OptimizeFunds review – 5 things you should know about optimizefunds.co

Beware! OptimizeFunds is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.

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

At very first glance, the OptimizeFunds could fool one into believing that it is a genuine broker, though the claims of multiple industry awards are hard to believe. But fact-checking quickly reveals that behind this facade lies a typical scam website that only poses as a broker. It would be a major mistake to trust your money to OptimizeFunds.

OPTIMIZEFUNDS REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS

According to the website’s homepage, OptimizeFunds is owned and operated by Asterisk Group LLC, a company based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadine (SVG).

A company by that name appears on the lists of companies registered in SVG. But this means nothing in terms of regulations and security of your funds. SVG is an offshore zone where no regulatory regimes for brokerage activities apply. The local Financial Services Authority specifically warns that it does not license brokers or supervise the activities of International Business Companies that engage in such activity. The latest such warning was posted on the institution’s website on February 3, 2022.

But we have reasons to believe that this website is actually using this company’s name illegally. The company’s name is only mentioned once in the entire website and is embedded as an image, so it cannot be detected by internet search engines. The Terms and Conditions confirm this suspicion. Nowhere in the legal documentation is the name of the owner company mentioned. In addition, we find a passage according to which the laws of Estonia are applicable. Needless to say, but we find nothing regarding the OptimizeFunds in the Еstonian Financial Supervision Authority (EFSA) database.

This website is de-facto anonymous and certainly has no legal authorization to offer the services it claims. Under no circumstances should you trust your money to such websites 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.

OPTIMIZEFUNDS TRADING SOFTWARE

Financial scammers often use trading platforms to fool their victims that their money is actually being invested. However, this trading is entirely fictitious and the money goes directly into the scammers’ pockets. This is most likely also the case with OptimizeFunds. After registering an account we get access to a pretty basic web trading platform. Here is how 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.

OPTIMIZEFUNDS TRADING CONDITIONS

OptimizeFunds claims to offer trading in currencies, commodities, stocks and indices. As we have seen, the website does not have the necessary licenses for this to be true. But OptimizeFunds also does not provide the necessary information on the terms of this trade.

On the website we find a description of four types of trading accounts – Cent, Pro, Pro+ and Luxury.  The only specific information in these descriptions is the minimum deposit of 250 USD. You should know that for a lower amount you could open a starter account with many licensed and truly award-winning brokers.

OptimizeFunds promises a floating spread of 1.3-1.5 pips, which is comparable to industry averages. But in the trading platform we see a spread twice as high as 3 pips. Therefore, if OptimizeFunds offers real trading at all, it is extremely disadvantageous for the trader.

Elsewhere on the website it is announced that OptimizeFunds offers leverage up to 1:500. This is further evidence that OptimizeFunds could not be a legitimate broker based in an EU Member State such as Estonia.

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 European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and accordingly all EU regulators limit leverage to 1:30. The same rules currently apply to the UK and other major markets like Australia.

OptimizeFunds claims to offer a variety of bonuses. Regulated brokers are prohibited from offering bonuses and promotions. The described terms of these bonuses are contradictory – in one place it is stated that the bonus is withdrawable upon making a trade of 30 times the bonus amount plus the deposit, and in another place it is stated to be 25 times. Such inconsistencies are typical of scam websites.

OPTIMIZEFUNDS DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES

The deposit menu has two options – credit/debit card or Bitcoin. Legitimate brokers typically offer clients a wide choice of transparent payment methods, including bank transfer, credit/debit cards and established e-wallets such as Neteller, UnionPay and Sofort.

The main page of the website claims that OptimizeFunds does not charge any transaction fees, but in the Terms and Conditions we find withdrawal fees as high as 50 USD depending on the method. But it is very doubtful that you will be able to withdraw the money you made the mistake of giving to OptimizeFunds at all.

In the text of the Terms and Conditions we find a clause according to which “a levy of 10% of the withdrawal amount will be charged to any withdrawal from an account that has not executed more than 200 in turnover”.

It is not specified 200 of what – it is very likely that 200 lots are meant, i.e. 20 000 000 currency units. Such vaguely worded and impossible to meet clauses are intended to block any requests to withdraw money. We’ve seen this exact trap with dozens of fake brokers. Dcmgroup.io, Wise 4X and WBIinvest are just some of the more recent examples.

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.