Tips to avoid getting scammed in Forex

[amoyaigageoya]

Wow, this really is woderful....my VI (Vibes Index)https://www.nigeriaforextrading.com/attachments/1563166420.png on you shift positive within an instant. . I must congratulate you and ask you that you keep up this good job. (simple on the whip you're wielding - hahaha)

Yours Respectfully,https://www.nigeriaforextrading.com/attachments/1563166420.png

[minilu]

Fantastic advice.

There exist anonymity solutions for domain names that permit you to utilize a 3rd party address for enrollment. You can also buy a mailbox in another city also. So be sure that you google the speech.

If you would like to learn the negative side of a ceremony, type into google servicename sucks an servicename problem and servicename bad testimonials and see what comes up. Additionally do servicename forums and see if they have an active forum. You can see if it does.

You could also go here:
http://www.cftc.gov/marketreports/financialdataforfcms/index.htm

And get the financial information to your FCM in question (in case they're regged with the CFTC, which many have to be today ). That will tell you how much they must cover positions.

There is also NFA's BASIC service. Any NFA regulatory action is going to be listed here:
http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/

Look for the company name. You'll notice a few have names, a few of those names may or might not be about the company you're looking for.

A search on oanda turns out no regulatory complaints, gives you their NFA number, tells you if (2003) they became an NFA member and who has a financial interest in the company. You may then click to search thru if the company's principals have had NFA actions against them and see.

[Lemechaim]

Fantastic post Rabid.


Good advice.

There exist anonymity services for domain names that allow you to utilize a 3rd party address for regiion. You can even buy a mailbox in a different city too. So make certain that you google the address as well.

If you want to know the negative side of a service, type into google servicename sucks an servicename issue and servicename bad reviews and see what's up. Additionally do servicename forums and see if they have an active forum. If it does, you can see firsthand what ppl are saying. With regards to anonymity services, I usually set up a major red flag once I see that. The majority of the time, if an anonymity support is used, the address below the contact us part of the website will have either a P.O. box or any prestigious address (Wall Street, Canary Wharf such as ).

If it is a P.O. Box, I classify it as a scam at worst or at best a company I don't want to take care of. No actual address, no money from me.

But when it is a street address, I'll google it. I believe I posted it a really long time ago but there was this presumed broker headquartered on Wall Street. I googled the address on their website and I found out that the suite they where headquartered in has been shared by a lot of additional separate businesses. 4 or 3, I can not recall. However, I digress

So I googled the other businesses and they where all associated with Forex in one way or the other. One was a bizarre website regarding investing in art and Currency Market. The names on a single site where the very same names as on another. So it was basically one small group of con artists.

A search on servicename stinks and servicename issue does help. But use your better judgement as some items may just be the job of a dissatisfied (former) client.

[Oxmio.fj]

It is also possible to check the NFA records.
You can search by, company name, NFA ID #, folks name, etc..

http://www.nfa.futures.org/BasicNet/

[Lemechaim]

I want to post this under separate cover.

One thing to look at is the site itself. From a style and aesthetics perspective.

Does the site look like it's something which could be whipped up in 5 minutes with Frontpage and MS paint? Does it look like it had been the coolest site. . .in 1995? Or is your site professionally designed?

I am not saying that a site has to have the newest whistles and bells and must have been designed weekly. But there is a site the face of a business. When they don't put any effort into their very first belief, what makes you believe that they will put any efforts? And those states do not judge a book by the cover obviously not took a marketing class.

If you're knowledgeable in html, have a look at the coding. Is it all over the area or not? Are they hotlinking graphics? Whether the site is a scam or not, whether it's all over the area and contains an design, it reveals lots about what the company culture is like. Scam or not.

[minilu]

Yea, if you search the speech you will learn if there's others attached to it.

About the website design item, be careful there. You may buy a template in template monster for quite cheap, or get inexpensive template packs from ebay, and use one. They look fairly decent, but they're just cookie-cutter and inexpensive.

[Lemechaim]

Yea, if you hunt the speech you will learn if there's others attached to it.

On the website design item, be careful there. You can buy a template in template monster for quite cheap, or get affordable template packs from ebay, and use one. They seem pretty decent, but they are just cookie-cutter and cheap. Great point. So if the website looks like you've seen it elsewhere, be cautious.

