Beware! Mega Markets 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.
Mega Markets tries to fool its users by claiming to be legitiamte, with looks to go with it, but its true nature cannot be kept hidden to us.
MEGA MARKETS REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Let’s turn the stone on Mega Markets by exploring 4 separate indicators of the broker illegitimate status. It’s easier this way.
The footer of the site reveals that the “Mega Markets brand is authorized in various jurisdictions” but fails to mention any one of them, at least in the footer. Usually, if a broker is authorized in some nation or by some authority it would be recognizing it to the point of annoyance. The fact that Mega Markets does not act so is an obvious reveal that the broker is not licensed anywhere.
The, all of a sudden, the broker talks about a UK based address, as if though it was regulated there by the FCA, which it definitely isn’t. There is no proof of Mega Markets being legally present in the UK, meaning that the only hope the broker has to be based in the nation is to be so completely outside of the law. The FCA would never in its lifetime allow Mega Markets to proceed.
In the legal documents, Mega Markets takes a quick 180 turn, stating that is is governed by the laws of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This nation is particularity notorious for being the home of thousands upon thousands of unlicensed and scammer brokers. There is no local FX regulator and the local legal structure tend to turn a blind eye to broker misconduct. So essentially it does not matter if Mega Markets is registered there.
Last but not least, the broker offers deposit bonuses, which have been banned by most mainland regulators. Their presence reveals an offshore and shady address. If you want to trade with brokers offering bonuses but have no idea where to start, look no further than here.
Mega Markets is completely unregulated and a risk to all.
Illegal and unregulated brokers spell trouble every single time! They have nothing to offer, unless you count heartache and frustration. These companies are created and run as elaborate scams (not all of them) and they are short-lived as a result of complaints and regulatory actions. But in between the creation of a scam and its downfall many users will lose their money with very little chance of a refund. This money will be redirected to various offshore and untraceable accounts and will serve the scammers to fund their own lavish lifestyles and future scammer projects.
So, really there is no reason to invest or even interact with unlicensed brokers. If you want to experiences the real FX trade, then look no further than any European, UK, US, or Australian-based brokers. These are regulated and fair institutions that treat each customer with care and respect.
MEGA MARKETS TRADING SOFTWARE
From the website we gather that the broker promotes some sort of Mega Markets Trading Platform, but we have absolutely no proof that it actually exists, not only because there were no links on the site but because we were unable to open an account. It may be advertised as the next big thing, but without any proof, we are left to believe that Mega Markets offers no software at all.
Readers who want the real experience should focus on either MT4 or MT5 brokers.
MEGA MARKETS TRADING CONDITIONS
There was no way to open an account. There was no registration button, only login button to access a user area, presumably. We have no idea why there was no registration area. All we know is that we had to rely on the site for the trading conditions. Take the following with a grain of salt.
The site reveals a 1:500 leverage cap (for safe and fair brokers with high leverages click here), and a total of 5 account types, not that we trust the broker to offer any one of these. The available assets are forex currency pairs, cryptocurrencies, indices, commodities, spot metals, and energies. There were no spread values anywhere.
MEGA MARKETS DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
According to the site, the minimum deposit is $10 000, way too high for anyone. The payment methods are credit cards, debit cards, wire transfer, possible e-wallets and crypto wallets. The payment gateways details are not really clear.
These are the fees we found about. There is a 5% card withdrawal fee, a $350 bank transfer fee, and inactivity fee of $100 applied when no trading activity or less than three open positions are held for a 30 day period, a a crypto pair fee of 0.01% which we don’t really know how is applies. There is also a 5% fee, just out there in the legal docs that we have no idea what it’s about. Last but not least, we have a verification fee that depends on the amount of time the user takes to provide KYC docs to the broker.
If you want a safe environment to trade, as well as a fair one, we suggest looking into these minimum deposit brokers.
How does the scam work
For years now the scammer process has been, more or less, based on the same simple principle: that of solicitation. Of course, users can also stumble randomly on a scam but this happens very rarely.
Scammers rely mainly on exaggerated advertisement campaigns and phishing tactics, that is to say cold-calling techniques, to recruit their users. On the ads front, users are lured with very striking online ads about unbelievably lucrative opportunities for investments accompanied by imagery of luxury. The client is prompted to provide a contact email and a phone number.
The contact will be established in either case, and the user will be lied to and manipulated until he or she is lead to invest. If you fail to be succumbed to the broker’s sweet talk at some point the representative will stop calling you. But until then, you will be surprised as to the exhaustive repertoire of deceits and lies these scammer have. Essentially, they will try everything to convert you to their shady cause.
A users who has invested will be prompted to deposit at least one more time, but this time a larger sum with allegedly higher chances of hitting it big on the trade game. Obviously the illicit firm in question is making all these claims up; most of them don’t even have trading software!
The time will eventually come when the client will feel cheated, but by then it is usually too late. The broker will either cut all contact with the user, shut down its site, or simply stall the withdrawal request indefinitely.
What to do when scammed
The safest bet at getting your money back is to file for a charge back with your credit or debit card provider – the chargeback period for MasterCard and VISA is 540 days. However, this can only happen if you have invested via a card, or an e-wallet supporting card payments.
Bank transfers are way harder to trace, and the only hope you have is to call the bank itself and try to figure out a reimbursement strategy. But there is no guarantee that this will work. What we can advise if you fall into this state is to immediately change your bank account password and username.
Then there are the crypto transactions which are untraceable and therefore lost for good. So, whenever you see a crypto based payment method with an unregulated broker make sure to stay clear!
Last but not least, we have the recovery agents or agencies which are total scammer of their own. They promise a full refund in return of a one time payable fee, and no small one at that. As soon as this is paid they will disappear without a trace.
Clive Lincoln
Beware of this scam site. Once you have deposited the minimum US$250.00 you will be hounded to increase your investment into this scam organisation. You will not be able to withdraw your money at all.
I deposited the initial amount in November 2022. When I declined the requests to deposit many more thousands of dollars and asked to close my account, the manager said he would refer the matter to the Finance department. The requested withdrawal was said to have been returned to my account (in February 2023 ) from which I made the original transfer of funds. This money has never been returned to me. All requests for more details of this transfer have been the same – “the funds were transferred to the account from which you made the original deposit.”
BEWARE THIS IS A HUGE SCAM
Five different managers have been appointed to manage my investments. All tried to get me to deposit $5000 to $10,000 more. One manager also made a number of trades on my account to show me a profit of over $300 in a matter of days. These are just falsified figures designed to get me to invest more money. My second request to withdraw the fictitious balance in February 2023 has not yet been approved. As the first refund has never been received by me I do not expect to hear from these scam managers again.