Beware! Evest 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.
Evest is a South African-based forex and CFD broker that offers trading in a vast number of financial instruments but does not impress with extensive technological capabilities or particularly advantageous terms. Let’s take a detailed look at what Evest offers and what other options you have when choosing a broker through which to invest in the financial markets.
EVEST REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
The first thing to look for in a forex broker’s website is which legal entity runs it, where it is based and what regulatory oversight it is subject to.
According to the website information and legal documentation, Evest is a brand of Atriafinancial Sa (Pty) Ltd, a company based in South Africa.
A check of the South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) database confirms that such a company exists and is licensed. Always do a careful fact check before you put your money on the line.
Authorisation by the FSCA means that Evestis is not a scam, but regulations for brokers in South Africa are much looser than those in Europe, the US or Australia. On the one hand, this allows for riskier trading with high leverage. But it also means that clients get fewer guarantees on their funds.
If your residency allows it, you could choose a broker licensed and overseen by respected regulatory institutions 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.
You should also be aware that many established brands operate in the South African market. If you trade through one of them you can count on more competitive terms and higher quality services.
EVEST TRADING SOFTWARE
One aspect where Evest definitely lags behind most of its competitors is trading software. This broker only offers a web-based platform and mobile apps. Here’s what the platform looks like using a Demo Account:
While the platform has the basic features for placing orders, customising charts and application of technical indicators, it lacks the more advanced functionality found in the most widely used trading platforms in the industry, 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.
EVEST TRADING CONDITIONS
Evest offers three types of trading accounts, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
The minimum deposit for a starter account is 250 USD. You should know that many of the leading brands in the industry offer Micro and Cent accounts for beginner investors with a much lower minimum deposit, sometimes as low as 5 USD.
Evest also does not offer very attractive trading conditions. The broker promises a spread starting at 3 pips for a Silver account. But this level is twice as high as usual for the industry.
One of the important differences between the FSCA and regulators in Europe and the US is the lack of strict leverage limits. This allows Evest to offer quite high leverage of 1:400.
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.
Evest also offers bonuses and promotions, which is prohibited by most financial regulators. The deposit bonus can reach 100% and can be used for trading, but is not withdrawable.
If you are willing to take the risk of high-leverage trading and want to take advantage of bonuses, promotions and prize games, probably the best option is to use the services of offshore brokers operating under an established brand.
Evest also offers a copy trading service. It allows you to automatically copy trades from selected investors, ranked according to their market performance. This service can be useful for beginner traders as well as for those who do not have enough time.
EVEST DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
Evest states that it does not charge deposit fees, but does charge a 5 USD withdrawal fee. Most forex brokers do not charge any transaction fees. The minimum withdrawal amount is 25 USD.
Deposit menu is not available if the account is not verified.
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. For their part, fraudsters prefer cryptocurrencies because it deprives the defrauded of the opportunity to claim a refund.
Evest also charges a substantial inactivity fee of 75 USD per month. After 12 months, an inactive account is considered dormant and may be charged an additional fee of 100 USD.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORKS
The hype surrounding cryptocurrencies has drawn public attention to the trading of financial instruments. However, the vast majority of people remain ignorant about financial markets. There are a growing number of scammers who are taking advantage of this by posing as brokers.
If you make contact with any of these sites that promise to make you rich effortlessly, they will first start convincing you to make a small “investment” of a few hundred dollars. If you prove susceptible, even more convincing scam artists will court you to give them even more money. They will probably even fool you into thinking that your initial investment has already generated profits.
But the truth is that your money will never be truly invested. It will go straight into the pockets of the crooks and you will probably never see it again. Scammers hide behind fake and offshore companies that are not subject to any regulation and control. They also often use non-transparent payment methods that make it difficult to track them and recover money. Your attempts to withdraw your supposed profits or deposit will be blocked by confusing clauses in the Terms and Conditions, prohibitively high volume requirements and huge withdrawal fees.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
Unfortunately, it is difficult to recover money given to such scammers. If credit or debit cards were used for the transfer, there is a chance if you ask for a chargeback. Visa and MasterCard allow this to be done within 540 days. But this method is not foolproof either, because fraudsters will ask you for copies of your ID and proof of address right from the start. This way they can claim to the card company that the transfer was voluntary and agreed by both parties.
It is important not to trust offers from people on the internet to recover your money from scammers for a fee. Such offers also come from scammers.
