category: Unregulated Brokers

Is CK Markets Scam or Legit Broker?

CK Markets has been suspected as a scam broker. According to the website, CK Markets is providing financial services under the laws of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

• The broker’s office is located in an offshore area in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Although there is a local registration by the Financial Service Authority, it does not supervise and implement necessary protection rules for investment firms.

What is CK Markets?

CK Markets is Forex and CFD’s trading provider and platform that offers a diversity of products through industry-leading MetaTarder4. The company claims its professionalism and dedication to the clients need through their dynamic approach and 100% client focus.

• However, due to the lack of registration, the safety of the trading, investment and trader’s funds, in particular, are at the highest risk, as the CK Markets is not obliged to perform an operation in a way that provides security to the traders.

• Besides, the CK Markets has already received complaints from the engaged traders that faced some misleads in trading offering during the sessions and in general throughout the CK Markets performance. In turn, in order to avoid unlikely situations industry authorities advises to involve in investments or trading only with the firms that prove their maintenance of reliability and trust.

Overall CK Markets Ranking 

Because of the regulation and safety issues we found during our research of CK Markets, we do not rank positively CK Markets, based on our Expert Opinion with over 10 Years of experience in Forex Trading.

• CK Markets Overall Ranking is 2 out of 10 based on our testing and compared to 500 other brokers, see Our Ranking below compared to other popular and industry Leading Brokers.

CK Markets Alternative Brokers

We revealed that CK Markets has a lot of issues, mainly in respect of its safety and customer care. Thus, here are much better Alternatives to CK Markets with tight regulations and great trading conditions. We select Good Brokers and reliable options for your comparison below: 

• HFM – Good for Currency trading
• FP Markets – Good for CopyTrading
• FXTM – Good for Beginners

Deposit & Withdrawal

At CK Markets, making deposits and withdrawals is simple and quick. The broker offers multiple funding options, including Bank wire transfers, cryptocurrencies, Visa and Mastercard payment cards, plus Skrill, Neteller, tether, etc. Deposits are processed instantly.

• When an account is inactive for a period of 6 months the broker applies an inactivity fee of 5 USD.
•  If the trader withdraws the funds after no trading activity, CK Markets reserves the right to charge the equivalent amount of any banking fees incurred, or 3% of the total withdrawal amount.

CK Markets Review Conclusion 

We advise to stay away from CK Markets and sign in with Regulated Brokers only that hold a reliable license and are constantly overseen, with a report of every open trade along to the scheme coverage or even more. There are many companies that are licensed by the regulators like UK’s FCA brokers such as FBS and BlackBull Markets recommended as the best trading company provider.

• Overall ranking and experience for CK Markets is Negative

CK Markets Update

We discovered that the CK Markets website is unavailable. It is unclear whether the broker changed its name, or is gone altogether. Since money safety goes first, we recommend avoiding any proposals from CK Markets and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is Topstep Scam or Legit Broker?

No, it is not safe to trade with Topstep. Topstep is owned and operated by Topstep, LLC, and claims to be located in Chicago, USA. However, the broker does not provide information about their registration of history, therefore we can conclude that it does not hold any license from any authority.

• Brokers located in the USA should hold a license from the top-tier authority - NFA. Read more about NFA-registered brokers. 

What is Topstep?

The company has interesting offerings, and reviews about it seem to be very promising, and competitive, as the company simply gives a chance to those who are good at trading but for some reason do not put their own funds into trading. The Topstep provides an opportunity to trade while there is no regulation overseeing how exactly the broker delivers their trading condition and maintains the environment.

• As we always say, it is not safe to trade with a non-regulated broker and unfortunately, this is the case with Topstep as well. Not to put your investments at risk, it is essential to engage in trading with only well-regulated brokers. 
• In our opinion,  the Topstep company provides similar to a competition platform, while only a few of the traders will initially gain some money and due to its unregulated nature no one can predict further development. Of course, that also means that novice traders or those who lack experience would not find their way to gain any money and eventually will only lose time.

