Beware! LeadtradeSfx 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.
LeadtradeSfx is both a blatant and low-grade financial scam. This website attempts to pose as a legitimate forex broker by illegally using the details of a licensed company. But even a superficial inspection reveals the deception. Let’s take a detailed look at the clues that LeadtradeSfx is not a genuine financial services provider.
LEADTRADESFX REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
If a financial services provider is legitimate, you will find on its website clear and detailed information about the company that owns and operates it, where it is based, and what licences it has. Genuine brokers also provide access to a comprehensive set of legal documentation. The availability of such information does not guarantee that it is not false or misleading. But the absence of these elements is very indicative that in all likelihood you are dealing with scammers.
On the LeadtradeSfx homepage we see the claim that a group of companies licensed in the UK, Cyprus and other jurisdictions are behind this website – Swift Market Options UK Ltd, Swift Market Options Cyprus Ltd, Swift Market Options AS Jordan Ltd, Swift Market Options Pty Ltd and SMOSA (PTY) Ltd services.
But when we check whether these companies are actually licensed by the relevant regulators, we find that these companies do not actually exist. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warns that LeadtradeSfx is a clone website imitating the legitimate broker Admiral Markets UK Ltd.
LeadtradeSfx ‘s website is indeed a low-quality copy of Admiral Markets’. The only document on the website is the Privacy Policy, but the link redirects to the Admiral Markets website.
It is not clear who is really behind LeadtradeSfx. But we can be sure it is a scam.
Under no circumstances should you trust your money to such anonymous websites full of false and contradictory information. Instead, you can turn to one of the many companies that really work under the supervision of respected regulatory bodies like Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) or Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.
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.
LEADTRADESFX TRADING SOFTWARE
On the LeadtradeSfx homepage, we see claims that clients can use the two most popular trading platforms in the industry, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
But these claims are part of the content copied from the legitimate broker’s website. LeadtradeSfx does not provide links to download the software and does not provide login credentials to its own trading server. The LeadtradeSfx dashboard lacks any trading functionality. This is clearly a scam aimed at people with no experience of financial markets who do not know what to expect from a real broker.
It is advisable to contact one of the many legitimate brokers that offer MT5 or the still very popular MT4. These platforms have established themselves as leaders because they offer a wide range of features, including a wide variety of options for customization, multiple account usage, designing and implementing custom scripts for automated trading and backtesting trade strategies.
LEADTRADESFX TRADING CONDITIONS
Legitimate forex brokers offer a variety of trading account types tailored to the needs of clients with different capital and investment intentions. These brokers also provide clear and detailed information on trading parameters – leverage, spread, commissions, order execution method, etc. Many leading companies in the industry allow you to start trading with a very low initial deposit, often under 100 USD.
LeadtradeSfx does not provide any information about the terms of the trade it claims to offer. This has no real meaning insofar as LeadtradeSfx are obvious scammers and don’t even have trading software.
Only one parameter is indicated on the website – a leverage of 1:500. This may serve as additional evidence that LeadtradeSfx is not a licensed broker based in a regulated jurisdiction.
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.
LEADTRADESFX DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
There is a single option in the deposit menu of LeadtradeSfx – Bitcoin. This is typical of financial scammers. Cryptocurrencies are their payment method of choice because on the one hand they allow the scammer a degree of anonymity, and on the other hand they do not allow the scammed to ask for a refund.
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, Neteller or Sofort. If you’re interested in legitimate brokers that accept digital currency payments alongside conventional methods, check out this list.
The lack of a publicly available Terms and Conditions or Client Agreement means that scammers may have set many traps such as hidden fees and impossible-to-meet withdrawal terms.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
Stories of people getting rich from cryptocurrencies tempt many to try their luck in the financial markets. But you have to be very careful not to fall into the clutches of the many scammers lurking in the online space. These scammers only pose as brokers and lure you in with promises to take on the confusing aspects of investing for you.
If you make contact with such scammers they will first convince you to give them a small initial sum of a few hundred dollars. They may even fool you for a while that your investment is generating incredible profits to convince you to give them a larger amount. But your money won’t really be invested. And when you try to withdraw your supposed profits or even your deposit, you will find that it is impossible.
The scammers may tell you that all your investments have been lost by a sudden change in the market. Or they’ll point you to clauses hidden in their Terms and Conditions that say withdrawing your money is only possible after you meet impossibly high minimum trading volume requirements. And they can simply disappear because these scam sites hide behind fake names and offshore companies that are not subject to rules and regulations.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
If you find yourself a victim of scammers, you should inform the relevant authorities in your country and spread the word online to warn other potential victims. However, the chances of getting your money back are not high.
If you used a credit/debit card for the transactions, you could ask for a chargeback. However, such requests can be disputed if you have provided the fraudsters with proof of identity such as a copy of an ID. Under no circumstances should you trust people on the internet who claim they can recover your money for an upfront fee. These too are certainly scammers.