Beware! LeaderFinancing 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.
LeaderFinancing is an unregulated broker which claims to be based in the UK, but in fact doesn’t have a forex license therefore offers its trading services against the law. Not to mention that it intentionally hides valuable information like its trading conditions and type of platform – you won’t be allowed to see it until you make your first deposit. If this isn’t shady enough and you still consider investing with LeaderFinancing – read the full review and you’ll change up your mind!
Regulation and safety of funds
According to the website LeaderFinancing is a UK brokerage firm with an address in London, UK, which is most probably fake to be honest. There’s an email, but no phone number among its contact information, so bear in mind in case you want to reach out to them.
Every broker which is based in the UK must be licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – the local entity that oversees the forex market. As we searched the registers of the FCA we weren’t able to find LeaderFinancing however. Take a look:
Apparently this firm doesn’t hold a forex license and operates without the permission of the relevant authority – an action that is against the law.
Dealing with an unregulated broker may cause you so much trouble, you won’t believe it. Not only that you might lose all of your investment, but you put your personal information at risk too. And there’s no institution to help you, as these firms are not regulated by law as we mentioned.
Authorized brokers on the other hand are obligated to meet some very tough requirements in order to be granted a license.
The UK has one of the strictest requirements for forex brokers around the world. For example every regulated broker must have an initial net capital of 730 000 EUR – the same amount applies for brokers in most of the countries from the EU. There are some exceptions of course – the requirement in Germany is 750 000 EUR. This capital serves as a guarantee for the financial stability of the company and is not to be used for its operational needs. As you see only very profitable firms can make it to the license.
There’s another requirement that states that all brokers in the EU and the UK are obligated to take part in compensation schemes – in the unlikely event of broker’s insolvency the client can be compensated by the relevant authority. In the UK traders can be issued for up to 85 000 GBP by the local Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). In the EU the amount varies – for most of the countries it’s 20 000 EUR, and for others it can be higher – 70 000 EUR in for France instance.
Being a client of a broker with a legit license means that your funds are safe and sound and you don’t have to worry about being deceived. Regulated firms are committed to use segregated accounts – in short your money is kept apart from the company’s own capital, safe from any kind of fraud.
Trading platform
LeaderFinancing claims to offer a WebTrader both for mobile and desktop. After we registered it turned out however that we couldn’t see the platform until we made our first deposit.
The deposit on the other hand, also requires some personal information to be uploaded. Not to mention that the minimum investment with this broker is an impressive sum of 10 000 USD, but that’s another story.
In short – you have to make a deposit and only then you are going to be allowed to see what type of platform you can use or what leverage and spread you can benefit from. Sounds highly unfair at least to say. Legit brokers usually display this information right away – you can see it even before opening an account with them.
For this reason we can’t say for sure what type of trading software LeaderFinancing really provides.
Beware that dealing with such unregulated brokers comes with the risk of being deceived. You may end up using a very insufficient trading platform with spread and leverage that are not advantageous at least to say. So be careful and trade with regulated brokers only – they tend to offer the best trading software like MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5.
Most reputable brokers usually rely on more sophisticated trading platforms like MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. They are proven to be the best piece of software for trading purposes nowadays and have been downloaded by millions of people so far.
MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 happen to be the most popular trading platforms around the world. Both brokers and traders praise them for a good reason, mainly because of how secure and stable they are. You can always rely on them to execute your orders promptly and efficiently. Not only that but all the essential information such as transactions and your IP address is encrypted.
MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 have some outstanding features but the best one according to traders are the Expert Advisors. These bots have one particular task – to search for certain conditions and to start trading the moment they find them. A truly unique feature that only MT4 and MT5 can brag about.
MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 are perfect for beginners as well for more advanced traders. You can keep your knowledge up to date with a variety of educational resources and daily forex news. They are also very easy to navigate – you don’t need any previous experience in order to use them. MT4 and MT5 can be downloaded on different devices like PCs, smartphones and tablets.
Unfortunately not long ago Apple removed both of them from its AppStore so MT4 and MT5 can’t be downloaded on Android devices anymore. We really hope this measure is temporary. As for the users that have already downloaded the app, they can continue using it but without any future updates or upgrades. MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 can still be installed through Google Play Store.
Trading conditions
On the website of LeaderFinancing you can see a chart with their account types – Bronze, Silver, Gold and Premium. The bronze one requires a minimum deposit of 10 000 USD, which in fact is too much. Usually reputable brokers ask for 250 USD or even less – sometimes you can open an account with only 10 USD. Take a look at the chart that LeaderFinancing provides:
As you see no more useful information is mentioned. No data about the leverage and spread they offer either.