[minilu]

Templates appear generic... ie: there's not a lot of subject or site-specific details on it. So look for site and topic-specific information, hyperlinks and sub-areas on the site.

Like in the event you visit oanda.com, you are going to see a site with a lot of different areas. FXCM is the same way, ibfx and forex.com too. But visit fxpro.com and there's no sitemap. The site is basically a custom w/ rollovers at the top, it is a block-by-block template site w/ stuff full of. There's no clear site map either.

In the event that you really wish to get into it, then do a netblock lookup. Use nslookup in their servers and receive their IP address. For example fxtrade.oanda.com is 216.12.138.246. Then visit http://www.ip2loion.com/free.asp and put at the IP.

It reveals:
Sterling, Virginia. Servervault corp..

They are using Servervault. If you google for them, you are going to find their an IT company that focuses in financial companies. They make an important issue of becoming compliant in various regulatory setups. They too have a site, and it is clear from looking at the whois of the company that they have been around since 1999 and are related to a little group of other hosts. It's clear this is not a fight-by-night company.

Let us try that on fxpro. Is in the United Kingdom, belongs to telecity. When you have a look at telecity's site at telecitygroup.com you'll see that they're a co-loc provider. Basically you lease a server. There's nothing wrong with this, per sae, but it is no where near the amount of oanda's upstream. They were made in 02.

Now let's try crownforex @ http://www.crownforex.com

No site map, some enlarged info, but it appears that the primary page is it.

75.126.213.131, belongs to Client lect Inc in Orlando Florida @ clientintellect.com

According to their site they are loed in switzerland? Why is a european broker running from the US?

Clientintellect.com was created in 03. Their site is clearly a template site, and basically they are a windows hosting community.

According to this we can certainly gauge the how developed every is. All 3 have rackspace somewhere, so they are not just a $20/mo hosting setup. But it's clear the oanda's more serious about it's business than another two.

Combine that information with all the regulatory info in the CFTC and the NFA and you've got a very clear image of the company, it is principal officers and it is financial backing.

[beneoxkaveli]

Templates seem generic... ie: there is not a lot of topic or site-specific information on it. So search for website and topic-specific info, links and sub-areas on the website.

Like in the event that you go to oanda.com, you'll see a site with a lot of different areas. FXCM is the same way, ibfx and forex.com too. But go to fxpro.com and there is no sitemap. The website is basically a custom w/ rollovers on top, it's a block-by-block template website w/ stuff filled in. There's no obvious site map.

If you really want to get into it, do a netblock... Wow! Thanks Rabid.
Would you're acceptable to posting your study on the other providerswhich I am certain that you have done?
This info is very much apprieciated.

[mivempol85]

Wow! Due Rabid... This advice is very much apprieciated. Ditto and ditto... Wow. Discuss going to bed smarter than when you woke up...

Seems like there is just so much that can get posted on a thread like this 1 w/o becoming redundant. It begins to enter obscurity. Maybe a redo in the Forex Articles segment of the Rookie Discussion ? Or a better solution I am unaware of? Sticky?

It's simply too great to lose or fade off.

[minilu]

There's one more thing that comes to mind...

When looking at a broker's IP address you can learn a lot by seeing how many other machines they may have. Clearly if what's on a single machine, this server is likely to get overloaded, probably in the worst of days. It's also more economical, a business with 10 servers is more likely to stick around compared to a company that has 1 or 2.

So we can search around...

First, by registering at
website:sitename.com

Into google we can find out what's indexed on their website. Just take a quick scroll thru the list and write down any subdomains you visit (http://www.whatever.com, the www is a subdomain. Much like fxtrade.oanda.com, the subdomain is fxtrade). As soon as you have this list, do an nslookup...

Nslookup:
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/ns-lookup.shtml

Do one for each of these subdomains and notice if they have the same IP, or if there's multiple IPs. A number of IPs usually means that there's more than one server, altho one server may have more than 1 IP, usually you'll just see 1. Surely if all of them have the same IP, or if there's just 1 subdomain, then there's a fantastic chance they have only have 1 host.

