Forex Scams and Forex Spams
Forex trading is growing very fast and more people try to learn and start Forex trading everyday. This is a good opportunity for the scams to expand their activities from get-rich-quick, HYIP and Pyramid schemes to Forex brokerage companies, auto trading robots, buy/sell signals and…, because it seems they will be able to make more money through Forex in future and this is what they know very well.
Collecting the email address of those who are interested in Forex trading is one of the cheapest and easiest ways for the scams to drive traffic to their websites and this is what you have to be careful about. When you google for something, you will see a lot of attractive ads, you click on them and your email address is the first thing they ask for, before they let you see a video, report or a page which has a top secret about Forex trading! Just subscribe for one of these websites and then you will receive emails from so many other sites that you never know and you have never subscribed.
Forums are also one of other places that scams collect the email address of Forex traders. For example they talk about an e-book, indicator or trading system and then they ask for your email address to share these things with you. Then you receive everything but something that you were supposed to receive. We had this problem on Forexoma Forums a few times and when I followed the tracks, I found some scam Forex buy/sell signals websites managed from overseas 
New scam brokerage companies come everyday too. I really didn’t know how eager the scams are in running Forex brokerage companies until we launched the brokers review section on Forexoma. When I saw there are so many scam brokerage companies that 99% of them are managed from “an especial country”, I was really shocked. Everyday we receive several 5 star reviews for these companies, from the same IP addresses and the same country. Of course they are not smart enough because all of their reviews go to spam folder. You know what I mean, don’t you? They post 5 star reviews for their own company.
How to avoid these scams?
I already explained in one of my articles that these scams try to make you greedy first through talking about something which is too good. Although in most cases people know that the claims they see on some of the websites are not possible and can not be true, they love it to be true and so they pay for it. Also in many cases people don’t know that they are paying for something which is not possible to happen. If you control your greed, you will not be scammed. You sign up for a program that promises to make 15000 per month for you, only when you are too greedy or you know nothing about forex.
However, it is not always so easy to distinguish a scam program, because sometimes they really look like legitimate and well-managed programs. Lets take a look at a scam/spam email that I receive recently and then I tell you why it is scam. There is no doubt that these emails are spam, because I have never subscribed for such mailing lists or newsletters. Obviously my email address has been sold to the spammers.
Here is one of the emails I am receiving almost every other day for such a long time:
From: [removed]
Subject: Confidential InformationDear Trader,
Please keep this email confidential as we are offering this promotion only for a group of our prospects in order to test if it makes sense economically.
You happen to be in this group, which means that you may have the opportunity to take advantage of one of the biggest cash promotions we have ever run.
If you are currently trading Forex without a cash bonus program, or are planning to start trading without a cash bonus program, you stand to lose a great deal of money in unnecessary spreads and transaction costs.
This money can be yours; to save, spend, or trade with, but instead it’s being given away simply because you are not taking advantage of huge complimentary cash bonuses offered by [website].
Setting up your account using the link below will not cost you 1 penny extra. This is backed up by a guarantee. And the upside is that you will get back a large portion of your transaction costs. This will minimize your losses and therefore enhance your trading success.
With this experimental promotion the per trade bonuses are GIGANTIC. Because we are not even sure if this will work for us we are only going to offer it to 50 people and the offer will be available until [date].
So here is the offer…
If you deposit anywhere from $5,000 - $24,999 you will receive a .5 pip per lot cash bonus for every lot you trade throughout the duration of the account.
If you deposit anywhere from $24,999 - $49,999 you will receive a .6 pip per lot cash bonus for every lot you trade throughout the duration of the account.
And here is the best part; if you deposit over $50,000 you will receive a .7 pip per lot cash bonus for every lot you trade throughout the duration of the account.
Imagine getting a bonus of .7 pips per lot. If you traded just 100 lots a month you’d get a bonus of $700 each month. That’s $8,400 a year that you could be missing out on.
The best part is that there is no volume requirement whatsoever.
Just sign up using this link: [website link]
And start receiving huge cash bonuses into your PayPal account every month that you trade.
Many smart traders are minimizing their losses and enhancing their trading success through the use of cash bonuses already. In fact, we have improved the success of our traders by paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash bonuses throughout our existence.
And now in an experiment to gain more market share we are going to try this huge promotion.
This offer will not last long and is not available to everyone. You’ve been selected for this promotion so make sure to take advantage of this.