Overall Topstep Ranking 

Because of the regulation and safety problems we found during our research of Topstep, we do not rank positively Topstep, based on our Expert Opinion with over 10 Years of experience in Forex Trading.

• Topstep Overall Ranking is 2 out of 10 based on our testing and compared to 500 other brokers, see Our Ranking below compared to other popular and industry Leading Brokers.

Topstep Alternative Brokers

We revealed that Topstep has a lot of issues, especially in respect of its safety and customer care. Thus, here are much better Alternatives to Topstep with tight regulations and great trading conditions. We select Good Brokers and reliable options for your comparison below: 

• AvaTrade – Good Instruments and CopyTrading
• Pepperstone – Low Spreads and Competitive Trading Conditions
• XM – Wide Range of Trading Opportunities

Deposit & Withdrawal

Topstep offers multiple methods to fund their accounts, however, the most accepted ones with the broker are via credit/debit cards. 

• There is no commission fee for withdrawals with Topstep. The withdrawal fee is usually from the payment system. Besides, Topstep pays commission costs for withdrawals above  $500. 

• The withdrawal requests are processed within 7-10 business days.

Topstep Review Conclusion

Considering the above, we highly recommend avoiding Topstepand selecting a decent and licensed broker instead. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as FBS and BlackBull Markets.

• Overall ranking and experience for Topstep is Negative

Is PlusOption Scam or Legit Broker?

It is not safe to trade with PlusOption as the broker does not hold any serious license. Although the broker is located in the UK, it does not hold a license from the country's top financial authority - FCA. This means, that engaging in trading with the broker might put your investments at risk. 

What is PlusOption?

PlusOption is CFD’s trading platform that offers diverse products through its user-friendly trading experience and company support. The company is located in London and claims over 23k engaged traders, numerous received awards, and a huge office team.

• However, almost every entity based in the UK related to financial investments and those firms that offer trading opportunities should be authorized by the local licensor FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). Unfortunately, this is not the case for PlusOption, therefore the company may state various benefits but the client will never know if this is true or false. The unregulated brokers most often just aim to target a maximum number of traders to make deposits, while further on the trader most probably will never see his funds again.
• That happens quite often, as the non-regulated company is overseen by none of the governmental authorities and can do whatever they think is correct. Yet, international regulators monitor the market offering and issue warning against those who seem to be scams, and PlusOption received some of them. 

“ASIC advises this company PlusOption also known as Redfield Markets could be involved in a scam. Do not deal with this business as it is unlicensed in Australia. The business listed has made unsolicited calls or sent emails about investing, financial advice, credit or loans and does not hold a current Australian Financial Services (AFS) license.”

ASIC, Australia. April 2018.

• What is more, there are many negative reviews from the PlusOption engaged traders that state their scammed experience on huge amounts.

PlusOption Review Conclusion

 In conclusion, we recommend choosing a well-regulated broker (Find top forex brokers by link) from FCA Brokers or ASIC Broker (Read ASIC regulated GO Markets review)s and not putting your own trading experience at the highest risks. Read about FCA Regulated Infinox & FXOpen.

PlusOption Update

Based on our findings, the PlusOption website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. Anyway, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is Financika Scam or Legit Broker?

No, Financika is not safe to trade with. The company is not regulated by any of the authorities. So there is only a Vanuatu license left - an offshore license that is considered to be cheap and easy to get. It costs only 2,000 USD one, which basically allows anyone to set up a brokerage there. That is one of the reasons why traders should avoid offshore regulated companies.

What is Financika?

Financika is a Forex and CFD broker that claims to have an office in Law Partners House, operating from Vanuatu. The company also states that the customer support office is located in Bulgaria and all the payments administration services are processed by Cubbon Services Ltd from Larnaca, Cyprus (Read TriumphFX Review which is a Cyprus brokerage firm).
In addition to offshore licensing, Financika has been blacklisted by French regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) in December 2016:

• "The AMF and the ACPR are publishing a list of new websites and entities offering investments on the unregulated foreign exchange (Forex) market in France, without authorization to do so. Here is the list of new websites recently identified: www.financikatrade.com / FINANCIKA (SHARP TRADING) LTD"
• It is recommended to trade with brokers regulated by UK’s FCA or Australia’s ASIC instead. For example, the license from UK’s Financial Conduct Authority requires EUR 125,000 of capital for the STP license aside from client deposits. The regulator also protects customers when authorized financial services firms fail.

