Beware! PBO Invest 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.
PBO Invest is an offshore broker that offers a very rudimentary trading platform, unclear trading conditions, and no safety and reliability whatsoever. In the following review, we have tried to explain what makes this broker such a bad choice for trading and investing and offer some better, and hopefully more profitable alternatives to this obvious scam. Putting your money in the hands of such shady companies is a decision that will surely result in financial losses.
PBO Invest REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
PBO Invest is a broker based and registered in the Marshall Islands. This is a red flag if ever there was one – this is a country that does not even have a financial authority. Subsequently, no laws and regulations in the sphere of forex trading exist. Incorporating a company in the Marshall Islands is more than simple – you can easily do that over the Internet without even having to visit the country. You can probably see why we have certain reservations about brokers based in this specific (offshore) jurisdiction – it is no coincidence that so many scammers of all sorts have chosen the Marshall Islands as the base for their activities.
A much safer choice is to opt for the services of brokers regulated in the EU, the UK, or Australia. These brokers answer to stern regulatory bodies and have to meet a number of requirements before obtaining a license and being able to offer financial services. First of all, there is the minimum capital requirement – €730 000 for the UK and the EU and A$1 million for Australia. Additionally, all licensed brokers have to keep client money separate from their own operational funds in segregated accounts. This way, the broker has limited access to your money, would not be able to reinvest it, or lose it, and could process your withdrawal request faster. Negative balance protection is a must – this means the amount of money you lose cannot exceed the funds in your account. In the EU and the UK, compensation funds exist. If a broker goes bankrupt, each of their clients is entitled to compensation of up to €20 000 in the EU and £85 000 in the UK.
PBO Invest TRADING SOFTWARE
PBO Invest offers access to something that could barely be called a trading platform:
This is just a TradingView chart with an extra menu for placing orders attached to it. That can hardly be called advanced or even functional – anyone can access TradingView for free on the Internet, and there is hardly a need to open an account with a broker to do that. Some sort of trading might be possible on such software but trading effectively and efficiently would not be an option.
Such software cannot be compared to advanced trading platforms like MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. Both platforms are a must-try for anyone who wants to get serious about trading. Both platforms offer many advanced charting tools and customizable indicators as well as features like Expert Advisors, VPSs that keep your trading bots functioning even when your computer is not on, and possibilities for setting signals for prices going up or down or subscribing to those set by other successful traders. Luckily, there are many legitimate brokers that offer one or both of these platforms – check out their offers instead of wasting time on scammers.
PBO Invest TRADING CONDITIONS
PBO Invest asks for a deposit of at least $250. This is fairly okay – but there are much better brokerages that offer much more affordable trading accounts. Starting your trading journey with a legitimate broker for as little as $10 is completely possible since Micro accounts are becoming more and more popular.
PBO Invest offers maximum leverage of 1:100 on all of its account types. This might not sound like that much but it actually is considering the leverage rates the financial regulators of many countries have deemed safe. US brokers cannot offer rates higher than 1:50 on forex majors while those in the UK, the EU, and Australia cannot go above 1:30 (for retail traders). The rates in countries such as Japan (1:25) and Turkey (1:10) are even lower. The reason for these restrictions is that trading with higher leverage could result in bigger losses, especially for more inexperienced traders. Always be careful with your leverage settings even in cases when your broker can legally offer higher leverage.
PBO Invest DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL METHODS AND FEES
PBO Invest only accepts Bitcoin deposits which is quite problematic. Crypto transactions are both (mostly) anonymous and irreversible by default. This means that you would not be able to track down your payment to anything more than a wallet number or get your money back. That is why so many scammers would urge you to deposit in crypto specifically and offer no alternatives. It is also why we always advise readers to only use this payment solution if they are 100% sure they can trust a certain company or individual.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK?
In recent years, such scams have become more frequent than you can imagine. That is why it is very important to learn how they usually work and how to tell scam brokers apart from legitimate ones.
Always make sure to check the registers of regulatory bodies to make sure that a broker is licensed and reliable. Stay away from shady-looking websites that promise enormous profits in no time with zero effort. Do your own research – never blindly trust what a certain broker is telling you.
All scams start in a fairly similar way. You see an ad on the Internet promising immense fortune in no time – the only thing you have to do is open an account with a particular forex broker. You give in to curiosity and provide the scammers with your phone number and e-mail – at this point, you might still be reluctant to deposit. But once the scammers have your contact information, you will start getting calls and messages from them. They will ask you to deposit to unlock the full potential of their platforms and turn a profit. Keep in mind that such people are well-versed in the art of sweet-talking – they can promise amazing things and make effortless profits seem possible.
After you make an initial deposit, they would not leave you alone and keep asking for more money. You might even be happy to deposit since, at this point, it might seem like you are turning a profit. Scammers tend to manipulate platforms and results to make it look like you are doing great when you are actually just pouring money into their schemes.
The moment you try to withdraw, you will find out that something is not quite right. Reasons why withdrawals are impossible will show up – additional taxes, new clauses in the broker’s Terms and Conditions, etc. At some point, you will figure out that you are being scammed – but it would already be too late. The scammers will stop answering your calls and e-mails – and they will simply disappear with all your deposits.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED?
The first thing you should do is contact your bank and inform them about what has happened. Change your banking passwords to ensure that the scammers would have no way of stealing more money.
If you have installed remote access software – such as TeamViewer or AnyTesk – make sure to remove it. Some scam brokers will try to convince you that such software is necessary for a better trading experience – in order for them to help you with platform issues, or even with trading. Their true goal is to get access to your computer and banking systems – so they can start draining your accounts.
If you have deposited with a credit or debit card, make sure to contact your card issuer as soon as possible. Both Visa and MasterCard try to combat scams by allowing chargebacks within 540 days of the transactions. Retrieving your money might still be possible. If you have deposited in crypto, on the other hand, there would, unfortunately, be no way for you to get your money back.
Make sure to inform the authorities in your country about the broker and share your story – online and with acquaintances. This will prevent people from getting scammed in the same way.
One final important note – never trust anyone that calls themselves a “recovery agent”. Such “agents” promise to track down the scammers and retrieve your money – for a fee, of course. This is nothing more but another type of scam directed at desperate people.