You can conduct the same research on MT4 servers too. Is your host name. If you can not find the server name, it's in MT4, in the config directory sprinkled in the .srv files. If you open it w/ notepad, it's a bit cluttered, but at the top you'll see stuff like: ibfx-mt4-07. Interbankfx.com:443

That lets you know the name of the host. Additionally, it tells you the scheme, there's prolly an -06, and -05, etc.. If you can not find it like this, you can always simply log in the way you normally do, then go into the command prompt with win-R cmd and type netstat (minus the quotes) into the box and hit enter. That will print out a list of anyplace you are linked to.

You may also do a class C search, such as here:
http://nerdlabs.org/tools/revdns.php

For example the IBFX host is 66.114.120.37. It'll search 66.114.120. * to see what's there. What you'll see is no additional MT4 server, although a SMTP servers. Which sends up a big WTF? Since I visit mt4-01. Ibfx.com in another file. So why are not they there? Since in the event that you undo that IP, which is 66.114.120.31, you'll find it does not really reverse to anything. Let me explain...

mt4-01. Ibfx.com 66.114.120.31
But...
66.114.120.31 goes no where.

It's configured to get a 1-way installation just. That's very telling. While it does not mean anything about their business, it does tell you that their IT folks have overlooked this key detail. Would you wish to spend a million dollars with a business who is IT folks miss potentially important particulars?

Of course from that we also have the naming convention that they use for servers. And with that we can find out that they have several servers.

It's also somewhat telling, should you do the google search then look thru those subdomains, they have a japanese language version at jp.ibfx.com, but the website resolves back to the identical netblock (66.114.120.27). In otherwords their japanese language host is situated in the US. If you look at their spanish version website and solve it, you receive the same IP, 66.114.120.27, and their main website is 66.114.120.26. They have 1 host for most foreign languages, and odds are it's the same machine as the main server.

Should you do the netblock research from sooner you'll see they own the entire 66.114.120. * netblock, or atleast it's registered to them. A tracert will tell you that their upstream provider is, viawest.net. They're a co-loc centre. Basically ibfx has purchased a few servers from them together with a netblock of all IPs.

They do not only have servers sitting in their basement (which is good), but it explains why they find it tough to reboot their servers... because if their remote desktop stinks , they must call the co-loc and have them perform it. Explains why a 3am reboot in the EU open requires an hour. I wouldn't want to be that community technician, lol.

Compare that to oanda... 216.12.138.246

Everything you get is an entire collection of all servervault servers, as you'd expect. The last chunk...
Inserted Code 216.12.138.207 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\ns1.oanda.com#93;ns1.oanda.com#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.210 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\rates.oanda.com#93;rates.oanda.com#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.211 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\fxserver01-ma.oanda.com#93;fxserver01-ma.oanda.com#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.212 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\fxserver01.oanda.com#93;fxserver01.oanda.com#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.213 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\news.oanda.com#93;news.oanda.com#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.216 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\fxtrade-news.oanda.com#93;fxtrade-news.oanda.com#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.217 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\www.oanda.sg#93;www.oanda.sg#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.239 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\oandabl01.cust.servervault.com#93;oandabl01.cust .servervault.com#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.242 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\oanda02.cust.servervault.com#93;oanda02.cust.ser vervault.com#91;/url#93; 216.12.138.243 #91;url=http://nerdlabs.org/tools/\\oanda01.cust.servervault.com#93;oanda01.cust.ser vervault.com#91;/url#93;
Shows that they clearly have several servers. While they have some servers that don't undo back, they have a few that do too. Certainly their IT folks are more dilligent about enrolling a reverse DNS back to your own provider. However they do not own the entire netblock.

Perhaps they do not need one tho, why would you invest a small fortune leasing an entire netblock in case you don't plan to use it? There's perhaps some prudence there. You could look at that both ways.

All and all you have a good idea about what makes both companies tick from a technical perspective. Some of this can tell you how stable the company is, others simply tell you how stable their servers are. Both are decent brokers, but both have their issues.

Let's compare this with, say, crownforex.com. 75.126.213.131. A google search shows all their overseas translations are on http://www.crownforex.com. I see just 1 server . If I do a reverse of 75.126.213.131 I flip up the co-loc name of their host, instead of a crownforex.com domainname. That means that they do not have much (if any) clout with their co-loc provider. It requires time, money and technical ability to acquire a reverse DNS to operate, and the simple fact that others have done this, and they have not, that's very telling.