Financika  Review Conclusion

In any case, we never advise trading with an offshore or non-licensed broker, since the financial investment service they deliver is not trustable. The reason is simple, the broker may promise the most ever competitive trading conditions or the trading environment, yet the trader has no guarantee from the official entities that oversee the Forex industry. Thus the engagement in trading with such a company means the trader will believe only in the broker’s words, and of course, it is a high risk.

Rather than involving yourself with the risk of losing capital, we would recommend choosing among well-regulated and reputable companies. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as FBS and BlackBull Markets.

Financika Update

Based on our research, the Financika website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is PWRTrade Scam or Legit Broker?

No, it is not safe to trade with PWRTrade. PWRTrade is owned by GN Capital Limited, which is an offshore company registered in the Marshall Islands.

The Marshall Islands is notorious for its practically absent requirements and regulations. The setup cost is low and it does not regulate forex trading. Therefore, it became an offshore zone for shady forex brokers such as MegaTradeFX, Finbitex, and more.

What is PWRTrade?

PWRTrade is a Forex and CFDs broker. The company doesn't provide much information about its location (only a British phone number) and there is no information indicating any regulatory authority that supervises PWRTrade. In addition, PWRTrade has been blacklisted by a few regulatory authorities.

• There is a warning from The Manitoba Securities Commission in Canada:

  "PWR Trade, GN Capital Limited, GN Management, and www.pwrtrade.com are not registered in Manitoba to engage in the business of trading securities or advising anyone with respect to investing in, buying, or selling securities. "

• Also, The Financial Services and Markets Authority in Belgium warns the public about PWRTrade:

  "GN Capital Ltd, operating under the trading name PWRTrade, is not an authorized investment firm or credit institution in Belgium. It is therefore not allowed to provide banking and/or investment services in or from Belgium. Furthermore, certain investment instruments that this company offers are speculative and particularly risky."

PWRTrade Review Conclusion

We advise all investors and traders to avoid PWRTrade and other brokers from the Marshall Islands. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as FBS and BlackBull Markets.

PWRTrade Update.

Based on our findings, the PWRTrade website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. Anyway, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is CriptoRobot Scam or Legit Broker?

CriptoRobot is not a safe broker. It does not have any license from a reliable authority, thus trading with the broker might be risky. CriptoRobot does not mention any information about its safety measures at all. 

What is CriptoRobot?

CriptoRobot offers a vast of investment proposals with a fast-gaining potential and an extensive list of crypto instruments through its platform that allows easy trade of cryptocurrencies. That is what the company states, however, the information on the official website presented is very poor.  

• In our opinion, CriptoRobot is not the company to believe in, as at a glance the first issue is their non-regulated status and misleading about the company location, which means there is no legal status of the company. And this is just the first alert, furthermore, a general offering is not clear and confusing while the financial world and investment should be sharp and transparent. In addition to the negative reviews from the traders, while the broker mainly targets Spanish speaking population, the Spain authority issued a warning to potential clients and advised to stay far from the CriptoRobot. There are plenty of authorized brokers that perform various security measures to provide the best trading offering and of course, it is better to choose a legal broker from the UK, Europe, or another regulated entity.

“The CriptoRobot entity and persons is not authorized to act in the securities markets and to render the investment services or to perform the activity reserved for collective investment schemes (CIS). Only registered companies have obtained authorization since they have provided proof that they meet certain requirements (sufficient capital, organization and adequate means, etc.) and are subject to supervisory body controls.”

CNMV, Spain. May 2018.

Overall CriptoRobot Ranking 

Because of the regulation and safety problems we revealed during our research of BlackBull Markets, we do not rank positively CriptoRobot, based on our Expert Opinion with over 10 Years of experience in Forex Trading.

