Beware! Financial Freedoms 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.
Financial Freedoms bears all signs of scam possible. It is so shady that we simply don’t know where to start from. Here’s the thing – this broker doesn’t display any registration address, company name, phone number or legal documents, which makes it practically anonymous. There are some contradictions surrounding its name as well, so we are pretty sure it’s not to be trusted.
As for the trading conditions this broker offers, they are unfavorable at least to say – a spread of 5.4 pips that goes with enormous trading costs and a leverage of 1:200 are just some of the drawbacks of Financial Freedoms. Don’t invest not one red cent here, otherwise you risk getting scammed in no time. For more details on why Financial Freedoms is an unreliable firm – keep reading the following lines.
Regulation and safety of funds
After a thorough examination of this bogus website we came to the conclusion that there are several very worrisome facts about this company. First of all, half of the site is in Russian and the other half – in English. Secondly, there is no company name, nor corporate address or legal documentation that can prove this broker’s credibility. In fact, there is a google map address in its contact section, which shows the location of London Eye in the UK. All of these don’t make sense at all and mean only one thing – that Financial Freedoms only tries to confuse uninformed customers and hides its true identity.
What’s more, there are some contradictions when it comes to its name. Everywhere on the website and on its logo the name is written “Financial Freedoms”, however at the bottom of the homepage it’s mentioned that this website is property of “Financial Freedom”. All of this is made with the sole purpose to outwit potential traders.
After we searched the registers of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the UK there was no data about Financial Freedoms, so this firm is clearly not licensed or authorized. Take a look:
Sure, if you search for “Financial Freedom” you’ll see some firms with similar sounding names, but they are far from being connected with the broker we are reviewing. What’s more, we won’t be surprised if this was the whole idea of Financial Freedoms – to be mistaken with a reputable company, which it obviously is not.
In short – we are dealing with a very dangerous type of fraud scheme run by scammers whose only aim is to rip off unwitting traders. You should agree that it would be highly unwise to put your money on the line with such an anonymous, unregulated broker with a shady website.
Licensed brokers in the UK on the contrary are obligated to play fair and comply with the rules. What’s more there are numerous requirements in order to be granted a license. Here are just some of them – legitimate UK brokers must have at least 730 000 EUR of minimum net capital and must also keep their clients funds in segregated accounts apart from their own capital. What’s more you can even benefit from a compensation of up to 85 000 GBP in case the firm goes bankrupt, as genuine brokers are obligated to take part in such guarantee funds.
Trading software
Financial Freedoms describes its trading software as a “new-generation platform”, but other than that it doesn’t mention anything more specific.
We registered very quickly and got access to this platform, take a look:
This is a simple web-based software that isn’t “new-generation” at all. In fact you can only use custom indicators and basic tools, but nothing more.
There is no point in investing with such a flawed platform, especially given the fact that the broker providing it is totally unlawful. For this reason it would be much more reasonable to choose a reputable broker, who offers advanced trading software like MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5.
MT4 and MT5 are appropriate even for both advanced traders and beginners. You can be assured that the safety of your funds and personal information is granted as all transactions are encrypted as well as your IP address.
You can also choose between a wide range of educational resources, forex news and technical analysis tools. Most of the customers consider the trading bots to be the best part however. These bots, also called Expert Advisors, analyze the forex market in a search of certain conditions and then perform trading operations once they find them.
MT5 and MT4 can be easily downloaded on PCs, smartphones and tablets and have regular updates. Unfortunately, since Apple removed both MetaTrader 4 and 5 from its AppStore, these platforms can’t be downloaded any more from iPhone/ iPad users. All of you that have already installed the apps can continue using them, but without the above-mentioned updates. On the contrary you can still download MT4 and MT5 from Google Play Store.
Trading conditions
Financial Freedoms claims to offer four different account types – Basic, Medium, Pro and VIP. Take a look at some more information about each of them down below:
As you see the minimum deposit for the Basic account is 250 USD, which is a rather standard amount for the sector. Legitimate brokers ask more or less for the same sum or even offer micro accounts for around 10 USD. So there’s nothing extraordinary here.
As for the leverage, Financial Freedoms offers a leverage starting from 1:200 and going all the way up to 1:1000 for its VIP account. All of these amounts are insane, especially when it comes to retail traders. The reason being that the risk of failure gets higher and higher, so you can get bust in a flash before you know it. For this reason the leverage in most of the countries is limited – 1:30 for the UK to be precise. Still, if you are willing to give it a shot and trade with higher leverage, we suggest looking at some of the offshore subsidiaries of licensed forex brokers.
There is nothing mentioned about the spread this broker offers and there is a pretty good reason for that – it just isn’t favorable for trading at all. After we registered and saw the platform there was a spread of 5.4 pips for EURUSD which is unacceptable. Note that such volumes will definitely come with very high trading costs, so you better stay away from this firm. There are many reputable brokers that offer tight spreads and advantageous conditions as well.
Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
On its website Financial Freedoms promises to accept a wide range of payment methods like Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, UPayCard and wire transfer.
After we opened an account there happened to be two options – Visa/Mastercard and Crypto transactions with Tether and Bitcoin. See for yourself:
Keep in mind that the crypto payments are proven to be irreversible and anonymous at the same time so it would be unthinkable to use them when it comes to a scam broker like Financial Freedoms. What’s more, we can’t guarantee if the credit/debit card option works properly, however we highly advise you to avoid depositing even the tiniest amount of money with this shady firm.
How does the scam work
Be very careful to whom you provide your personal information like email or phone number. The moment scammers have your number they will start calling you in an attempt to make you invest right away.
They will most certainly assure you that trading with them is risk-free, which is highly doubtful at least to say. Also be prepared to hear that you can get a fast and incredibly high return on investment – this is also a shameless lie of course. Scammers tend to sweet-talk traders into making a deposit and then vanish like thin air.
Before that however they might try to manipulate their trading software so it looks as if your money is being invested. They might also fool you into believing that your results are very profitable. This is done with one specific purpose – to make you invest even more before you find out that everything is a lie.
Expect all kinds of hidden fees the moment you try to withdraw even a cent and what is the worst part – to find out that a withdrawal is declined no matter what you do.
What to do when scammed
If you have been scammed, the first thing you can do is to turn to the bank that issued your credit or debit card and ask for a chargeback. If you have paid with your Visa/ Mastercard, a chargeback is eligible within 540 days.
Wire transfers are more difficult to return, and the best thing you can do in this situation is to change your online banking username and password as soon as possible.
Using payment methods like Neteller, Paypal or Skrill also gives you the opportunity to open a dispute in case of online scam.
Unfortunately crypto transactions are irreversible as we already stated and therefore your money can not be returned. All in all we advise you not to trust brokers that use only crypto coins such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Last but not least, certainly don’t trust people on the internet offering to return your funds only after you pay a certain fee. They might also be scammers so don’t risk losing more money than you already have!
