Beware! OnspotBNK 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.
OnspotBNK is an unimpressive scam attempt that is definitely not worth the risk. The broker is unlicensed and offers conditions (high leverage) that oppose the regulations of the country where it is supposedly based. Moreover, they use the trading terminal of another (offshore) company. There are far too many things that do not add up – avoid taking unnecessary risks and invest with a reliable broker instead.
OnspotBNK REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
OnspotBNK states that is based in the Netherlands and even provided some sort of license – but definitely not one issued by the financial regulator of the Netherlands, Autoriteit Financielle Markten (AFM). In fact, we could not figure out which authority this broker was supposedly licensed by. What we did find out, however, is that another respected EU regulator – the Spanish CNMV – has recently issued a warning on the broker:
Such a warning is definitely to be taken seriously since it proves that this could not be an authorized EU company. This automatically turns investing with the broker into a risky endeavor.
Only trade with brokers who have proven to be reliable – the only way to be completely sure that this is the case would be for you to turn to a broker licensed by a strict regulatory authority. UK, EU, and Australian brokers are your best bet – such brokers are obligated to meet many requirements in order to operate and maintain a high standard of service. Such brokers are obligated to maintain a minimum capital of €730 000 in the UK and the EU, and A$1 million in Australia – this is meant to prove the company’s financial stability. Negative balance protection is a must – no retail trader could lose more money than they have in their account. Brokers are obligated to keep client money separate from their own funds in segregated bank accounts – this speeds up withdrawals and proves that the broker would not be able to use your money for their own doings. Finally, if you are working with an EU or UK broker, you could receive compensation in the case that broker goes bankrupt – €20 000 in the EU, and €85 000 in the UK. All such brokers provide funds for compensation schemes.
OnspotBNK TRADING SOFTWARE
OnspotBNK offers access to the leading platform MetaTrader 4. However, the terminal we were allowed to trade on did not belong to this company. It belonged instead to an investment training company called C-Fidex and based on the Marshal Islands.
We cannot be sure that the two companies are actually related but even if they are, we would hardly recommend that you invest with offshore companies. The Marshal Islands does not even have a financial regulator – registering a company there could even be done over the Internet. Still, here is what the MT4 terminal looked like:
Here are some brokers who offer access to either MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5. Both platforms are user-friendly and accessible which makes them a good option for beginners. That is not at the expense of functionality – the platforms offer a huge number of timeframes, indicators, and graphical objects as well as many other features – Expert Advisors that track markets and trade automatically, VPSs, a Strategy Tester, a market for additional trading apps, the opportunity to set signals for prices going up or down, or set to other traders’ signals, and much more.
OnspotBNK TRADING CONDITIONS
OnspotBNK was less than clear about the trading conditions it offers. The broker did not provide us with comprehensive account type descriptions and only mentioned on the website that we would be able to trade forex, indices, and cryptocurrencies. We only learned what the minimum deposit amount is when we tried to make a deposit – we could not invest less than €170. This is totally acceptable – however, we would suggest taking a look at some very affordable brokers before making a decision. Some of these brokers could open an account for you for as little as $10.
The broker allowed us to trade with fairly high leverage – up to 1:100. This proves once again that they could not actually be licensed in the Netherlands – EU brokers are banned from offering leverage higher than 1:30 to retail traders. The reason for that is that trading with high leverage could lead both to bigger profits, and to bigger losses. That is why we always urge traders to be careful with their leverage settings.
The spread the broker offered was quite impressive – 0.2 pips on EURUSD. There are, however, a few problems. First of all, this terminal does not really belong to OnspotBNK so we cannot be sure about the accuracy of the results. Moreover, the broker has not mentioned anything about additional commissions. Those might turn out to be huge and ruin your chances of turning a decent profit.
OnspotBNK DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL METHODS AND FEES
OnspotBNK accepts deposits made with a credit/debit card, and through Jubiter (which is generally a hardware crypto wallet). We were confused because a hardware wallet is not exactly a payment system. When we tried to “deposit with Jubiter”, we were redirected to Coindesk and asked to purchase crypto to then deposit. Do not under any circumstances deposit in crypto if you are not 100% sure the broker can be trusted – such payments are both anonymous and irreversible. This means you would not be able to get a chargeback on your payment or trace it to a specific person or organization.
It was also possible to deposit with card – the situation here is greatly different compared to crypto payments. Such transactions can be reversed within 540 days – if you have already deposited with the broker, make sure to contact your card provider to see what can be done for you to get your money back. However, the best solution is to avoid depositing with such fraudulent brokers in the first place.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK?
This type of scam is really not that complicated – but it has proven to be quite effective and has managed to trick quite a few people. Given such schemes’ growing popularity, it is important to know how to avoid them – so reading the following paragraphs carefully is vital.
The scam starts with you seeing an ad on the Internet for a certain broker’s website. Such websites usually promise amazing conditions and extremely fast profits – but offer very little in terms of license and company information. However, sometimes scammers can be very elaborate in their promise – so you fall for it and provide them with a phone number or an email. There is another option – they might have stumbled upon your contact details somewhere and are the first to make contact. After that, a game of cat and mouse begins – you will be asked to open an account and make a deposit. Keep in mind that these are professional scammers who convince people to transfer money for a living – they will sweet-talk you into depositing by talking about profits and opportunities.
After that, you might indeed see profits and deposit even more money – but all of this is smoke and mirrors, scammers often manipulate results to make you transfer bigger amounts.
At some point, of course, you would want to withdraw your money – and the problems will start. Additional fees or unfulfilled clauses in the Terms and Conditions will appear, and you will be denied access to your money. At this point, you will probably discover something is wrong – and this is when the scammers will drop out of sight.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED?
There are a few things you could do if you discover you have been scammed. Chargebacks are possible in some cases depending on the payment method you have used to deposit. Both Visa and MasterCard allow such chargebacks within 540 days while bank transfers and cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible.
Make sure to change all banking passwords. If you have installed any remote access software, remove it immediately – scammers ask their victims to install such software under different pretexts but their endgame is to just get access to your banking accounts and steal even more money.
Notify authorities and share your story with as many people as possible – the more people know about such scams, the less they will fall victim to fraudulent schemes.
Last but not least – don’t trust any so-called “recovery agents” that offer to retrieve your money for a fee – this is just another type of scam, sometimes even conducted by the same people that stole your money in the first place.