• CriptoRobot Overall Ranking is 2 out of 10 based on our testing and compared to 500 other brokers, see Our Ranking below compared to other popular and industry Leading Brokers.

CriptoRobot Alternative Brokers

We found that CriptoRobot has a lot of issues, mainly with its safety and customer care. Thus, here are much better Alternatives to CK Markets with tight regulations and great trading conditions. We select Good Brokers and reliable options for your comparison below: 

• Dukascopy – Excellent for Shares, Futures Trading
• AvaTrade – Good Instrument and CopyTrading
• BlackBull Market - Good for leveraged Trading myself

Deposit & Withdrawal

CriptoRobot offers a wide variety of payment methods, both for depositing money and withdrawing. Among the most common payment methods are Vista Card or MasterCard, Bank Transfer, Paypal, Skrill, Neteller, OXXO, etc.

CriptoRobot Review Conclusion

We never advise trading with an offshore or non-licensed broker, since the financial investment service they deliver is not trustable. Rather than risking your capital, we would recommend choosing among well-regulated and reputable companies. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as FBS and BlackBull Markets.

• Overall ranking and experience for CriptoRobot is Negative

Is Point Investment Group Scam or Legit Broker?

It is not safe to trade with Point Investment Group, as the broker does not hold any license from a top-tier authority. In fact, the broker is registered in the Marshall Islands, which is a known offshore zone that enables any firm to register there, without the need of meeting guidelines and strict conditions. The registration fee is also very low, and obtaining it is not really difficult.

• It is a known fact that unregulated or offshore brokers are often scams, thus avoiding signing with them and finding a trustworthy broker is the only right decision while engaging in forex trading. 

What is Point Investment Group?

The Point Investment Group is a trading name used by Mountain High Ltd a trusted company established and registered in the Marshall Islands that proposes various trading opportunities on FX and CFD instruments. During the research, it was revealed that the firm connection and management is quite confusing since there are other company names appearing that include Bali Limites and Winmore Alliance. And this is already a tricky signal to us since the trustable company should have a clear structure with a transparent operation. What is more, those mentioned companies were previously detected in fraud performance and warned timely.

• Since the market offering is full of scams, any trader should strongly consider only regulated firms since they do implement international rules that show company reliability and stability. In order to prevent traders from investing in the highest-risk entities, the industry authorities regularly check and detect scams, adding them to the alert or blacklists. The Point Investment Group appeared in those listings too due to their target of clients without permission to do so, and apart from the numerous negative reviews from the traders.

“CNMV issues warning to the public on unregistered firm Bali limited ltd and Winmore Alliance is not authorized to provide the investment services, which include investment advice or to provide the auxiliary services”

CNMV, Spain. April 2018.

Point Investment Group Review Conclusion

We advise all investors and traders to avoid Point Investment Group and other unregulated and offshore brokers. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as FBS and BlackBull Markets.

Point Investment Group Update

We found the Point Investment Group website inactive and unavailable to reach. This means the broker no longer operates. However, it is best to avoid and stay alert if any proposals come. 

Is Ayrex Scam or Legit Broker?

Ayrex has been suspected as a scam broker. This broker is blacklisted by a well-known regulatory authority and should be avoided. Ayrex is owned by Advanced Binary Technologies Ltd which is an offshore company registered in St. Kitts and Nevis. 

As the company is located in a jurisdiction that does not implement any regulation of the financial investment firm that simply means the company can say and promise many things while there is no guarantee to receive the promises. Generally, binary trading (Check the binary trading brokers reviews) is the paramount risk investment, which is also restricted in many countries, thus it is of the utmost importance to choose a reliable broker like HYCM Broker (read about the broker by this link) to trade with.

What is Ayrex?

Ayrex is a trading name used by the Advanced Binary Technologies Ltd company, with its alleged declared offices in St. Kitts and Nevis. The company states their trusted trading environments with over 230k traders that choose Ayrex, along with the numerous recognitions and awards received from reputable agencies stating their “Best Platform” and “Best offering”.

