category: Unregulated Brokers

Is TorOption Scam or Legit Broker?

TorOption is not a secure Forex broker since it does not hold a license from any worldwide serious Forex authority. Meaning the broker is suspected of being a fraud company since it was not checked for its compliance before establishment, was never monitored in terms of its safety, and simply may operate the business in any way it wishes.

What is TorOption?

TorOption is a trading name used by the company with its registered address in Scotland named Smart Choice Zone LP. The broker claims its professional approach and management of trading experience in CFDs, Commodities, Indices and Commodities along with the advanced security features. However, the company operates with no license or supervision from the respected industry authorities, therefore the claims on security and trustability are not proven.

• Since the broker offers also trading of binary options (Find Binary Options Regulated Brokers ) or instruments with a maturity of less than one hour that is a highly risky investment, which is in fact not permitted to distribute in many jurisdictions with the purpose to protect clients.
• Furthermore, there are several European industry authorities, which included TorOption in its warning or blacklists, as the company targets clients in respected jurisdictions without its allowance to do so. The warnings include Belgium FSMA, Spanish CNMV, and Italian CONSOB while advising not to engage with the company offering by any means.

“The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) warns the public against the activities of TorOption, a company that offers binary options without complying with Belgian financial legislation. The FSMA thus strongly advises against responding to any offer of financial service made by TorOption and against transferring money to any account number it might mention.”

FSMA, August 2017

“CNMV issues warning to the public on unregistered firm TorOption”

CNMV, May 2017

TorOption Review Conclusion

Overall, we do not advise trading with TorOption because of its lack of safety. Also, there are numerous complaints and negative responses from the clients who traded with TorOption. For that reason, it is recommended to choose among the Regulated brokers that are constantly overseen in terms of their secure trading environment. We advise trading with well-regulated brokers such as BDSwiss and XM.

TorOption Update

Our research showed that the TorOption website is unavailable to reach. Besides, there is no evidence of whether the broker operates or not. We recommend avoiding any offshore-based brokers due to their instability and lack of serious regulations.

Is CFXPoint Scam or Legit Broker?

CFXPoint has been suspected as a scam broker. This broker is blacklisted by a well-known regulatory authority and should be avoided. CFXPoint is owned by Marketier Holdings Limited which is an offshore company registered in the Marshall Islands.

• The Marshall Islands is notorious for its practically absent requirements and regulations. Due to 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 CFXPoint?

CFXPoint is a brand and trading name used by KLDC Technological Systems Ltd, a company incorporated and located in the Marshall Islands. The CFXPoint claims to be a DMA (Direct Market Access) and no dealing desk broker that provides an offering to trade 65 currency pairs and 33 CFD products through the most competitive spreads (Read about zero spread accounts) and advanced client support from the company. 

• The overall offering of the broker shows a competitive proposal designed for both institutional and retail clients, however, the company is located in a jurisdiction, which does not regulate Forex and investment firms. The CFXPoint is a “self-regulation” entity that creates standards of operation by itself and is not overseen by any other authority. Therefore, it is a high risk to trade, as the capital may be at risk due to the fact that no protection rules are implied, even though the company states so. We always advise trading only with Regulated Brokers, as the trading itself requires an attentive choice of the trustful company.
• Nevertheless, apart from the non-regulated operation of the broker, the industry authorities with the purpose to warn and educate the investors about the frauds and potentially highest risk involvements, regularly check on the financial service companies that target clients and apparently are not authorized to do so. Therefore, CFXPoint appeared and has been outlined by the Italian authority CONSOB, June 2018

“The National Commission for Companies and the Stock Exchange, in accordance with article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance, has ordered the following company to cease infringement consisting of the offer and performance of investment services and activities to the public, put in place by Cfx Point Ltd, through its website.”

CFXPoint Review Conclusion

We strongly advise opening a trading account only with brokers that are regulated by respected world authorities that comply with the required set of rules and have 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 FP Markets and TMGM.

CFXPoint Update

Our research showed that the CFXPoint website is unavailable to reach. Besides, there is no evidence of whether the broker operates or not. We recommend avoiding any offshore-based brokers due to their instability and lack of serious regulations.

Is InvestingPRO Scam or Legit Broker?

