When it comes to money, the one thing you can be certain of is the fact that there will be some trying to take advantage of others, either through deception or outright scamming. It is the same in any industry when money is involved, fak clothes, fake concert tickets and you would be correct in assuming that there are trading and foreign exchange related scams. In fact, there are a lot of them, so many that we won’t be able to go through them all, but we will be looking at some of the more prevalent scams that you see about and the ones that are most heavily advertised. So let’s take a little look at what they are.
Fake mentor/account manager:
We have combined these into one as they are pretty much the same thing. If you have been on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, I am 100% sure that you would have come across at least one of these people. I am sure you have come across a post similar to this:
“I see a lot of people’s chill and wait for the right time, My friends the truth is if you keep waiting for the right time, you will never get things done. Invest in Forex and Binary Options to earn massive profit weekly ($600 to earn up to $6000 return of your investment or more) Everyday is an opportunity to get started, just give it a try . Invest in yourself and start now, Dm me for more info. I would guide you through the financial free lifestyle”
Looks legitimate right? Anyone offering this kind of money is not a real mentor and they certainly aren’t an account manager. In fact, their only purpose is to try and get your hard-earned money. It is as simple as that, if you come across anyone offering this kind of service, or offering to look after your money and trade for you, avoid it like the plague. Legitimate account managers will not use social media to try and get you to invest. You will simply send your money and never hear from them again.
Trading signals/expert advisors (not all):
I will start by pointing out that not all signal providers and expert advisors are scams, in fact, there are some out there which can be very profitable and are there to legitimately help otters to earn, the problem is that they are often the diamonds in amongst the thousands of pebbles. There are so many expert advisors and signal providers available that it is impossible to find the real ones from the fake ones, and the scammers love this as it makes it so much harder to spot the fake ones. It also does not help that some statistics and account monitoring sites actually let you upload your own data, meaning that all results can be completely fabricated. It also does not help when they want you to sign up with a specific broker that they either work for or get compensated for bringing in new clients.
It can be quite hard to work out what is real and what is not, people will also look at the reviews, but they can be just as fake as the software. Our only advice for finding legitimate signals or EAs are to look at the statistic sites that do not allow for manipulation of the data, only go with personal recommendations from people you know, and also try looking for the ones that don’t require you to sign up with a certain broker or to pay a subscription fee.
Ponzi schemes:
You have probably seen these being advertised, sign up for $xxx and get a monthly return of 40%, well let’s face it, you won’t, or if you do, the first will be the only payment that you get, you get that initial return as a goodwill gesture to try and get you to deposit more. If you do, that money will be gone and any further payouts will be delayed. These are seriously popular, which is unfortunate as they all eventually fail. There are some legitimate MLM companies out there, but these are all about selling and not the actual product that they are advertising unless you are a marketing guru, you are almost always guaranteed to make a loss, so our advice is to avoid them at all costs.
Fake broker:
This is where some of the cammers go the extra mile, they will set up an entire broker in order to try and bring in customers, who will deposit into the accounts and place some trades. The broker will then either trade against them and cause a stop out so the customer loses, or they will simply make up excuses as to why they cannot payout. These sorts of brokers also often use scare tactics or harassment to try and get their customers to deposit more money, something that unfortunately can scare a lot of people into doing, any money you put in you will not be getting back.
In order to avoid this it is important that you do your research, always check for reviews on reputable sites (not just any review site), check the trading communities where people often post their honest views about things, and check for various scam warning such as limited ways to contact, the location, and who the owners are, often scammers are serial scammers so you may find the same names popping up in a number of different places.
Those are just a few of the many ways that people try to scam others when it comes to trading, it is important that you are frugal with your money, do your research before ever departing with any, and while it may sound counterproductive, always assume something is a scam until you are able to prove that it is not. This way you will be able to keep both your money safe and your mind at ease. There are a lot of scams out there, so stay alert and diligent, then you will be fine.