On its homepage LeaderFinancing claims to offer a very low spread from 0.0 pips. And since we weren’t granted access to its trading platform for the reasons stated above, we can’t confirm what spread LeaderFinancing really provides. Bear in mind that this broker isn’t regulated so no surprise if it lies about its spread.
Just remember that any spread higher than 2 pips is certainly going to be more costly. On the contrary – spread less than 2 pips is considered fine for trading as it comes with lower trading costs.
LeaderFinancing also doesn’t specify what leverage you can benefit from. Be careful if you come across a leverage higher than 1:50 as it comes with certain risks. In fact the higher the leverage, the higher the risk is going to be. For this reason in the EU and the UK there’s a leverage cap of 1:30, so don’t expect a reputable broker based there to offer more.
Still if you want to trade with higher leverage, we suggest looking at some of the offshore subsidiaries of reputable forex brokers here.
Deposit/ Withdrawal methods and fees
On its website LeaderFinancing claims to accept payment methods such as Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and Bank transfer.
After we registered we made an attempt to fund our account. First, we had some different currencies to choose from and had to fill the amount we wanted to invest. No information about the payment method however. Take a look:
Bear in mind that this broker requires some personal information to be uploaded in order to make a deposit. That’s why we couldn’t go further with our investment.
A lot of the reputable brokers accept different payment methods like credit/ debit card and bank transfer, as well as popular e-wallets such as Skrill, Neteller and PayPal and also cryptocurrencies. Most of them have some advantages and traders usually prefer credit/debit cards or e-wallets instead of crypto coins for a couple of reasons.
First of all, the above-mentioned options usually give you the chance to file for a chargeback (Visa/Mastercard) or open a dispute (e-wallets) in case you have been a victim of a scam.
Crypto transactions on the other hand are 100% irreversible and anonymous at the same time, so you can’t return your money no matter what. This is the reason that most scammers want you to use them and offer this payment method as the only option. If you come across such a broker be careful, as this is a clear sign of fraud. Scammers usually try to prevent you from having your money back and crypto payments are one way to achieve it.
How does the scam work
Never underestimate online scammers as they happen to be unexpectedly inventive and come up with different ideas on how to deceive people literally every day. Most importantly, remember that offshore brokers don’t have any intention to actually invest your money and don’t care about your prosperity. Their only goal is to make you invest as much as you can and then drop out of sight completely (with your money of course). There are some techniques that are a red flag, so if you come across them, just flee as fast as you can.
Firstly, scammers would try to reach out to you via email or phone, so providing such information carefree is not a good idea. If they succeed in getting this material however do expect a lot of phone calls and emails that contain their promise to double your investment – “risk-free” indeed.
They might also guarantee a very high return on investment without any hard work from your side. This sounds ridiculous already – any investment on the forex market holds more or less risk and requires some knowledge. In fact regulated brokers are obligated to post a warning about trading risks on their websites.
The next step in scammers` fraudulent practice is to manipulate their trading software and make it look as if your funds are being invested and you make huge profits at the same time. This is also a lie with no doubt. Scammers just want to make you invest a “little more” again and again and will take advantage of you as much as they can.
They might also offer some kind of welcome bonus just to make you get in the game. Note that such bonuses come with strings attached – a very high volume requirement you certainly won’t be able to achieve. Not only that but reputable brokers in the EU are restricted from offering such bonuses or promotions exactly because of this malicious practice.
Unfortunately most people realize that all of the above is a lie when it’s too late. Once you try to withdraw any funds from your account you will find out that this is impossible. First however scammers might ask for a certain fee upon the withdrawal request – 10% or even 20%. Note that most reputable brokers don’t ask for a fee at all. Anyway, there’s no point in paying this fee, because even if you do, you still won’t be allowed to withdraw your money. Therefore you may end up losing everything.
What to do when scamed
Certainly there are some Dos and Don’ts when it comes to online scam.
Your first move has to be to turn to the bank that issued your credit or debit card in case you paid with one and file for a chargeback in 540 days. If you have used Skrill, Neteller or PayPal you can also open a dispute. Unfortunately crypto transactions are irreversible and anonymous as we already said, so they are not eligible for a chargeback.
It’s also 100% sure that you shouldn’t turn to people on the internet who suggest restoring your stolen funds in exchange for a certain fee. These people are most probably also fraudsters, so don’t take the risk of losing even more money!
