Beware! Yobstocktrade 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.
Yobstocktrade wants us to believe that it offers secure and transparent forex and cryptocurrency trading. But even a cursory glance at this subpar website gives us plenty of reason to doubt that this is true. Closer inspection leaves no room for doubt that we are dealing with yet another online scam. Let’s look at what the clues are.
YOBSTOCKTRADE REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
The first thing to look for in a forex broker’s website is which legal entity runs it, where it is based and what regulatory oversight it is subject to. Licensed companies are also required to provide a comprehensive set of legal documentation.
The Yobstocktrade website provides us with absolutely no information. No company owner name or contact address is listed.
Only in the text of the Terms and Conditions, accessible solely through the new account registration form, is the name of a legal entity – Yobstocktrade LTD – mentioned. It is not clearly stated where this company is incorporated, but the wording in the text implies that it is based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
We have not been able to locate Yobstocktrade among the companies registered with the SVG, so we have no evidence that this legal entity actually exists.
But even if the owners of this website are indeed based in this offshore zone, this provides absolutely no guarantees for your funds. While this country has a financial regulator, unlike other offshore areas, it does not regulate the activities of forex and CFD brokers. Тhe Financial Services Authority (FSA) of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has repeatedly issued warnings on this issue, with the latest such warning dated 3 February 2022. This lack of oversight makes SVG a convenient base for scammers claiming to be forex brokers.
If you have decided to invest in financial instruments, and especially if you are a novice trader, you should use the services of a licensed broker based in a jurisdiction with strong regulations.
Depending on your location, it is advisable to choose a company that is regulated by an institution such as 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.
YOBSTOCKTRADE TRADING SOFTWARE
On the Yobstocktrade website we see images of a standard looking web trading platform. But after registering an account this platform is nowhere to be found. In the dashboard we find only a simple chart with current Bitcoin prices, which has no trading functions. Yobstocktrade has no technical capacity to offer the services it claims.
Legitimate brokers offer clients a wide selection of trading software, including desktop, mobile apps and web-based platforms. The most widely used 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.
YOBSTOCKTRADE TRADING CONDITIONS
When you visit the website of a legitimate broker you will find proposals for different types of trading accounts suitable for investors with different preferences, as well as detailed descriptions of trading parameters – minimum deposit, order execution method, tradable financial instruments, leverage, spread, swap, commissions, etc.
There’s nothing of that sort on the Yobstocktrade website. Instead, we see proposals for investment plans promising guaranteed and high returns. A genuine broker will not and cannot promise you guaranteed profits. In fact, licensed companies are obliged by regulators to warn their clients about the high risk of losses when trading financial instruments.
The minimum deposit for these plans is 100 USD. For the same or often lower amount, you could open an account with a licensed broker that offers real trading on fair terms.
The only trading parameter mentioned on the Yobstocktrade website is a leverage of 1:100. Regulated brokers do not offer such levels to retail traders as trading with high leverage carries risks of sudden and excessive losses. A maximum leverage of 1:30 is allowed in the European Union and the United Kingdom and 1:50 in the United States.
Yobstocktrade also promises different bonuses. Regulated brokers are prohibited from offering clients bonuses, promotions and prize games. Scammers often use supposedly generous bonuses to tie their victims to extortionate terms.
YOBSTOCKTRADE DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The only payment method used by Yobstocktrade are cryptocurrencies:
This is also a typical feature of financial fraudsters. Cryptocurrencies are their payment method of choice because they do not allow the defrauded to ask for a refund or a 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, or Sofort. If you are interested in licensed brokers that also accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, take a look at this list.
Yobstocktrade does not provide information on deposit and withdrawal fees and terms. But scammers of this type invariably serve unpleasant surprises in the form of hidden fees and conditions blocking any withdrawal requests.
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.