InvestingPRO has been suspected as a scam broker. This broker is blacklisted by a well-known regulatory authority and should be avoided. InvestingPRO is owned by Milton Group LTD 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 (See the Best forex brokers list). Therefore, it became an offshore zone for shady forex brokers such as MegaTradeFX, Finbitex, Tradersway, and more.

What is InvestingPRO?

InvestingPRO is a broker that provides Forex and CFD (Read about Forex and CFD broker HYCM) solutions to institutional and private investors. The website is owned and operated by a group of companies. The group includes Milton Group LTD, registered in the Marshall Islands, and Kyoto Limited LTD., registered in Sofia, Bulgaria. Although the company claims to be registered in Bulgaria, it is not regulated by Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission.

• The broker provides a copy of the license with the Financial Commission which is also an offshore entity and is considered to be a fraud and has a lot of negative reviews.
• One more thing to pay attention to is the contact phone numbers with Italy's and Poland's country codes which only shows that the broker has been targeting EU countries without any authorization. Moreover, Spain's National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has issued a warning against InvestingPRO: 

" www.investingpro.com is not authorized to provide the investment services detailed in Article 140 of the Securities Markets Law, which includes investment advice, or to provide the auxiliary services..."

InvestingPRO Review Conclusion

It is recommended to trade with brokers regulated by UK’s FCA or Australia’s ASIC instead (Find the list of ASIC-regulated forex brokers by link). Check the list of FCA-regulated brokers. We strongly advise signing in with reliable brokers such as FP Markets and BlackBull Markets.

InvestingPRO Updates

InvestingPRO website remains inactive and unavailable to reach. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not propose account openings.

Is RoyalCFDs Scam or Legit Broker?

ROYALCFDS is a 100% fraud company. The broker is registered offshore and does not hold any proper license from a well-known reliable financial regulator. It is NOT SAFE to trade ROYALCFDS.

• We never advise trading with an offshore 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.

What is ROYALCFDS?

ROYALCFDS is a Forex and CFDs broker. The company is the trade name operated by DIGITAL WORLDWIDE OU, registered in Tallinn city, Estonia. They also mention Digital Enterprise Ltd., another company owner that is based in the Marshall Islands. There may be confusion between the registered firm and the regulated one. A broker can be registered in a particular country, but if it's not regulated/overseen by countries responsible finance authority then it doesn't have any legal rights to provide its services to the residents of that country.

• In the case of RoyalCFDs, the company is not regulated in any of the countries and it has even been blacklisted by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority. The warning states:

"We believe this firm has been providing financial services or products in the UK without our authorization."

ROYALCFDS Review Conclusion

All traders are advised to avoid unregulated/offshore brokers as there is a huge risk of losing money with such firms. Instead, choose those that are regulated by reliable regulatory agencies. For instance, if an FCA-regulated broker goes bankrupt, its clients are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The traders are entitled to receive up £50,000 in total. Check the list of FCA-regulated brokers here. We advise trading with well-regulated brokers such as BDSwiss and XM.

ROYALCFDS Update

Our research showed that the ROYALCFDS website is unavailable to reach. Besides, there is no evidence of whether the broker operates or not. We recommend avoiding any offshore-based brokers due to their instability and lack of serious regulations.

Is XLR Trade a scam or a legit broker?

XLR Trade is not a secure Forex broker since it does not hold a license from any worldwide serious Forex authority. Meaning the broker is suspected of being a fraud company since it was not checked for its compliance before establishment, was never monitored in terms of its safety, and simply may operate the business in any way it wishes.

What is XLR Trade?

XLR Trade is a trading name used by Nostro Technology Ltd, an online trading company established in the UK. Yet, until now, the company is not registered by any regulatory agency or authority, even though, almost every financial service company in the UK should obtain an FCA license to deliver its services.

• XLR believes the trading experience should be a journey of learning and understanding the market, while the broker states its mission to protect and guide clients every day through their trading experience. The XLR trader has a choice of a diversified portfolio with 200 currencies, commodities, indices, stocks, and CFDs while the broker doesn’t disclose its operational standards and trustability. 
• Moreover, the Italian regulatory authority CONSOB listed an XLR Trade as a trading scam and generally advises Italian and world investors to check the broker’s status before the deposit of any funds with a particular company. The blacklisting of the XLR Trade was caused by a lack of the appropriate license and authorization to deliver its service since the mission of CONSOB is to ensure the transparency and trusted behavior of the participants. As the XLR Trade is registered to none the company appears to have issues with its services which may be unreliable.

