Beware! QRS Global 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.
QRS Global’s website does not give us any good reason to believe the claims that it is an established forex broker. At the same time, we find many signs that in all likelihood we are dealing with a scam. In this review, we will examine in detail why QRS Global is not a legitimate financial services provider and should be avoided.
QRS GLOBAL REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
If a forex broker 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.
The home page of the website lists the name of the company QRS Global ltd. But nowhere is it indicated where this company is based and whether it has the necessary licences to offer financial services and products. The only method of contact is an email address.
On the website there is a link to a single document – Privacy Policy, the content of which, however, is an Anti-Money Laundering Policy. The document also does not specify an applicable jurisdiction.
The funds deposit menu requires agreement to Terms and Conditions, but no such document can be found anywhere. If you don’t know exactly who you are dealing with and what the terms of the deal are, it would be an unjustifiable risk to put your money on the line.
The QRS Global ‘s website is available in English and Thai, and deposit of funds provides for automatic conversion into Thai currency. Apparently, this shady broker exclusively targets customers from Thailand. If you are a resident of this country you could use the services of one of the world’s leading brands operating in this market. This would undoubtedly be a better choice.
It is even better if you are able to use their services in a regulated jurisdiction such as the EU, Australia or the UK. There, the activities of brokers are controlled by powerful regulatory bodies such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and Exchanges Commission (ASIC). Clients of these brokers receive protections such as negative balance protection and segregation of the client’s funds from the broker’s funds.
In the EU and the UK, brokers must also participate in guarantee schemes that cover a certain amount of the trader’s investment if the broker becomes insolvent. These guarantees amount to up to 20 000 EUR in the EU and 85 000 GBP in the UK. However, the likelihood of such a bankruptcy is low because regulators also have significant net capital requirements that companies must maintain – EUR 730 000 in UK and Cyprus and AUD 1000 000 in Australia.
QRS GLOBAL TRADING SOFTWARE
QRS Global claims to offer traders the industry-standard MetaTrader 4 (MT4) software. However, the installation file that can be downloaded from the website is for MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
But this discrepancy is not the biggest problem. The software offered by QRS Global is a demo version belonging to another broker – the Cyprus-based Amp Global Ltd. This legitimate company operates through the domain ampglobal.com. We have encountered other scammers trying to imitate this particular broker.
QRS Global does not provide a login credentials for own trading server. This means that it does not have the technical capacity to facilitate trading in financial instruments. QRS Global is clearly a scam that relies on fooling inexperienced people who do not know what to expect from a real broker.
There are plenty of legitimate, regulated brokers who enable their clients to take advantage of MT4 and MT5‘s capabilities.
These platforms have established themselves as industry standard because they offer a wide range of features, including a variety of options for customization, multiple account usage, designing and implementing custom scripts for automated trading and backtesting trade strategies.
QRS GLOBAL TRADING CONDITIONS
At this stage there is no doubt that QRS Global is a scam and offers no real trade. But the trading parameters described on the website provide us with some additional evidence that this could not be a regulated broker.
Leverage for all account types reaches 1:500. This is not a level that you see with regulated brokers. Trading with high leverage allows higher profits, but also increases the risk of sudden and excessive losses proportionally. All leading regulators limit leverage for retail traders. In the EU, UK and Australia the maximum permitted level is 1:30 and in the US it is 1:50. This maximum level only applies to trading major currency pairs, with even more limited leverage for more volatile assets.
Another such evidence is QRS Global ‘s claim that it offers a Welcome Bonus. Regulated brokers are prohibited from offering bonuses and promotions. Scammers often use promises of supposedly generous bonuses to tie their potential victims to extortionate terms. QRS Global does not provide clear information about the conditions attached to bonuses.
If you are nevertheless willing to take the risk of high-leverage trading and want to take advantage of bonuses, promotions and prize games, the best option is to use the services of offshore brokers operating under an established brand.
On the QRS Global website, we see three different versions of the minimum deposit amount – 10 USD, 100 USD and 1,000 USD. The deposit menu itself has a set minimum of 1,000 TBH, which is equivalent to about 30 USD.
In any case, it would be wiser to approach an established broker. Many leading brands offer Micro accounts with very low minimum deposit.
QRS GLOBAL DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The payment methods offered by QRS Global are two – cryptocurrencies and the obscure payment provider PromptPay.
Scammers prefer cryptocurrencies because these transactions are not subject to refunds. 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 iDeal.
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 WORKS
Scammers who promise easy money without any effort are nothing new, especially on the internet. But given the excitement around bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in recent years, malicious actors have run rampant more than ever, capitalizing not only on people’s desire to solve their financial woes with a magic wand, but also ignorance and misunderstanding of how blockchain and complex financial instruments actually work.
If your curiosity is stirred by one of the many flashy websites promising easy riches, and you provide your contacts, you will soon be contacted by skillful and persuasive scammers who will convince you to start with a relatively small and “risk-free” investment. If you agree to this, you will be transferred to even more skilled at convincing scammers, who will persuade you to invest even more. Any money you give to such people is money you are unlikely to get back.
Any attempt to withdraw deposits or alleged profits will be hampered by numerous and significant fees, as well as harsh and often prohibitive conditions written into the terms and conditions – such as high trading volume requirements, unexpected “taxes”, or withdrawal fees as high as 10% or even 20% of your funds.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
Recovering money you have given to fraudsters is difficult and often impossible. Fraudsters always want you to provide them with documents such as a copy of your ID and proof of address so that they can claim that it is a legitimate transaction, agreed voluntarily between both parties. If the transaction is made by credit or debit card, you can request a cashback and hope for the best, but transactions via wire transfer or cryptocurrencies are not refundable. It is important not to trust online offers from people who offer to recover your money in exchange for an upfront payment, because this is also a well-known scam.
