getprimecrypto also lacks proper legal documentation as required by brokers. The Terms and Conditions are only available through the new account registration form and are too brief and devoid of specific information.
If you have decided to invest in financial instruments, and especially if you are a novice trader, you should use the services of a licensed broker based in a jurisdiction with strong regulations. Depending on your location, it is advisable to choose a company that is regulated by an institution such as Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in US, Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC), UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or some EU regulator like Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
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.
GETPRIMECRYPTO TRADING SOFTWARE
After registering an account we get access to a rather limited web-based trading platform. Here is what it looks like:
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. Our suspicion is strengthened by the fact that all asset classes are available on the web platform, even though the website claims that it deals exclusively with cryptocurrency trading.
From the website you can also download an installation file of a supposed desktop application. But this file lacks any identification information. There is every reason to believe that this is malicious software.
GETPRIMECRYPTO TRADING CONDITIONS
Getprimecrypto does not provide any specific information about the terms of trade it claims to offer. Only the minimum deposit and loyalty bonus are specified in the description of the trading account types.
Offering bonuses in itself is suspicious. Regulated brokers are prohibited from using bonuses and promotions to attract customers. Fraudsters often use supposedly generous bonuses to tie withdrawals to exorbitant fees or impossible-to-fulfill conditions. Nowhere does Getprimecrypto state what the conditions are attached to the bonuses offered.
The minimum deposit of 500 USD is way too high – many legitimate brokers allow you to start trading with ten times lower amounts.
GETPRIMECRYPTO DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
Getprimecrypto claims to accept multiple payment methods including credit/debit cards, bank transfer, bitcoin, WebMoney, Skrill, Neteller, Sofort and QIWI.
After registering an account, we found that the only option actually available was to send an amount to the specified crypto wallets.
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.
Getprimecrypto warns that “withdrawals and deposits may attract certain fees and charges” but does not specify the amount of these fees. The complete anonymity of the website and lack of proper legal documentation means you can expect all sorts of hidden fees and other traps.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
With all the buzz surrounding skyrocketing prices of cryptocurrencies, many people are starting to consider investing in the financial markets as a bid to improve their fortunes. Scammers on the internet have taken notice of that and take advantage of the ignorance of the general public by creating countless websites posing as brokers. These websites offer no real brokerage services and only deceive people into believing that their money is really being invested.
If you come across such a scam website and give out your contacts, you will be contacted by experienced scammers who will convince you that they can take on all the frighteningly complex aspects of investing for you. But you will never get any real profits, nor will you be able to get back the money you deposited. The terms and conditions of these websites are riddled with clauses that make withdrawing funds from your account unfeasible – for example, extremely high minimum trading volume requirements or hefty fees of 10%, 20% or even more of the amount.
Scammers hide behind fake addresses and names and operate through offshore companies that are not subject to regulation and scrutiny. So even if all the withdrawal requirements are met, they may simply disappear and move on to their next fraudulent scheme.
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.
George
I paid getprimecrypto.com through a wallet whose name I cannot remember. however they did not show me how to use their platform and kept on postponing appointments until i told them I wanted to be refunded through their website. I got no response and calls to them were not successful because such as their number was said to be invalid. the next time I heard from them they wanted my documents in order to verify my account. I refused. I told them they had accepted my money without those documents and thus i would like them to refund it where they withdrew it.