Beware! AxiCapitals 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 first thing that stood out to us when we opened the AxiCapitals website was that it was completely identical to another one we had reviewed, MondialFx. Apart from the appearance, the two websites share an even more important characteristic – they are not the “fully regulated” forex and CFD brokers they portray themselves to be, but scams. Let’s take a look at the clues you can use to determine that this is the case.
AXICAPITALS 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.
AxiCapitals claims to be based in the United Kingdom, but also states that it does not offer services in the United Kingdom. This makes no sense from a legal and regulatory perspective.
AxiCapitalsis represented as the trade name of Vie Finance, a company purportedly licensed and regulated by an institution identified only as “HBMC”.
We are not aware of the existence of a financial regulator with such an abbreviation. The licensing and supervision of forex brokers in the UK is carried out by the Financial conduct Authority (FCA).
We do not find Vie Finance in the FCA database. A company with a similar name, VIE FINANCE A.E.P.E.Y. S.A,, is licensed by the Greek regulator, Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC). But this company operates under different trade names and domains from AxiCapitals.
This is not the first fake broker to use this scheme – Smart Trade Cfd is the exact same case, using illegally the details of this Greece based company.
When choosing a broker through which to invest in the financial markets, you should not only make sure that all the information required by law is available, but also that this information is true. Always check that the company is indeed on the records of the specified regulator and that the domain used is among those officially approved for the particular broker.
AxiCapitals does not provide access to Terms and Conditions, Customer Agreement or other documentation required by law. This in itself is evidence that AxiCapitals is not a licensed and regulated broker.
You must trust your money only to one of the many companies that really work under the supervision of respected regulatory bodies like FCA or some EU regulator like 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.
AXICAPITALS TRADING SOFTWARE
AxiCapitals promises an advanced web-based trading platform. But after signing up for an account, we gain access to a rather rudimentary and unconvincing platform that falls short of industry standards.
While this platform has the basic functionality to place orders, it cannot compare to the capabilities provided by MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). It is no coincidence that these platforms have established themselves as the industry standard. 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.
The presence of a trading platform does not make this website any more legitimate and does not guarantee that this alleged broker offers real trading. Many scammers have trading software to fool their victims that their money is being invested.
AXICAPITALS 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.
The account descriptions on the AxiCapitals website specify only a minimum deposit of 200 USD. For the same or often a lower amount you could open a starter account with a licensed broker.
Elsewhere on the website we see claims that EU standard leverage of up to 1:30 is offered, and on the trading platform we see an usual industry spread of around 1 pip. But as has been established, AxiCapitals is not a licensed broker based in the EU. We have every reason to believe that the trading it offers is fictitious.
AXICAPITALS DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
On the homepage of the website, we see the logos of many popular payment methods such as Sofort, Skrill and Neteller.
But in the deposit menu, the choice is between shady payment processors like Cardpayz, Gateway and PayPound. These are payment processors that we have seen being used by scammers, but not by legitimate brokers.
Since AxiCapitals does not provide proper legal documentation, it is unclear what traps the fraudsters may have set. Typically, fake brokers make withdrawing money impossible through huge fees and impossible-to-fulfil traded volume conditions.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
There are many scammers lurking on the internet, luring people with promises of easy riches. These scammers arouse the curiosity of their potential victims through online ads, videos, comments and other content on social networks. Often the initial hook is get-rich-quick tips that link to websites and mobile apps of fake brokers or fake investment firms. After clicking on the ad or downloading the mobile app and having given their contact details, the victims are usually swiftly called by fraudsters presenting a concrete “investment proposal”.
These scammers are very aggressive and often even try to persuade the victims to allow them to take control of their computer remotely in order to make certain money transfers. The fraudsters also try to convince the victims to invest increasingly higher amounts of money. They also make promises of repayment in exchange for one last money transfer. This is a technique to collect even more money from their victims. When you try to withdraw your money, your request is blocked by hidden conditions and huge fees. Fraudsters can also simply disappear because they hide behind fake names and offshore companies.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
First of all, it is important that you do not try to recover your money by trusting people who claim to offer such a service for an upfront fee. These are also 100% scammers. If you used a credit or debit card for the transactions to the scammers, you could ask for a chargeback. But such a claim could be disputed if you provided the scammers with a copy of an ID or proof of address. Scammers usually get their victims to use cryptocurrencies that don’t allow refunds. In any case, it is advisable to inform the relevant financial authorities in your country and spread the word online to warn others not to fall into the same trap.