“The company Nostro Technology Ou is not authorized to provide investment services and activities in Italy by any means. Therefore, also including the offering through the websites globalfxm.com and xlrtrade.com”

CONSOB, February 2018

• Overall, while trading with the non-regulated broker the trader involves himself in a very high risk, as the funds are simply not secured. There are many fraud companies in the industry, while the mission of regulation is to protect the clients, therefore basically we advise trading only with CONSOB Regulated Brokers or others that comply with international standards.

XLR Trade Review Conclusion

We strongly advise opening a trading account only with brokers that are regulated by respected world authorities that comply with the required set of rules and have 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 FP Markets and Eightcap.

XLR Trade Update

Our research showed that the XLR Trade website is unavailable to reach. Besides, there is no evidence of whether the broker operates or not. We recommend avoiding any offshore-based brokers due to their instability and lack of serious regulations.

Is ManagedForexHub Scam or Legit Broker?

Managed Forex Hub is not a secure Forex broker since it does not hold a license from any worldwide serious Forex authority. Meaning the broker is suspected of being a fraud company since it was not checked for its compliance before establishment, was never monitored in terms of its safety, and simply may operate the business in any way it wishes.

What is Managed Forex Hub?

Managed Forex Hub claims its head and global office located in Hong Kong offering extensive investment, and trading opportunities including Strategy Architect, Broker-Dealer, Introducing Broker, Advisor, Educator, Analyst, and Program Developer services. However, the company does not hold any license and is not a registered entity in relation to Forex trading.

• In addition, MFH New Zealand registration of the company in NZ is legit to act as an Introducing Broker only to overseas entity AP Holdings Limited that operates two domains ManagedForexHub .com and the co.nz. However, the broker claims its affiliation and registration with the local regulator FMA, while it is false information.
• Therefore, the FMA cautioned investors against ManagedForexHub already several times since the company was caught in non-legit financial service offerings and misleading, deceptive representations. The latest blacklisting of the firm took place in May 2018, as the authority received reports about the company’s non-authorized actions again and strongly advises investors to take the highest caution.

“In the FMA’s view, the marketing materials included on MFH’s website contained misleading and deceptive representations, specifically representations relating to APH’s registration as a financial service provider on the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR), that MFH had full discretion over trading and management of trade strategies, and that MFH belonged to a dispute resolution scheme. The FMA will take action in order to denounce and deter misconduct.”

FMA, May 2018

Overall Managed Forex Hub Ranking

Due to the regulation and safety issues, we revealed during our research of Managed Forex Hub, we do not rank positively Managed Forex Hub, based on our Expert Opinion with over 10 Years of experience in Forex Trading.

• Managed Forex Hub 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.

Managed Forex Hub Alternative Brokers

We found that Managed Forex Hub has a lot of issues, mainly in respect of its safety and customer care. For this reason, we have come up with much better Alternatives to Managed Forex Hub with tight regulations and great trading conditions. We select Good Brokers and trustworthy options for your comparison below: 

• HFM – Good for Currency trading
• Dukascopy – Excellent for Shares, Futures Trading
• FXTM – Good for Beginners

Managed Forex Hub Review Conclusion

In conclusion, even though Managed Forex Hub offerings seem to be attractive is not recommended to sign in with the broker. Based on our research results, we advise avoiding trading with Managed Forex Hub. Instead, we recommend investing only with regulated brokers that are located among reputable jurisdictions and offer respective overseen investment services. Therefore, we advise trading with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as BDSwiss and XM.

• Overall ranking and experience for Managed Forex Hub is Negative

Is 24StarTrade Scam or Legit Broker?

24StarTrade the company is not regulated or authorized by any industry regulator to provide its services, while the company even hides its location and does not mention its office location.

• However, the affiliated brand companies Finance Group Corp and Cent Projects Ltd which promote broker’s services and target clients, are located in Seychelles and Vanuatu. Both are offshore zones, that do not require strict compliance to standards while establishing a financial firm and require only a capital of 2,000$.

What is 24StarTrade?

The 24StarTrade claims to be one of the leading online trading providers with a diversified portfolio of over 100+ assets that include Forex, CFDs, and Binary Options. The company attracts clients with competitive trading conditions, its rewards and bonuses programs, as well as regular contests with prize funds of 20,000$ and more.

