Beware! Royal Oak Investment 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.
Royal Oak Investment wants us to believe it is a “worldwide brand committed to your trading experience” but it’s not at all convincing. Closer inspection reveals that Royal Oak Investment in no way resembles a legitimate financial services provider, but instead has many commonalities with online scams we have encountered. We have no reason to believe that Royal Oak Investment is any different from these scams, which is why it would be a mistake to trust it with your money.
ROYAL OAK INVESTMENT 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.
The Royal Oak Investment home page gives no indication which company owns and operates this alleged forex broker, nor where it is based. Royal Oak Investment does not provide a contact address.
On the face of it, Royal Oak Investment provides the expected set of legal documentation. However, most documents do not mention the name of a legal entity at all. The only exception is the Withdrawal, Refund, and Cancellation Policy, where the name Royal Oak Investment Ltd is mentioned.
The Terms and Conditions state that the governing law is that of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). However, Royal Oak Investment Ltd cannot be found among the companies registered in this offshore zone.
But even if the actual owner of this website is based in SVG, this provides absolutely no guarantees for customers. The local Financial Services Authority specifically warns that it does not licence forex and other types of brokers, and that it does not regulate the activities of International Business Companies engaged in such activities. This allows companies registered there to only pretend to provide brokerage services.
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 Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in US, Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC), UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or some EU regulator like Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
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.
ROYAL OAK INVESTMENT TRADING SOFTWARE
The Royal Oak Investment website promises “innovative” and “one-of-a-kind” trading platform, but really only has a very basic web platform that doesn’t stand out for anything. Here is what it looks like:
While the platform has the basic features for placing orders, customising charts and application of technical indicators, it lacks the more advanced functionality found in the most widely used trading platforms in the industry, 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.
It should be noted that the presence of some kind of trading software is no guarantee that this is a genuine broker. Financial scammers often use trading platforms to fool their victims that their money is actually being invested. However, this trading is entirely fictitious and the money goes directly into the scammers’ pockets.
ROYAL OAK INVESTMENT TRADING CONDITIONS
Royal Oak Investment claims to guarantee “low cost trading” but in the trading platform we see an extremely high spread of over 5 pips. In comparison, even a spread of 2 pips is considered too high and unprofitable for the trader. Royal Oak Investment does not specify whether it charges additional trading commissions.
The leverage offered varies between 1:100 and 1:400 for different account types. 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. 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 stated minimum deposit is 250 USD. For the same or often a much lower amount you could start trading through a licensed and regulated broker.
ROYAL OAK INVESTMENT DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
Royal Oak Investment claims to accept deposits via credit cards, wire transfer and Bitcoin. However, the deposit menu has no functioning options and requires you to contact the account manager or the support team via email.
Legitimate brokers typically offer clients a wide choice of transparent payment methods, including bank transfer, credit/debit cards and established e-wallets such as Skrill, Neteller, Sofort or iDeal. Scammers prefer cryptocurrencies because these transactions are not subject to refunds. If you are interested in licensed brokers that also accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, take a look at this list.
Royal Oak Investment charges an outrageously high withdrawal fee – 1%, but no less than 30 USD. Legitimate forex brokers rarely charge transaction fees. Another very high fee is that for an inactive account – 99 USD per month.
If the account has received a bonus, the withdrawal of this bonus is only possible after meeting an impossibly high minimum traded volume requirement – 50,000 times the bonus value.
In the Terms and Conditions we see wording that could be interpreted to mean that this condition applies to all withdrawals. Such traps are typical of financial fraudsters.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
Trading in financial instruments is a risky business even for experienced investors using the services of reliable brokers. For newcomers, there is also the risk of being deceived by the many scam websites posing as brokerages. These websites are operated by skilled and cunning scammers who lure you with promises of easy profits. Usually these scammers promise to take care of all the bits and pieces of investment for you, but many even use real trading platforms to fool you that your money is really being invested. After investing an initial low amount, they will convince you that you are already making incredible profits and urge you to invest more.
But your money is not invested and you will never see the promised returns. When you ask to withdraw even a portion of your money, you will be surprised by impossible to meet minimum trading volume requirements and hidden fees that amount to tens of percentages of your funds. Scammers hide behind fake names and offshore companies that are uncontrolled and unregulated, so it will be impossible to hold them accountable.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can request a chargeback. However, this option is only possible if you have used a credit or debit card for the transactions. Visa and MasterCard allow this to be done within 540 days. But if you have provided the scammers with proof of identity, such as an ID or proof of address, these claims can be disputed. Bank wire transfer or cryptocurrency transactions are non-refundable.
In any case, you should inform the relevant authorities in your country about the activities of the scammers and warn other potential victims online. You should not trust offers to return your money for an upfront fee. This is also a known scam and all testimonials from satisfied customers are fake.
