Beware! Markets Expert 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.
Markets Expert is a fairly typical example of an online scam disguised as a forex broker. This website will not be useful to you as an investment intermediary, but it provides us with a visual example of how to recognize fake brokers. In this review, we will look in detail at the clues that Markets Expert is not a legitimate financial services provider and should be avoided.
MARKETS EXPERT REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
If a financial services provider 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.
Markets Expert is completely anonymous, which is a big enough red flag in itself. Neither the website nor the Terms and Conditions state the name of the company running this alleged broker.
Markets Expert provides a contact address in Switzerland.
But such an anonymous website could not operate as a broker in a regulated jurisdiction. This is confirmed by a check in the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) database. The regulator has blacklisted Markets Expert.
We have no idea who exactly we are dealing with. The only thing clear about Markets Expert is that it is not an authorised broker. Under such circumstances it would be very unwise to put our money on the line.
If you intend to invest in financial instruments, you should beware of the many fake brokers lurking online. Always check carefully whether the broker you choose really has the necessary licences.
There are numerous benefits to working with a company that is truly authorised and supervised by a regulatory institution such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in US or Australian Securities 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, AUD 1000 000 in Australia and at least 20 million USD in the United States.
MARKETS EXPERT TRADING SOFTWARE
Markets Expert claims to offer a web-based trading platform. But the link to the webtrader in the dashboard is empty.
At the time of writing this review, we have not been able to determine whether Markets Expert offers functioning trading software. But even if Markets Expert has some sort of trading platform, it does not mean that this trading is real. Fake brokers use rigged software to deceive their victims that their money is really being invested in financial instruments.
Links to download remote access software can be found on the homepage of the website. Scammers often convince potential victims to access their devices through such applications, supposedly to get technical help.
If you use the services of a licensed broker, you will get the opportunity to use established software with advanced features and versions for all types of devices and operating systems. The most widely used trading platforms in the industry are MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
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.
MARKETS EXPERT TRADING CONDITIONS
Legitimate forex brokers offer a variety of trading account types tailored to the needs of clients with different capital and investment intentions. These brokers also provide clear and detailed information on trading parameters – leverage, spread, commissions, order execution method, etc. Most leading brands offer beginner traders Micro accounts with a very low minimum deposit, often under 50 USD.
Markets Expert claims to offer three types of trading accounts, but their descriptions only specify leverage between 1:200 and 1:400. This in itself is proof that Markets Expert is not a regulated broker.
Regulated brokers do not offer such levels to retail traders as trading with high leverage carries risks of sudden and excessive losses. A maximum leverage of 1:30 is allowed in the European Union and the United Kingdom and 1:50 in the United States.
Another such evidence is Markets Expert.’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
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.
MARKETS EXPERT DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
Markets Expert states that it allows fee-free deposits via Visa and MasterCard credit cards. But we were unable to confirm this because the deposit menu is only available to approved accounts.
Experience with scams of this type has shown that fraudsters direct their potential victims to payment methods that do not allow refunds or chargebacks, most commonly cryptocurrencies.
While there are some legitimate brokers that accept digital currencies like Bitcoin, they do so alongside other transparent payment methods such as credit/debit card, bank transfer or popular e-wallets like Skrill, PayPal, Neteller or Sofort.
According to the Terms and Conditions, the minimum withdrawal amount is 50 USD. But if the account has received a bonus, it can only withdraw funds after it has met the associated minimum traded volume requirements.
These requirements are quite high – a number of lots equal to the deposit amount divided by four must be traded. I.e. a bonus of 200 USD requires trading 50 lots of 100 000 currency units. Scammers use such clauses to block any withdrawal requests.
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.
Heather Le
I came across a news feed about what banks do not want you to know. It was about cryptocurrency. I clicked on a link that led me to Markets Expert (https://marketsxpert.com) The website said that I could start trading online for $250US. I signed up. The next day a customer service lady called. Her name was Olivia Foster ([email protected]) She said an account manager will call me to set up the trading account and that I must ask him for the code that she is telling me now because there are a lot of scammers out there. There was a lot of calls from numbers like: 41786104629,41766985515,4178604610,41786107734,41766985610,41786107771,
41766985538,41786107884,41766985592,41786104615,41786104798.
When I finally answered, he said his name was Jonathan Ramos ([email protected]) and he repeated the code as Olivia Foster had told me. We started on January 23, 2023 with account #2110975480. The $250US investment was bringing in pennies and dollars. Jonathan suggested that I should invest more. Through Any Desk app, he can go through my bank account and help me e-transfer funds from my bank account to an account with NDAX. Slowly I invested more funds ($729, $879, $2190, $18635, $2200, a total of $24613US)
When my margin was low, Jonathan suggested I take a credit from the company. he could get me $15000US. What I did not fully understood was that the credit or bonus as indicated on their website
was an awaiting deposit, meaning that I must put more funds in to cover the credit. I cannot withdraw from the trading account until I put in the funds to cover the credit. I argued with him, he kept saying that the account could be zero because the credit is tied to my balance and that without the credit, I would not have the balance I have now and so on and so on. He tried to get me to get out loans to cover the credit however my credit score and debt ratio was too high hence the loan applications were denied. I managed to borrow the funds from a family member. When we wired the funds to my NDAX account, it would not let him transfer it out. NDAX held the funds because they believed I was defrauded. I cried and screamed. Jonathan had a guy from the finance department call me. His name was Anthony. Anthony explained that they are not scammers, they cannot be regulated in every country their clients lived in because that would be too costly. They had to use NDAX to transfer funds but now that NDAX restricted my transfer, I can go to BTC ATM to deposit the funds to cover the credit. Once the credit on my account is covered, I can withdraw the funds. I keep saying that I need proof that the company was legit, so Jonathan showed me a screenshot of a client that had withdrawn funds from the trading account. So, on March 6,2023, Jonathan set up an account with Newton, then e-transfer $2182US to my account with Newton then withdraw it to my trading account with Markets Expert. March 7, 2023, $2114US was e-transfer to Newton, Newton to Markets Expert. At this point I have invested $24613US and reduced the credit of $15000US to $10700US. On March 15,2023 $4285US was transfer to my Newton trading account, converted to BTC then deposited into my Market Expert account. On March 17, 2023 , $ 2591US was deposited into my Newton account, converted to BTC then deposit it into my Market Expert trading account. My credit now sat at $3828US. On March 21, 2023, $2591US was made toward my credit, bringing it down to $1237US. This amount was deposited on March 22, 2023.
Jonanthan then made a withdrawal request. He withdrew the whole amount of $116630.48USD. The Market Expert account is no emptied to a crypto wallet: 0xCb7D8a387dD00E9d049744eEfb5233eD7C738fc2.
In order to withdraw the funds ($116630USD), I have to deposit 10% of the withdrawn amount ($11630USD) into a transit account as they called it or it’s on hold till this amount is deposited. I received an email from Market Expert with a transit account (#2111025173). All with info was given to me by a guy named Anthony from the finance department. Once the withdrawal is successful, my trading account is closed. If I wish to continue to trade, I can open another account and the company with give me another account manager,
What are my recourse????