• Overall, we never recommend trading with non-regulated companies that are also based in offshore locations. In Forex trading it is advisable to choose from Regulated Brokers only. Trading with a non-licensed company may involve a significant risk to lose investments, as the majority of scam brokers never hold any licenses, therefore are not overseen by any authority.
• In addition, the New Zealand regulator FMA recently issued a warning to the residents and traders worldwide about the broker’s offering. The regulator warns against investment with the 24StarTrade and flagged its character as a fraud firm, as it is not legitimate to deliver any financial service.

“We have received a report that a representative from Finance Group Corp (FGC) of Vanuatu AND/or Cent Projects Ltd (CPL) of the Seychelles approached a New Zealand resident via Instagram in order to promote dealing through the website www.24startrade.com (the website) and has withheld client funds.”

FMA, 2018

24StarTrade Review Conclusion

We strongly advise opening a trading account only with brokers that are regulated by respected world authorities that comply with the required set of rules and have 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 FP Markets and Eightcap.

24StarTrade Update

Our research showed that the 24StarTrade website is unavailable to reach. Besides, there is no evidence of whether the broker operates or not. We recommend avoiding any offshore-based brokers due to their instability and lack of serious regulations.

Is 31FX Scam or Legit Broker?

31FX is a 100% fraud company. The broker is registered offshore and does not hold any proper license from a well-known reliable financial regulator. It is NOT SAFE to trade 31FX. We never advise trading with an offshore 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 to trading with such a companies means the trader will believe only on the broker’s words, and of course, it is a high risk.

What is 31FX?

31FX is a Forex and CFD broker. The company is owned and operated by JRV Market Ltd. with a registered address in the British Virgin Islands and does not have a license to operate as a forex and CFD broker.

• In its terms and conditions, the firm states to be a registered financial services company in the United Kingdom. However, we didn't find any records of the company in the Register of the UK's regulator FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). Despite this fact, 31FX provides a British registration address and contact phone number.
• It is clear that 31FX is not regulated by any of the reputable authorities and is probably functioning from the offshore zone. Offshore-based unregulated brokers are not obliged to follow any rules and most often than not are involved in scams.

31FX  Review Conclusion

We highly recommend trading with brokers holding a license from respected financial institutions such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, CySEC in Cyprus, and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) as they are obliged to follow strict financial and ethical rules. Here you can check our list of brokers, licensed by the FCA. Trade only with trustworthy brokers, such as BDSwiss and FBS.

31FX Update

Our research showed that the 31FX website is unavailable to reach. Besides, there is no evidence of whether the broker operates or not. We recommend avoiding any offshore-based brokers due to their instability and lack of serious regulations. 

Is AGAM Scam or Legit Broker?

AGAM broker is a Non-Regulated Broker. It is NOT SAFE to trade with this company. We have checked the company and there is no authorization or registration of the address, therefore the company seems to be highly suspicious and might operate its services from an absolutely different location.

What is AGAM?

Atlantic Global Asset Management or AGAM is a joint-stock investment fund company, that deals with investments, capital and asset management, preparation of companies for IPO, and also, develops fintech-directions, as stated on the official website. The broker claims its service and works in 35 countries all over the world, mostly in developed Asian markets while the address of the company is shown in Cabo Verde. In addition, the broker states its ownership of the large Asian bank which allows the company to preserve the security and processing of transactions.

• However, the company operates without a license or authorization from the world watchdogs overseeing financial investment firms. The EU and other authorities constantly monitor financial offerings in order to protect clients from fraud, while issuing warnings to unlicensed companies that put a high investment risk. Atlantic Global Asset Management was detected by various regulators to provide its service without authorization, therefore appeared in a warning or blacklist of BaFIN (Germany), FCA (UK), FSMA (Belgium), and others.
• “We believe Atlantic Global Asset Management firm has been providing financial services or products in the UK without our authorization. Find out why to be especially wary of dealing with this unauthorized firm and how to protect yourself from scammers.”

FCA, UK

• “The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) once again warns the public against the activities of the Atlantic Global Asset Management company. In spite of earlier warnings, the FSMA continues to receive questions from consumers regarding the company activities.”

FSMA, Belgium. 2017

AGAM Review Conclusion

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 FP Markets and Eightcap.

AGAM Update

Based on our findings, the AGAM 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.