Beware! Media Point 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.
Media Point is an unregulated scam broker and anyone who wants to invest with it should be aware of the danger it represents. Beware that this firm has no legit forex license and portrays all signs of fraud imaginable. For example some parts of the website are in English and others – in Russian, which seems rather suspicious. And even though Media Point claims to be based in the UK this is most probably a blatant lie and there are many factors that can prove that. First of all this firm is not present on the list of FCA’s licensed brokers. Secondly, it offers extremely high leverage and starting bonus, both of which are forbidden in the UK. It’s unbelievable how shady this broker is! If you want to find out more on why to avoid Media Point, go on and read the full review.
Regulation and safety of funds
As a beginning, Media Point claims its registered address to be in London, the UK. As you know this country has one of the strictest jurisdictions of all and every broker based there must be licensed by the local Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). In order to verify your new broker’s credibility you just have to visit the website of FCA and search its registers – as easy as that! That’s how we found out that Media Point we are dealing with is not authorized to provide investment services. Sure, there is one company with a similar sounding name that used to be regulated, however don’t fall into the trap – it certainly has nothing to do with the firm we are reviewing here. This genuine firm has a different address in Germany, as well as different contact details. There is no doubt however that this was the whole point of this broker – to mislead its customers and make them think it’s reputable.
Furthermore, there is no legal documentation nor company name on the whole website we are dealing with. This renders Media Point even more shady and even anonymous – given the fact that it’s not regulated in the UK we won’t be surprised if its purported address is fake as well.
Staying away from such fraudulent websites is in your best interest. Thousands of people are getting scammed out of their money just because they have falsely invested with illegitimate, shady brokers. The reality is that these deceitful firms are multiplying every day, that’s why forex regulators apply even stricter requirements in order to prevent new traders from getting scammed.
For example all UK licensed brokers must meet a minimum capital requirement of 730 000 EUR – a peculiar guarantee that the company is out of the red. What’s more, all regulated brokers in the UK are obligated to take part in compensation schemes which aim to protect your funds in case of broker’s insolvency. To be precise every trader can be issued with up to 85 000 GBP of compensation. And lastly, your funds must be kept in segregated accounts, safe from any kind of fraud.
Trading software
Media Point claims to offer its own trading software which is said to be “the best CFD trading platform” that can help you get “maximum trade experience”. However there is no way to preview this software before opening an account here, which is a strong indication that there’s something fishy about it.
So right after we registered, we were presented with a simple web-based platform. Take a look at it down below:
This chart can hardly be called “the best” piece of software. It’s also quite doubtful if it can help you level-up your skills, just the opposite – its resources are rather limited and insufficient.
In addition, note that everything in our profile was in Russian, which is typical for scammers. There really is no reason to deal with this sham broker given the fact that there are plenty of reputable brokers who on top of that can offer the best platforms – MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5.
MT4 and MT5 have been preferred by most of the reputable brokers for a pretty good reason. You can benefit from a whole bunch of fantastic features that ease your trading experience. For example the so-called Expert Advisors can perform the trading for you – you just have to set certain conditions – the moment the trading bot finds them, it will start trading right away.
In fact MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4 are very easy to use even for novices. You can download the app and start trading right off the bat, no matter where or when. You should know as well that this piece of software is really safe – all transactions are encrypted, as well as your IP address.
You can effortlessly install MT4 and MT5 on your smartphone, computer and tablet. Note however that the apps can’t be downloaded on any device anymore, since Apple has removed them from its AppStore. So if you use an iPhone or iPad and you wish to install one of these platforms, unfortunately it won’t be possible. Do not get down however because all of you who have already downloaded the software can go on using it (without any further updates however). You can still download MT4 and MT5 from Google Play Store.
Trading conditions
Media Point claims to provide four different account types – Base, Standard, Premium and VIP. Take a look:
As you see there’s barely any useful information in the pile of unnecessary nonsense. The only helpful data is that this broker requires 250 USD for its Basic account. This is an absolutely basic amount, as all genuine firms tend to ask more or less for the same. Moreover, some legitimate brokers even offer micro accounts for around 10 USD. Obviously Media Point doesn’t offer anything special.
On the website there is no data about the leverage this broker provides. After we registered, we were quite shocked to find out that our leverage is automatically set at 1:500. If we have to describe this amount with two words they would be risky and speculative. Moreover the leverage in the UK is limited to 1:30, so this broker is obviously not authorized there. Yet, if you want to give it a try and invest with higher leverage we suggest looking at some of the offshore subsidiaries of reputable forex brokers.
The spread is also not mentioned. On the trading platform there was a spread of 0.9 pips for EURUSD. Even though this amount may seem attractive, don’t let it fool you. Media Point is an absolute scam and is not worth your time or money! Better look for genuine brokers who offer tight spreads below 2 pips for real.
Additionally, Media Point also claims to offer a welcome bonus, however such practices are forbidden in the UK. If you want to get a starting bonus, better choose some of the regulated international brokers instead.
Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
Media Point stays silent when it comes to its payment methods as well and this is exactly what scammers tend to do. In this case, the broker doesn’t want you to know that its deposit options are totally untrustworthy.
And here’s why – after we registered it turned out that this broker accepts crypto payments only – with Bitcoin to be precise. See for yourself:
This is yet another typical sign of fraud. Crypto transactions are not eligible for charge back and are completely anonymous, so once you make a deposit your money will be gone for good.
As you see, investing with Media Point is absolutely unthinkable, as this broker represents all the hallmarks of scam possible!
How does the scam work
Remember that usually scammers want to make you invest with them no matter what it takes. This means that they might try to contact you via email or phone in case you provided them with this information. They’ll try to convince you to deposit as soon as possible, advertising their platform as very advanced and their trading conditions as risk-free and advantageous. Don’t believe them however as these fraudsters don’t intend to trade your money at all – they just manipulate their software.
Very often scammers like to fake your trading results as well, just to lure you into investing more and more until you realize it’s all a huge lie.
Before you find this out however you may face some more bad surprises. For instance it may turn out that you are obligated to pay a certain fee if you want to withdraw your funds – sometimes the fee can exceed 20%. Note that reputable brokers don’t ask for a fee upon withdrawal request or even if they do, the amount is insignificant.
We don’t advise you to deposit or pay fees with such offshore brokers, as you may find out that a withdrawal is impossible no matter what you try.
What to do when scammed
If you realize you have been a victim of financial scammers, don’t trust people on the internet who suggest helping you restore your funds in exchange for a certain fee. It’s very probable that they are also fraudsters, possibly the same who tricked you the previous time.
Still, you can try to retrieve your money if you have paid with credit or debit card – you can turn to the bank that issued your card and file for a chargeback in 540 days. In case you used PayPal or Skrill you can also open a dispute. Unfortunately crypto currency transactions are irreversible as we already stated.