Should you reverse it to si-sv2361. Com and visit this URL you get Invalid Hostname. If one server was in that place, it wouldn't need a server redirect. That suggests they're sharing the host with atleast 1 additional domain name.

Should you operate the class C search you receive a lot of softlayer.net servers. If you go to softlayer.net they have prices on their
front page. You might get a server on their network for under $200 per month! Not much of an investment when they're asking to be a broker.

[Lemechaim]

Props for the Thought to Spsantos.

I see lots of newcomers on this website discussing different brokers. I will see someone saying and so ripped off me. And the brokers mentioned are extremely questionable.

I don't want to get off on a rant here but if you are going to entrust money to a broker, know who you are dealing with. My approaches for that aren't foolproof but most of the time, they will help you separate scam artists or even scam artists out of the legit brokers.

-How did you hear about them?

Did somebody come here, posted 5 times and 3 from 5 posts where about how good his broker was before he got banned? It is rarely an newcomer and frequently someone covered by the broker to post drivel.

-Domain name

forexhappy.com? ifxorgasm.com? forexsuperduperprofessional.com? weguaranteeyouwontlosemoneyinforex.com? All of those are outrageously. Is that when the title sounds cheezy, I would say scammy, I would question it. I would even question it was a SERIOUS sounding title such as wedontfuckaroundFX.com. But whether it sounds or not. Simply take the domain and continue on to the next step.

-Whois records

I can not stress that enough. Assess the WHOIS records. It is free, fast, simple and will save you from getting scammed.

My favorite spot to check whois documents is Name ligence's Whois Source. Simply take the domain and place it in the end of http://whois.sc/. So for example, if I would like to look up Oanda.com, I would type http://whois.sc/oanda.com.

You'll see information like the site name, the META description, etc.. That's not what we're after. Scroll the page down a bit and you'll see. You will see the Registrant's speech and much much more. But we will return to that in a moment.

Whois RecordRegistrant:
OANDA Corp..
140 Broadway
New York, NY 10005
US


Check out the actual website you are investigating. Is your address matching? If they claim to be on Wall Street would be the Whois record demoning a registrant's speech in Lagos? If it occurred would be suspicious?

Domain Name: OANDA.COM

Adminiive Contact:
Florian, Chris http://www.domaintools.com/registrant-search/?and[]=148dfcea242d38501a58bbdb28ebce81
Oanda Corp
30 St. Patrick Street Suite 300
Toronto About M5T 3A3
CA
416Â 586Â 0328 fax: 416Â 593Â 0185


Adminiive contact. Does the individual on the adminiive contact have anything on the internet? Google the contact name but do it with quotes. You'll notice things like negative threads about that person/broker on different forums and they are not Forex related. A BBB report will come up as a search result. There might be. You can also use variations from the Google search for example Joe Blow Forex, Joe Blow City name. Possibly something horrible will come up you'll find out that he's a part of the Chamber of Commerce's baseball team, he's a Saggitarius and enjoys to play with Chess. The more you find out, the better. Bear in mind, know who you are dealing with. You may have to call and yell at him over your account someday



Run a Google search on your telephone number. Are the consequences coming up looking great? For legit brokers, I see the broker's website as the very first outcome. I see a house telephone listing, When it's bad. I saw a telephone number connected with a garage listing. The guy running the website was a mechanic and the telephone number was his parent. What gave that guy the belief he could be a Forex broker is beyong me personally but that you have to cover yourself. I wish I was joking by the way about that story that is mechanic.



Google the email address too. It is fascinating what comes up.


Technical Contact...


Same as the Admin contact. The title is the same, sometimes it's not. If it is different google it.


Record expires on 03-Aug-2011.
Record created on 04-Aug-1996.
Database last updated on 25-Feb-2009 04:39:03 EST..


With this example, it demones that the record was created in 1996. This to me is an indior they've been around for long enough they are stable. That's the very first thing that I look at before taking a look at something different.


Post here if you have questions in my methodology and I will answer them to the best of my abilities. I will not do the research for you but will be pleased to tell you what I know you could do it yourself.