Is your broker really regulated? Watch out for ghost licenses

I open this thread to share a personal experience and warn about a practice that is becoming more and more common among certain brokers: ghost licenses. Many traders think that by seeing a beautiful logo that says regulated by X they are already sure, but the reality is that several brokers are showing expired licenses, or worse, completely invented. I will not say names for the moment, but I do encourage you to magnify the registration number and search the regulator’s website if the broker really appears there.

Thank you for the ad. Do you have any concrete examples or are you throwing fear into the air like many do in this forum?

It happened to me with one that was said to be regulated in Estonia and when I went to the register there was not even the name of the company. I reported it and it still works. Shameful.

Some brokers are only "registered," which is not the same as "regulated." That trap is classic.

Exactly, that's another important point. Registration regulation. Many websites say registered in FCA but that only means that they sent papers, not that they are supervised or audited. A real FCA regulated broker has license number, sanction history (if there were any

Look, in the end, it's the fault that's not reported, it's all on the internet, but people prefer to believe marketing and then cry.

There are offshore brokers who treat you better than those regulated by ESMA. What matters is how they operate, not the paper.

That's a dangerous argument. Justifying them to treat you well while you operate with someone who can disappear tomorrow isn't exactly smart.

You lost money and now you come to evangelize or what?

No, they didn't rip me off, but I almost realized it in time, and if I open this thread, it's so that someone else doesn't fall like a fool into the same well.