Warning Signs and Broker Scams

The warning signs

• Contact you did not ask for: a call, a social media message, a stranger's tip.
• Guaranteed or unrealistic returns; nobody legitimate promises profits.
• Pressure to deposit quickly, to deposit more, or to pay a fee or tax before a withdrawal is released.
• An account manager who wants to trade for you or asks you to install remote-access software.
• No licence, a licence that cannot be found on the register, or a registration passed off as a licence.
• Withdrawals that are delayed, partly paid or met with new conditions.
• A website only weeks old, an address that is a virtual office, or reviews that all read alike.

The recovery scam

After a loss, victims are contacted by firms claiming to recover funds for an upfront fee. These are usually the same people or their associates, working from the list of victims. No legitimate recovery process starts with a fee to a stranger who found you. Report to your regulator and, if a card payment was involved, ask your bank about a chargeback.

If you have already deposited

• Stop depositing. Every further payment is lost.
• Request a withdrawal in writing and keep the correspondence.
• Report to the regulator of the country you live in and the country the broker claims to be licensed in.
• Contact your bank or card issuer about a chargeback, quickly, because time limits apply.
• Keep everything: screenshots, statements, chat logs, names.

Prevention in one sentence

Never deposit with a broker you did not find yourself, that you have not verified on a regulator's register, and that you have not tested with a small deposit and a withdrawal first.

Key takeaways

• Scams begin with unsolicited contact and promises of returns.
• Withdrawal problems and pre-withdrawal fees are decisive warning signs.
• Recovery agents who find you are the second half of the same scam.
• Verify, deposit small, withdraw once, then decide.