Beware! InvestBy 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.
On paper, InvestBy is legitimate, but the country regulating it cannot provide security for clients, and those who choose to trade with the broker may face some issues. InvestBy is dangerous, and we’ll show you why we claim so in the following review.
InvestBy Regulation And Safety Of Funds
InvestBy is a brand of TechFX LLC – a company registered and allegedly regulated by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB). However, when we tried to validate this information, the authority’s website was not responding, which more or less proves how safe Belarus is. Practically, the country imposes no Forex standards and regulations, meaning that InvestBy is not much different from the ordinary offshore brokerage. And that said, we confirm that your funds will be in danger if you deposit with InvestBy, and bear in mind that every time you fund your account, your money goes out of your country (of course, if you are not a Belarusian citizen). It’s important to know that because, with international transfers, funds are much more complicated to trace, and consequently, chargeback and other refund options become very limited. Simply put, once you deposit with InvestBy, you may consider your money gone forever.
But that’s not all as there is another aspect we should also address. Namely, the Belarusian company TechFX LLC is seemingly linked to a CySEC regulated one bearing the same name, and InvestBy proudly announces this fact. However, the Cypriot entity serves as a liquid provider and payment agent, meaning that clients of the broker under review will not benefit in any way whatsoever – InvestBy still remains unregulated and dangerous. But it makes the impression that CySEC regulation matters, which triggers a red flag because InvestBy apparently aims to mislead customers. Beware!
Trading with unregulated brokers is always dangerous, and with that being the case, we endorse regulated ones only – regulation ensures safety for clients’ funds, transparency, integrity and trustworthiness. For example, both CySEC (Cyprus) and FCA (Britain) regulated brokers are guaranteed safe as both impose strict regulatory standards, including clients’ accounts segregation and risk-reducing measures like leverage restrictions and negative balance protection. But above all, both jurisdictions maintain deposit insurance funds created to compensate clients if things go wrong – up to €20 000 in Cyprus and up to £85 000. And needless to say, if you get scammed by the unregulated broker reviewed, you’ll be unlikely to get any refund whatsoever.
And before we continue, we should mention that as EU clients, we were refused registration, and it shows that InvestBy at least respects some international regulations and standards. Still, we can not recommend it to anyone!
InvestBy Trading Software
InvestBy comes with MetaTrader4, which is a leading trading software that has dominated retail Forex markets for more than a decade. Due to regulatory and possibly other issues, we could get neither Demo nor Real account, but it seems that InvestBy really provides MT4. It’s reliable, but the lack of adequate regulation doesn’t change anything – InvestBy is still not recommended, notwithstanding the decent platform offered.
Also, InvestBy provides a Webtrader of its own, but it cannot match MT4 functionality in any possible way. It’s nice-looking, but the visual appearance is not enough for a platform to call it trustworthy and productive. Have a look:
InvestBy Trading Conditions
InvestBy offers Forex, Cryptocurrencies, Stocks, Commodities and Indices, which is a decent selection of instruments actually – other unregulated brokers cannot even provide EUR/USD, which is laughable!
According to InvestBy’s Webtrader, the trading costs should be highly competitive, but keep in mind that the platform you see above is not linked to any account, so the conditions may differ. The EUR/USD spread was 0.1 pips at the time, which is generally an excellent Buy/Sell difference, and it’s in line with the industry standards.
As for leverage, it can reach 1:100 for retail customers, which undoubtedly proves that InvestBy actually has nothing to do with CySEC regulations – the authority long ago imposed a leverage cap of 1:30 for FX Majors. 1:100 is dangerous, and it shows that InvestBy’s services may be too risky for some customers!
And here is the Webtrader showing some trading conditions:
InvestBy Deposit/Withdraw Methods And Fees
InvestBy never mentioned anything about deposit requirements on its website, and the information appears to be concealed – you may find out anything upon registration, but the approach undertaken by InvestBy is unfair. Legit brokers always reveal critical details about their services! Anyway, other sources claim that the minimum is $250, which is slightly above the industry standard of $100.
The funding methods are allegedly Credit/Debit cards, Wire Transfers, Skrill and Neteller, and InvestBy claims that deposits are free of charge. However, given that the brokerage is located in Belarus, some hefty banking fees for international transactions may occur – we are speculating, but it’s worth keeping this in mind.
As for withdrawals, the minimum is 30 EUR simply because each transaction will be charged 30 EUR by the brokerage, and they explicitly state that requests for less than 30 will be rejected. For more info, look at the screenshot below. And before we continue, we should say that a fee of 30 EUR per withdrawal request is a midday robbery – adequately regulated brokers usually process requests free of charge!
How Does The Scam Work
We cannot simply say that InvestBy is a scam, but the brokerage is definitely underregulated, and with that being so, clients of it may face issues and various problems. Delayed withdrawals, unfair practices, extremely poor customer service, rejected requests for suspicious reasons, and other negative experiences may occur any time soon. In fact, it’s fair to say that unregulated and underregulated brokers even tend to behave like scammers, and for that reason, we’ll quickly explain how scams usually happen.
Forex scams work in many different ways, but essentially, all of them are pretty much the same. Usually, the fraudulent schemes are registered offshore or are totally illegal, which makes it much harder to track the scammers down. And once you end up opening an account with such an entity, for whatever reason, you may expect an avalanche of phone calls from scammers who’ll do whatever it takes to make you fund your account as quickly as possible. They will promise bonuses, guaranteed profits, risk-free trading and anything else you could possibly imagine, urging you to start trading ASAP. And if you trust them and deposit money, you are very likely to become a victim of fraud – phone call urgency and big promises always suggest a scam!
In most cases, you will be shown fictitious profits and unrealistic gains – for example, if you deposited $250, you may expect to see thousands of dollars in profit the very next day. You’ll probably want to withdraw, but the experienced scammers won’t let you do so. They’ll insist that you can make even more money and will ask for more deposits. Or, they’ll tell you that you need to pay taxes in advance in order to get your money back, but no matter the scenario, the withdrawals will be impossible, and sooner or later, you’ll realise you’ve been scammed. It’s a horrible experience!
What To Do If Scammed
The first thing you should do is inform the authorities – call the police, contact your local regulators and other government bodies dealing with crime and fraud. Also, deactivate your cards ASAP and call your bank to inform them about what happened – they can provide essential information and help you reduce further financial damage.
If you deposited cryptocurrencies, there is not much you can do, but if you used your credit/debit cards, you could file a chargeback, hoping that all or some of the money invested can be retrieved. However, you shouldn’t go blindly looking to recover the loss because many fraudulent chargeback agencies are waiting to double-scam victims of fraud – be cautious about it!
And lastly, consider sharing your experience to help protect others and provide further information about how scams work!
