Beware! MobaTrade 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.
MobaTrade presents itself to us as a trustworthy forex and CFD broker that will help us with our financial growth. But fact checking shows that this and all other claims on this website are a lie. We have every reason to believe that this website is nothing more than another online scam. Let’s take a detailed look at why it is in your best interest to stay away from MobaTrade.
MOBATRADE REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Legitimate forex brokers provide clear and detailed information about the legal entity that owns and operates them, where it is based, what licences it has and which regulators oversee its activities. Lack of such details or improper presentation of them are always a red flag that we are probably dealing with a scam.
MobaTrade is a completely anonymous website. Even the Terms and Conditions do not specify a legal entity name or applicable jurisdiction. The document in question is actually a generic Terms of Use for the website and does not provide any information about MobaTrade’s purported brokerage services.
MobaTrade admits it is not regulated. But at the same time it provides a UK contact address. This is a highly regulated jurisdiction where operating as a financial services provider requires a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
A check of the regulator’s database confirms that there is no authorised broker using MobaTrade’s trading name and domain.
On MobaTrade’s website, we also see a statement that this broker is certified by the Crypto Conduct Authority. But no such institution exists. The supposed document also mentions only a brand name, but not a company name.
Before investing your money in financial instruments, it is imperative to make sure you do so through a licensed intermediary and not one of the many scammers lurking online.
If you want to trade on financial markets without being scammed, you can turn to some of the legitimate brokers that actually operate from established financial hubs like the UK. These brokers have to meet stringent requirements for financial stability and transparency of operations imposed by the FCA.
They must provide clients with negative balance protection and to participate in a guarantee fund that covers up to GBP 85,000 of a client’s investment should the broker go into insolvency. These brokers are also required to keep their clients’ money segregated from their own operating funds in separate bank accounts.
MOBATRADE TRADING SOFTWARE
MobaTrade claims to offer a web-based trading platform, but we have not been able to verify whether this is true.
Registering an account with MobaTrade requires a referral code. This is common with scams that prefer to handpick their potential victims by spamming social networks and online forums. Genuine brokers make it easy to create a Demo account.
But even if MobaTrade has some trading software, this does not guarantee that this trading is real. Many scammers use rigged trading software to fool their victims that their money is being invested.
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.
MOBATRADE TRADING CONDITIONS
When you visit the website of a legitimate broker you will find proposals for different types of trading accounts suitable for investors with different preferences, as well as detailed descriptions of trading parameters – minimum deposit, order execution method, tradable financial instruments, leverage, spread, swap, commissions, etc.
On the MobaTrade website we see a list of account types, but their descriptions lack specific information about trading conditions. Only a ridiculously high minimum deposit of 10 000 EUR is stated.
The home page claims that the minimum deposit is actually the more reasonable 250 USD. But for that amount you could open an account with almost any licensed forex broker. Many of the leading brands in the industry offer beginner investors Micro Accounts with a very low minimum deposit, sometimes as low as 5 USD.
MobaTrade also claims to offer cryptocurrency trading.
But the FCA prohibits brokers in the UK from offering retail clients trading in crypto derivatives. So this is further evidence that MobaTrade could not really be a UK-based broker.
MOBATRADE DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
MobaTrade does not provide any specific information on the payment methods that can be used to deposit and withdraw funds.
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.
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 Sofort.
The FAQ section of the website states that MobaTrade allows one free download, and then starts charging transaction fees. But there is no information on the amount of these fees.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORKS
The online space is full of ads promising easy money. They sound too good to be true, because they are not – they are outright scams. Many of these fraudsters pose as brokers and take advantage of the general public’s ignorance of the capital markets.
If you give your contact details to one of the flashy sites promising to make you rich, you will be contacted by experienced scammers who will start convincing you to “invest” in their scheme. Initially they will ask for a small amount, say USD 250 or USD 500. If you agree, they will begin to persuade you to give them larger sums.
However, your money will never be truly invested in the market, and you will not be able to receive either the supposed profits or the money from your deposit. Your attempts to withdraw your money will be blocked by deliberately confusing clauses in the terms and conditions. Some of the most commonly used traps are extremely high minimum trading volume requirements or withdrawal fees equal to 10%, 20% or more of your funds.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
It is very important not to rush into trusting people on the internet who offer to magically refund your money for a fee. These are also scammers, and they may even be the same ones who scammed you in the first place.
If you have made the transfers using credit or debit card, you can claim a chargeback. Visa and MasterCard allow this to be done within 540 days. However, such a request may not be approved if you have given the fraudsters documents such as a copy of an ID and proof of address. This will allow them to claim that the transaction is legitimate and approved by both parties. Wire and cryptocurrency transfers unfortunately are not refundable.
