Beware! Ark Code 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.
The Ark Code website greets us with the peculiar and nonsensical claim that due to “extremely high media demand” this supposed broker will soon stop accepting new clients and we should hurry up and sign up.
That would make us very suspicious even if we hadn’t already seen it on the websites of scammers we’ve reviewed, like Status Code. Closer inspection confirms that the two websites are almost identical. Ark Code is part of a whole network of fake brokers trying to fool people without enough experience in the financial markets.
ARK CODE 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.
Ark Code is completely anonymous, which is unacceptable for any legitimate business, let alone an investment intermediary to trust your money to.
The website does not list a company name, address, phone number or even an email. The text of the Terms and Conditions and the other documents available on the website also do not mention a company name. There we find only the statement that the applicable jurisdiction is that of the United Kingdom:
But this cannot be true because such an anonymous website could not provide financial services in a regulated jurisdiction. For this purpose, an appropriate licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is required. No authorised broker using this domain and brand name can be found in the regulator’s database.
The FCA also prohibits trading in crypto-derivatives – which the Ark Code presents as its core business.
After registration, the fraudulent nature of Ark Code becomes even more obvious. Logging in takes us to a completely different website – that of another fake broker we’ve encountered, Tredero. Obviously the same scammers are behind these websites.
If you intend to invest in financial instruments, you should beware of the many fake brokers lurking online. Always check carefully whether the broker you choose really has the necessary licences. There are numerous benefits to working with a company that is truly authorised and supervised by a regulatory institution such as the FCA or Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
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.
ARK CODE TRADING SOFTWARE
Ark Code, or more accurately Tredero, uses a fairly rudimentary web trading platform. Fraudsters use trading software in order to deceive their victims into believing that their money is genuinely being invested. But this trading is entirely fictitious.
This platform has the basic functionalities for displaying technical indicators and placing orders, but cannot be compared with the capabilities of the software used by legitimate brokers. 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.
ARK CODE TRADING CONDITIONS
In addition to information on legal status, the Ark Code website lacks information on the terms of trade allegedly offered. Genuine brokers not only provide clear information about the parameters of trading, but also offer different packages tailored to traders with different investment intentions.
In the trading platform we see a spread of about 1.5 pips. This is actually comparable to industry averages, but as noted, we have no reason to believe Ark Code offers any real trading.
The platform has a leverage of 1:200 – a level that is not allowed to brokers who are really licensed in the UK. 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 FCA, like EU regulators, limits leverage to 1:30 for trading in major currency pairs and even lower levels for more volatile assets.
The Ark Code minimum deposit is 250 USD. For the same or often a much lower amount, you could open a starter account with many legitimate and regulated brokers.
ARK CODE DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
Ark Code’s deposit menu options include unknown payment processors and cryptocurrencies. Financial scammers direct their potential victims to transactions that do not allow the defrauded to request a refund or chargeback.
Legitimate brokers typically offer clients a wide choice of transparent payment methods, including bank transfer, credit/debit cards and established e-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill, Sofort or iDeal. If you are interested in licensed brokers that also accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, take a look at this list.
Ark Code does not provide information on fees and transaction terms. But these types of scammers invariably surprise with hidden fees and predatory terms.
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.