Once again here is the link to sign up. I think if you value your trading success this is a huge opportunity.
[website link]
Should you have any questions please contact us by email at [website link], or call us at [phone number].
Best regards,
[removed]
Why is this email a scam/spam email?
1- I have not subscribed for their mailing list and I have never worked with this company and so they were not allowed to email me. This is spam.
2- I investigated about Mr. [removed] which is the sender of this email. There are a couple of [removed]s who have nothing to do with Forex. So [removed] as a Forex broker doesn’t exist and this is a fake identity. On the other hand, if this guy is the president of this company, why their website domain name is registered by someone else whose name can not be found on the website?
3- For a professional and profitable forex trader who opens a $50,000 account and trades 100 lots per month, $700 is nothing. So why such a trader should open a $50,000 with this broker just to save/make $700 extra, while the spread that this broker offers is higher than the spread that the others do? The answer is that they are just trying to encourage traders to open an account. Then it will be their own bad luck if they wipe out a $50,000 account. Even a one pip higher spread can cost the traders much more than $700 per month.
Cash bonus is not something that a professional trader thinks about it when he wants to open an account with a broker. Having reasonable and stable spreads, proper order, target and stop loss execution, on time and easy withdrawal and a helpful and reliable support team are the most important things, not a $700 cash bonus per month for a $50,000 account. I mean a $700 cash bonus can not make a good trader to open an account with a broker. Only a newbie can be deceived by this offer and a newbie is someone who wipes out his account at least a couple of times before he learns what to do.
4- The email says that this offer is only for 50 traders, but I am receiving the same email for such a long time every other day. Are they still waiting for 50 traders to sign up or this was just a marketing trick to push people to sign up before the others take the free spots?
I receive so many other spam emails related to Forex auto trading robots, brokers and… everyday. Unfortunately there is no reliable and effective way to warn people about them. Most traders learn to avoid them after losing some money and it seems this is the price that we have to pay to learn a lesson. At least I hope registering domains and running websites from overseas countries to become supervised in future and they don’t let anybody run a website and rip people off. I don’t know when, but I am sure one day scams will not be able to live in a country and register their domains from another country.
Thank you so much. I got that very same email. However, can you please tell us something about the robots that are being sold on the internet. I have emptied THREE accounts with Fap turbo (each time being told that it was my own mistakes that cause the loss) and then emptied ANOTHER account with the so-called “no loss” robot. This last one was supposed to trade with the trends, by naive as I am, I opened it and watched to my horror as it traded against virtually every trend for the day and then also emptied my account. Is there no way one can stop these wolves? Would love to hear your comments…
Hi Johann,
The only way is that you learn your lesson and do not spend your time and money on these scams. Enough is enough. When you pay for something that look too good to be true, the result will not be better than this.
No loss robot?!!! How is that possible?
Best regards,
Vahid
hi,
I would like to ask you what do you think about FAP Turbo? As you mentioned in this report, that robots tend to be scams..
I mean, I went through diverse discussion boards and have seen a lot of positive comments about it.
For my defense I have to say that I am a complete newcomer to this industry.
Thank you
Markus
oops, I have seen that johanns question also covers mine.
Hi Markus,
It is proven that FAP Turbo doesn’t work and it is proven all the photos, videos and also the developers you see on their site are all fake and done by actors. Nobody knows who is behind it really. They have released another robot recently (USDBOT). Also someone you see as the developer of Forex Autopilot (Marcus Leary) is an actor.
It seems all these products are developed and managed by the same team. Regarding the positive comments, they are mainly done by resellers who promote their products to make commissions.
Even if these robots work, they can not be used in a wide range and by so many traders. Brokers will be the first will go against the orders that these robots will place on the market almost at the same time and at the same trading session (Asian).
hi
fapturbo is scam
be careful not to use it in real account
l tested this robot in different demo accountwith great loss .
scalping strategy is fake
you can only benefit from long strategy to know the uptrend or downtrend and then you used you trading expert to enter the trad
my self l used different setting for long and short strategy from different companies and all end in big loss be careful
I recognise that e-mail. It is from [removed]. He appears to be associated with a number of brokers and acts as a middleman I believe. Affiliate?
There is no doubt that this man in an internet marketer, working on commissions, ‘pay per click’ and the myriad other ‘penny’ makers.