• However, the world industry authorities detected that Ayrex targets and engages with the residents of particular countries although to do so it requires authorization. So the company appeared on blacklists while the investors were warned in trading with Ayrex. 

“Having considered that Advanced Binary Technologies Ltd is not authorized to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not registered on the register held by CONSOB, also carries out services that requires authorization. Hereby resolves to order the cessation of the Art. infringement consisting of the provision of investment services and activities to the public.”

CONSOB, Italy. May 2018.

Ayrex in India

Ayrex allows Indian traders (Find out the best forex brokers in India here) to open accounts and trade. However, Ayrex has no mention of complying with any Indian regulators on its website.  The broker is not regulated by any regulatory body in India, that’s why money safety may be the issue here.

Ayrex in the USA

Ayrex does not accept traders from the USA (Check out Best US Forex Brokers).

Ayrex Deposit & Withdrawal

The minimum deposit is 25 USD/EUR. The broker does not charge any commission for depositing to the traders accounts. Credit cards, wire transfers, e-wallets, and other forms of online payment can all be used to deposit funds into an Ayrex account.

• The minimum withdrawal is 5 USD/EUR. Traders can make one free withdrawal within a calendar month. Each subsequent withdrawal shall be charged with a commission based on the processing fees and/or conditions of the payment system used for withdrawal. The broker usually processes the withdrawals within 3 business days.

Apps

The mobile trading app (Find best forex trading apps by link) mirrors the platform of the website, with a full range of options and markets available to trade online.

Demo Account

Ayrex offers a Demo account without any registration at all Demo account is an important tool in terms of learning how to work with the platform and a great aid for new traders to get used to the platform interface and features before investing their funds. The full platform can be used with $1000 demo funds – real prices, real assets – without the need to register or supply any contact details whatsoever.

Ayrex Review Conclusion

Overall, there are many questions in regard to the trust of the Ayrex company services and the manner they do operate the online trading itself. We strongly advise opening a trading account only with brokers that are regulated by respected world authorities and comply with the required set of rules and a good reputation through the delivered timeframe of operations. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as AvaTrade and XM.com.

• Overall ranking and experience for Ayrex is Negative

Ayrex Update

Based on our findings, the Ayrex website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is Fin-Tech Prime Scam or Legit Broker?

Fin-Tech Prime is not a safe broker. The broker seems to be located in Tallinn, Estonia. However, it is not regulated by the local regulatory authority. Instead, the brand behind Fin-Tech Prime - Morgan Ltd. is registered in the Marshall Islands, which is an offshore zone. It is a well-known fact, that the Marshall Islands does not oversee the financial firms and their activities. This means the companies can operate however they wish, putting the clients' funds at risk. 

What is Fin-Tech Prime?

Fin-Tech Prime is a Forex and cryptocurrency broker and a trading name of General Media OU, located in Tallinn, Estonia. There are two more names behind this brand - Morgan Ltd., located in Bulgaria, and Morgan Holdings Ltd., located in the Marshall Islands. However, the broker is not regulated by Estonian Financial Supervision Authority or the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission, which only proves that Fin-Tech Prime is another unregulated offshore broker on the list.

• Moreover, UK's Financial Conduct Authority has issued a warning against the broker:
  "This firm (Fin-TechPrime) is not authorized by us and is targeting people in the UK. Based upon information we hold, we believe it is carrying on regulated activities which require authorization."

Fin-Tech Prime Review Conclusion

We strongly advise only dealing with financial firms that are authorized by respected and trustworthy regulators (Find and Compare Forex Brokers). In order to check if the chosen broker is authorized by the FCA, you can check its Financial Services Register to ensure it is. But if you are still searching for a well-regulated broker, check our list of FCA-regulated brokers. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as  FBS and HFM.

Fin-Tech Prime Update

We found the Fin-Tech Prime website inactive and unavailable to reach. This means the broker no longer operates. However, it is best to avoid and stay alert if any proposals come.