Beware! Mismarkets 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.
Mismarkets tries to convince us that it is a forex broker through which we can invest safely and securely in a wide range of financial assets. But before believing such claims and trusting your money you should make sure it is the truth. We found no evidence on the Mismarketswebsite that this is a genuine financial services provider and not just another online scam. Let’s take a detailed look at what are the signs that make this website untrustworthy.
MISMARKETS REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
The most important information about a financial services provider is its regulatory status. Licensed brokers provide detailed information about which company runs them, where it is based, which jurisdictions it is authorised in and which regulatory bodies oversee its activities.
Mismarkets claims that this brand is owned by the Mismarkets Ltd company. But the website provides absolutely no information on where this company is supposedly incorporated. The Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy do not specify an applicable jurisdiction or responsible regulatory authority.
Mismarkets does not provide a contact address, only contact numbers in Europe and Latin America.
Most jurisdictions in Europe have strict regulations regarding forex brokers. Even offshore brokers provide information on exactly where they are based. Lack of such important details is a big red flag that we are dealing with scammers. The only thing we can be sure of is that there is no company behind Mismarkets Ltd. that is duly licensed to offer such services.
You should only trust legitimate brokers operating in one of the established financial centres like the UK, EU, USA or Australia. There, the activities of brokers are controlled by powerful regulatory bodies such as UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in US or Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC). 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.
MISMARKETS TRADING SOFTWARE
Mismarkets promises a high capacity online trading platform. But we have not been able to confirm whether Mismarkets does indeed have functioning trading software. Although the menu to create a new account worked, we did not receive a confirmation email and login credentials. Such lack of functionality is common on the websites of fake brokers. Many of these scam schemes attract potential victims by spamming social networks and online forums, so they don’t rely on someone accidentally discovering their website.
If you use the services of a licensed broker, you will get the opportunity to use established software with advanced features and versions for all types of devices and operating systems. The most widely used trading platforms in the industry are 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.
MISMARKETS TRADING CONDITIONS
On the Mismarkets website we find a description of only one type of trading account, Standard. Legitimate brokers usually offer a choice of different accounts tailored to the needs of clients with different investment intentions.
The conditions described are indeed more or less standard – for an unregulated offshore broker. The leverage listed up to 1:400 is not something you see with regulated brokers. Trading with high leverage allows higher profits, but also increases the risk of sudden and excessive losses proportionally. All leading regulators limit leverage for retail traders. In the EU, UK and Australia the maximum permitted level is 1:30 and in the US it is 1:50. This maximum level only applies to trading major currency pairs, with even more limited leverage for more volatile assets.
The promise of a spread starting at 1 pip does not give enough information about what price the trader is paying. The minimum deposit of 300 USD is too high – many licensed brokers allow you to start trading with much lower amounts. Some companies even offer Micro and Cent accounts with a minimum deposit of just 1 or 5 USD.
The terms and conditions state that Mismarkets offers bonuses – another practice that is not allowed for regulated financial services providers. Fraudsters often use supposedly generous bonuses to tie their victims to extortionate terms.
MISMARKETS DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The home page states that Mismarkets accepts deposits via wire transfer, credit cards, and the electronic payment processors Neteller and Skrill. We were unable to confirm whether this is accurate. Our guess is that it isn’t – fake brokers often promise that they are using popular conventional payment methods, but actually steer their victims to cryptocurrencies. The reason is that transactions with electronic currencies do not allow the defrauded to ask for a refund.
Mismarkets does not provide clear information on withdrawal fees and conditions. From everything we have seen, we can conclude that it would be a mistake to trust Mismarkets with your money.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
Many people have a desire to invest in the financial markets but lack the necessary knowledge and experience. This makes them a potential victim of the many internet scammers posing as brokers and investment intermediaries. These types of scams have exploded alongside the cryptocurrency boom.
If you trust such a website and give them your personal information, you will be contacted by experienced scammers who will entice you with promises of easy profits. The scammers usually offer to take over all aspects of investing for you, sometimes even prompting you to install remote access software on your personal computer. After investing an initial low amount, they will convince you that you are already making incredible profits and urge you to invest more.
But you will never get the promised profits, nor will you be able to get your money back. If you want to withdraw funds from your account, you will find that you have suddenly lost everything in the market, or that you have to meet impossibly high traded volume requirements, or that you have to pay huge fees. It is also possible that fraudsters simply disappear because they hide behind fake names and shell companies in offshore areas that are not subject to any control and regulation.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
One of the few options to get at least some of your money back in such a situation is to ask for a chargeback. But this is only possible if you have used a credit or debit card for the transaction. Scammers typically use cryptocurrencies or dubious e-wallets that make it impossible to get your money back.
Under no circumstances should you trust people and websites that promise to magically refund your lost money for an upfront fee. This is also a well established scam. You may even fall victim to the same scammers again.
