Beware! 44trades is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
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According to 44trades, the number 44 represents efficiency, business, consciousness, attention, discipline, and equilibrium in numerology. The number is also associated with financial success and a keen business sense for those who have it as their life path. Well, that’s great, we thank them for informing us, but such claims are not proof of legitimacy! Quite the contrary, whenever a brokerage gets into astrology, numerology and Mercury in retrograde, it’s a clear sign that things may get ugly at some point. And in this particular case, our assessment is correct – a spoiler; 44trades is an exposed scam, and we will review it!
44trades Regulation And Safety Of Funds
To avoid beating around the bush, we should inform you that 44trades is an officially exposed scam after the Spanish regulator CNMV issued a warning against the so-called brokerage! An official warning is the ultimate red flag, and it tells you that you should never ever deposit with 44trades!
But anyway, some corporate details reveal that 44trades shouldn’t be trusted – that is, the offshore registration of the brokerage. It’s created in the Marshall Islands, which is an offshore zone that doesn’t even have a financial regulator, let alone a regulated Forex market. But it’s even worse as the country allows the incorporation of totally anonymous international business companies, and 44trades is one of those. It’s unknown who’s the owner of 44trades and where it’s actually located, and we can reasonably say that the offshore registration is camouflage protection of the true identities of the scammers! So, if 44trades scams you, there is literally no way to understand who did it so as to bring them to justice!
Offshore brokers are dangerous, and for that reason, we endorse regulated ones only! For example, both CySEC (Cyprus) licensed brokers and FCA (Britain) brokers are proven safe as both authorities force strict regulations to guarantee safety for clients’ funds. The compulsory rules include client account segregation, risk-reducing measures like leverage restrictions and negative balance protection, and increased capital requirements to license a broker (€730 000). Most importantly, though, both authorities maintain deposit insurance funds – clients of CySEC brokers can claim up to €20 000 in compensation, while the UK protections are even higher at £85 000 per person! It goes without saying that if you trade with unregulated brokers, you’ll remain unprotected and exposed to fraud risks!
And here is the official warning:
44trades Trading Software
44trades’ trading software is poor! It’s a Webtrader that cannot provide any of the features you can find with MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader5.
We mentioned both MetaTraders for a reason – the platforms are industry leaders packed with many advanced features such as automated trading and analytical tools, reliable complex indicators, easy-to-use charting tools, and even a marketplace with thousands of apps developed by third parties. 44trades’s Webtrader is miles behind, and we believe it’s dangerous as there are no guarantees that servers and other technical equipment are trustworthy enough. The bottom line is, we won’t recommend 44trades solely because of its inferior Webtrader, the rest of the problems aside!
44trades Trading Conditions
The asset classes available for trading are Forex, Crypto, Commodities, Stocks and Indices, which is a standard selection actually.
The trading costs are seemingly very low – as you can see from the screenshot below, the Buy/Sell difference is only 0.3 pips, which is a highly competitive rate. Still, as we already know, 44trades is an exposed scam, so spreads make no difference whatsoever!
The trading risks are high – leverage can reach 1:100, which increases profit potential, but at the same time, makes trading much more dangerous. Leverage is a risky tool and should always be used with caution!
44trades Deposit/Withdraw Methods And Fees
The minimum deposit with 44trades is $250, which is a standard rate for offshore brokers. However, the regulated ones are much more affordable as they ask for $100 on average, while some are ready to accept new clients for as little as 5 to 10 dollars. This quick comparison shows you that 44trades is not only an exposed scam but an expensive choice, as well!
The funding methods are Credit/Debit cards and cryptocurrencies, but we couldn’t properly test the deposit system as it was malfunctioning at the time. It often happens that brokers’ websites start producing errors once a warning gets issued, and this may be the actual case here.
Information about withdrawals is scarce, but even if there were enough provisions, the details would be strictly fraudulent! However, we should still explain how 44trades uses malicious bonus clauses to make withdrawals impossible. It happens in the following way: once a bonus is credited, customers should trade the bonus sum plus the deposit 40 times to become eligible for withdrawal. And 44trades, as a fraudulent broker, inserts bonuses for every new client, so whenever you deposit money, you end up tied by the unfair clauses preventing withdrawals. That’s a scam!
How Does The Scam Work
Forex scams are different from one another, but in most cases, the fraudulent scheme is practically carried out in the same way. Scam brokers are always unregulated and usually registered somewhere offshore, which helps scammers remain anonymous and untraceable. If you open an account with such an entity, you should expect endless phone calls. Scammers will constantly try to approach you and make you deposit money as quickly as possible. Remember that urgency is always a treacherous sign, so it’s probably a scam if someone calls you twenty times per day, asking for money.
In the worst-case scenario, you’ll deposit, and scammers will persuade you to trade instead of you. You’ll soon see magnificent profits generated – false, of course, and you’ll get excited, asking to take your money back. As you probably guess, they won’t let you do so and will try to get another deposit from you, promising that much more lucrative gains are waiting. Or, they can ask for a false tax, saying that withdrawals are only possible if you cover the charge in advance. If you pay, you’ll increase the amount stolen from you, but if you keep asking for your money, you’ll soon realise it’s a scam!
What To Do If Scammed
You should first inform the authorities – call the police and 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!
