Tips to avoid getting scammed in Forex
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Thread: Tips to avoid getting scammed in Forex

  1. #1
    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/registran...58bbdb28ebce81
    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.

  2. #2
    Wow, this really is woderful....my VI (Vibes Index) 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,

  3. #3
    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/fi...fcms/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.

  4. #4
    Fantastic post Rabid.

    Quote Originally Posted by ;
    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.

  5. #5
    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/

  6. #6
    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.

  7. #7
    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.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by ;
    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.

  9. #9
    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.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by ;
    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.

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