The main thrust of his ’sales pitch’ used to be that he could arrange good deals with the brokers so that one could lodge one’s EA with them, on their server so that the EA could run all week. All for no extra charge.
Now it is the marvellous rebates which, as in your para 3 is an absolute nonesense. I agree with all you say there.
Are you saying that all this is a scam? I suspect not, I suspect that it is just marketing. He does not purpoet to be a broker in any e-mail only a facilitator.
I would also suggest that you examine what mailing lists you have joined, it may well be that someone is associated with Mr [removed]’s company. I often find that the sign up has a get-out relating to other similar companies. There is probably a thecnical term for it.
I assume that internet is outside the legal bounds for slander or deformation, since you come so close to it.
Before there is any reply believing that I am associated with [removed] or his company, I would ad ‘only by e-mail’ received!!
> I recognise that e-mail. It is from [removed]. He appears to be associated with a number of brokers and acts as a middleman I believe. Affiliate?
I could also disclose the name but I did not want to do it, just because I am trying to show how an email can look legitimate and sent by a known company and still be a spam and scam email. I am just trying to enlighten people. No, he is not an affiliate because there is no affiliate link in the emails he sends. He links directly to the website.
> There is no doubt that this man in an internet marketer, working on commissions, ‘pay per click’ and the myriad other ‘penny’ makers.
This is a fake name. The person doesn’t work in the company and he also doesn’t work as an affiliate.
> The main thrust of his ’sales pitch’ used to be that he could arrange good deals with the brokers so that one could lodge one’s EA with them, on their server so that the EA could run all week. All for no extra charge.
I don’t know. I talk based on what I see not what I imagine. I am not a fortune teller and I have no crustal ball. This email encourage people to open an account to receive cash back. This is all I can see.
> Are you saying that all this is a scam? I suspect not, I suspect that it is just marketing. He does not purpoet to be a broker in any e-mail only a facilitator.
Apparently it is just offering something that may not look scam. But I mentioned my reasons above that why I think this is scam. I said, $700 cash back per month is nothing for a trader who opens a $50,000 account, if he has to pay more for the spread. This is what professional traders know, but not novice traders who blow up their accounts every month.
One should be a forex trader to understand what I say.
> I would also suggest that you examine what mailing lists you have joined, it may well be that someone is associated with Mr [removed]’s company. I often find that the sign up has a get-out relating to other similar companies. There is probably a thecnical term for it.
This email is spam. I never knew this company and I never asked for their email. I never subscribe for any mailing list with my main email address.
> I assume that internet is outside the legal bounds for slander or deformation, since you come so close to it.
I did not mention anybody’s name or any company’s name. I just wanted to give an example and show how people can understand a good looking email is a scam. My job is enlightening people because I feel really sorry when I see how they lose their money to some scams.
>> Unfortunately there is no reliable and effective way to warn people about them.
Vahid, your blog is a good start to warn people about offers that do not pass the smell test.
It is no wonder that retail forex has a bad image of unethical practices. The spam above helps to confirm it.
Hi Jim,
Thank you. I will do my best to share this kind of experiences. It seems sometimes people lose their money because of the scam brokers, more than their own mistakes.
Can you imagine that USD-JPY spread goes up to 80 pips?! I would not believe it if I had not seen it with my own eyes.
Now lets say you open an account with a broker that gives you a $700 cash return, but then it takes everything that you have by changing the spread in one second.
Profiting in forex is tough enough for a n00b. An 80 pip spread in UJ is unconscionable.
Keep up the good work exposing the scams!
Hi
Anybody have experience with this 3rd party trader firstlenox.com
PLS I WANT START FOERX HOW DO I GO ABOUT IT I NEED ASAP RESPONSE
Hi Michael,
If you are really new to Forex, I suggest you to read the articles I have at http://www.forexoma.com/learn-more/
Hi,
Another good article from Vahid. Thank you for keeping us (the traders) well inform of those spams that will definetely ruin our account and life. I have learned so much from Vahid and his Forexoma site. Recently, I signed as a member of the Live Market of Forexoma and true enough that I even learn how the professinal traders analyse the market. On top of it I am well aware of the reasons of entering each position/trade. This is far better than relying on those Trading Robot which promises gazillion amount of profit where the reality is too good to be true!!
I would like to suggest to all to learn how forex market moves and and be a wise trader rather than wasting money purchasing spammers robots where even the spammers dont use it..
Hi Tango,
Thank you. I am glad that I am doing something helpful.