Beware! Pro FX Trading 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.
Pro FX Trading is hardly a good forex broker and there are multiple reasons for that. First of all, this is an offshore broker without a formal license. Secondly, their shady activities have attracted the attention of a reputable financial regulator and earned the broker a warning. And if this is not enough, opening an account with the broker and checking out trading conditions and deposit methods was not even possible at the moment because of technical problems.
Investing with brokers like Pro FX Trading is a waste of time and money – especially since so many great brokers can offer you favorable trading conditions.
Pro FX Trading REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Pro FX Trading is registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We are usually reluctant to trust brokers based in this particular country – in recent years, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has turned into a favorite location for scam brokers. The local financial regulator, SVGFSA, has warned investors on multiple occasions that it does not regulate forex brokers. No local laws exist in the sphere of forex trading. Moreover, brokers based in this country are not obligated to meet any requirements to prove their reliability. It is not necessary for transactions to be reported – this makes it a lot easier to conduct all sorts of financial crimes, including money laundering and tax evasion. Unless the broker you are dealing with is a branch of an established international company, we definitely would not recommend that you choose someone registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines – or any other offshore location – over a broker regulated in a strict jurisdiction.
Pro FX Trading also claimed to have a registered office in the UK. However, this broker is not only not regulated in the country but has also earned a warning from the local financial regulator, the reputable FCA.
This usually proves that a certain broker is running a scam. No one can offer services in the UK without formal authorization and without having met a number of requirements. All in all, Pro FX Trading is an extremely shady broker since they are mostly anonymous and not under the supervision of any financial authority.
Turn to a legitimate UK broker instead – the FCA keeps a comprehensive register of all such brokers, and it would only take you a minute to find out if the broker you have chosen is actually licensed and legitimate. UK brokers have to abide strictly by the law and meet many requirements if they wish to obtain a license – maintain a minimum capital of €730 000 (and sometimes more if they have more clients), keep client money segregated from their own, and provide negative balance protection. Additionally, they have to participate in a compensation scheme that guarantees that in case your broker becomes insolvent, you could receive a compensation of up to £85 000.
Pro FX Trading TRADING SOFTWARE
Pro FX Trading would not allow us to open an account – their website simply malfunctioned. We were, however, able to download a trading platform from the broker’s website – and no other than the leading trading platform MetaTrader 4.
That was not, however, a terminal owned by Pro FX Trading specifically but the generic version of the software. We tried to check the broker’s information in the “About” section of the platform – and that is how we discovered that Pro FX Trading does not actually own this terminal. Scammers use MT4’s good reputation in order to seem more legitimate and attract more customers – do not fall for this trick.
What you should do is turn to a legitimate broker who offers MT4. The platform can offer 30 technical indicators, 9 timeframes, and other charting and analysis tools as well as features like Expert Advisors that trade automatically based on an algorithm, VPSs, and Strategy Testers. You will also have the possibility to develop your own trading bots and indicators, subscribe to those set by others, and even access a market for trading apps that allows additional customization.
Pro FX Trading TRADING CONDITIONS
Pro FX Trading seems to offer a quite affordable Starter account. In order to start trading with the broker, you would have to invest just $100. The broker is not, however, alone in asking for a humble sum to let you start trading. Some of the most established companies out there would also let you trade for $100 or even for less – check out some offers here.
The broker promised leverage as high as 1:500 so we feel the urge to warn you against trading with such high rates if you are a beginner. Leverage increases your trading potential and enables you to make bigger offers. This means that you could either turn decent profits or lose a very high amount of money. Be cautious when it comes to leverage and take factors like market volatility and your own knowledge and experience into account. If you are still interested in high-leverage trading, check out some legitimate brokers that can offer higher rates.
Pro FX Trading DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL METHODS AND FEES
Since we could not open an account with Pro FX Trading, we cannot be completely sure which deposit methods this broker accepts. This is not something they have provided any information about on their website.
Legitimate brokers usually allow you to choose from a variety of deposit methods – credit or debit card, wire transfer, electronic payment solutions like Skrill, Neteller, and PayPal, and lately even crypto. Scammers, on the other hand, prefer cryptocurrency payments because they are anonymous and cannot be reversed. Keep an eye out if a broker asks you to deposit in crypto and offers no alternatives – their intentions might not be clean.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK?
In recent years, such scams have become more frequent than you can imagine. That is why it is very important to learn how they usually work and how to tell scam brokers apart from legitimate ones.
Always make sure to check the registers of regulatory bodies to make sure that a broker is licensed and reliable. Stay away from shady-looking websites that promise enormous profits in no time with zero effort. Do your own research – never blindly trust what a certain broker is telling you.
All scams start in a fairly similar way. You see an ad on the Internet promising immense fortune in no time – the only thing you have to do is open an account with a particular forex broker. You give in to curiosity and provide the scammers with your phone number and e-mail – at this point, you might still be reluctant to deposit. But once the scammers have your contact information, you will start getting calls and messages from them. They will ask you to deposit to unlock the full potential of their platforms and turn a profit. Keep in mind that such people are well-versed in the art of sweet-talking – they can promise amazing things and make effortless profits seem possible.
After you make an initial deposit, they would not leave you alone and keep asking for more money. You might even be happy to deposit since, at this point, it might seem like you are turning a profit. Scammers tend to manipulate platforms and results to make it look like you are doing great when you are actually just pouring money into their schemes.
The moment you try to withdraw, you will find out that something is not quite right. Reasons why withdrawals are impossible will show up – additional taxes, new clauses in the broker’s Terms and Conditions, etc. At some point, you will figure out that you are being scammed – but it would already be too late. The scammers will stop answering your calls and e-mails – and they will simply disappear with all your deposits.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED?
The first thing you should do is contact your bank and inform them about what has happened. Change your banking passwords to ensure that the scammers would have no way of stealing more money.
If you have installed remote access software – such as TeamViewer or AnyTesk – make sure to remove it. Some scam brokers will try to convince you that such software is necessary for a better trading experience – in order for them to help you with platform issues, or even with trading. Their true goal is to get access to your computer and banking systems – so they can start draining your accounts.
If you have deposited with a credit or debit card, make sure to contact your card issuer as soon as possible. Both Visa and MasterCard try to combat scams by allowing chargebacks within 540 days of the transactions. Retrieving your money might still be possible. If you have deposited in crypto, on the other hand, there would, unfortunately, be no way for you to get your money back.
Make sure to inform the authorities in your country about the broker and share your story – online and with acquaintances. This will prevent people from getting scammed in the same way.
One final important note – never trust anyone that calls themselves a “recovery agent”. Such “agents” promise to track down the scammers and retrieve your money – for a fee, of course. This is nothing more but another type of scam directed at desperate people.
