Beware! Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com 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.
Everything on the Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com website looks very familiar to us. We’ve seen this layout and elements probably dozens of times while reviewing questionable brokers. Even the branding is something we’ve seen with another scam website – solabiz-innovationmarkets.online.
But even if you haven’t come across these types of scams, you can very easily determine that Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com is not the legitimate, well-established, award-winning financial services provider it claims to be. Let’s see how.
SOLABIZ-INNOVATIONMARKETS.COM REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Legitimate financial services providers provide clear and detailed information about the legal entity that owns and operates them, where it is based, what licences it has and which regulators oversee its activities. Lack of such details or improper presentation of them are always a red flag that we are probably dealing with a scam.
Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com is completely anonymous – nowhere is the name of the company that owns and operates this alleged broker named, not even in the text of the Terms and Conditions. This is completely unacceptable for any legitimate business, let alone an investment intermediary asking you to trust them with your money.
It lists a UK address which we are pretty sure is fake.
The UK is a highly regulated jurisdiction where anonymous websites cannot legally offer financial services. In order to operate as a broker there, a company must hold the appropriate licences from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). There is no company in this regulator’s database whose name includes “Solabiz-innovation Markets” or other variations of this brand.
If you want to trade on financial markets without being scammed, you can turn to some of the legitimate brokers that actually operate from established financial hubs like the UK. These brokers have to meet stringent requirements for financial stability and transparency of operations imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They must provide clients with negative balance protection and to participate in a guarantee fund that covers up to GBP 85,000 of a client’s investment should the broker go into insolvency. These brokers are also required to keep their clients’ money segregated from their own operating funds in separate bank accounts.
SOLABIZ-INNOVATIONMARKETS.COM TRADING SOFTWARE
On its homepage, the Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com promises a “world-class trading platform” – namely MetaTrader 5 (MT5), which is indeed the most popular software among brokers and traders worldwide.
The reality, however, is very different. The Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com does not provide links to download the software or credentials to log into a trading server. After registering an account we get access to a dubious looking and nonfunctional buy and sell menu. Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com does not have a real trading platform, but only a very poor imitation that could only fool people without any experience in financial markets.
You could always use the services of a regulated broker, the vast majority of which offer clients MT5 or the still very popular MT4. This will enable you to use the advanced features of these platforms without fear of being scammed. These platforms are preferred by the majority of brokers around the world because of their powerful automated trading capabilities, including Expert Advisor bots and customised scripts for backtesting trading strategies.
SOLABIZ-INNOVATIONMARKETS.COM TRADING CONDITIONS
If anonymity, lack of licence and lack of proper software is not enough to convince you that Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com is a scam, the terms of trade described on the website may serve as definitive proof.
On its homepage, Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com presents itself as a typical forex and CFD broker, but unlike real brokers, it does not provide information on basic parameters such as spreads and commissions. Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com also promises guaranteed returns, which is impossible – in fact, legitimate brokers are obliged to warn their clients about the high risk of losses associated with trading financial instruments.
Terms and conditions paint a completely different picture. It states that the Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com is solely engaged in cryptocurrency trading. This type of trading is prohibited for retail traders in the UK, where the Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com claims to be based.
The Terms and Conditions further state different account types than those on the homepage. According to the stated terms, Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com takes an initial fee and up to 15% of profits – this has nothing to do with the practices of legitimate brokers.
On the website we also see a claim of leverage up to 1:500. This is not a level that 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. The FCA, like EU regulators, limits leverage to 1:30 for trading in major currency pairs and even lower levels for more volatile assets.
The minimum deposit of 500 GBP also differs drastically from the conditions offered by real brokers. Many legitimate companies allow you to start trading with far lower amounts.
SOLABIZ-INNOVATIONMARKETS.COM DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com only accepts cryptocurrency deposits, which is completely expected from fraudsters. Scammers prefer cryptocurrencies because these transactions are not subject to refunds. While there are some legitimate brokers that accept digital currencies like Bitcoin, they do so alongside other transparent payment methods such as credit/debit card, bank transfer or popular e-wallets like PayPal, Neteller or Skrill.
Solabiz-innovationmarkets.com promises that it does not charge transaction fees, but we have no reason to believe anything on this website.
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.
