The largest trading market in the world is the foreign exchange market, or forex market (FX), which dwarfs the stock exchange in size with daily trades of close to $5 trillion USD. The market is open around-the-clock, and when trading in New York ends, it does so in Tokyo and Hong Kong as well. Currency is always exchanged in pairs, such as the US dollar and the UK pound or the US dollar and the euro. This volatile market can provide significant profits for institutions, businesses, and some individuals because to the continuous price variations.
Forex: Is it a fraud?
The world’s currencies are traded on the Forex market, a reputable exchange. It is not fraud on its own. It would be challenging to trade the currencies required to pay for imports, sell exports, travel, or conduct cross-border business without the Forex market. However, because there is no centralized/regulated exchange and large leverage positions, which theoretically have the potential to make traders a lot of money, are available, con artists use the circumstance and novice traders’ desire to enter the market.
Because the forex market is a “zero-sum” market, in order for one trader to profit, another dealer must lose money. As a result, the forex market does not by itself increase market value. The undercapitalized trader is always likely to lose because many currency movements are controlled by huge, well-funded corporate institutions and banks, who are more educated about the market as a whole. Large banks and institutions trade currencies every day, but there is a steep learning curve involved in doing well in this market.
We discovered that con artists take advantage of the complexity surrounding the Forex market by purposefully hiding crucial information about market reality from their gullible rookie victims and promising success with their scheme, information, or software robot.
Forex frauds
The list of current and historical forex scams that have been used in these frauds is shown below.
Signal sellers
The signal seller scam is a fraud in which a person or business sells advice on which trades to undertake while stating that this advice is based on expert forecasts and will ensure profits for novice traders. For this service, they typically charge a daily, weekly, or monthly fee, but they do not provide any information that enables the trader to profit. In order to win the trader’s trust, they typically have a tonne of testimonials from purportedly reliable sources, but in reality they do nothing to predict profitable trades.
High-yield investing strategies
High yield investment programs (HYIPs) are basically just a type of Ponzi scheme where a high rate of return is guaranteed for a little initial investment into what is actually a Forex fund. When there are no more participants in the scheme, the proprietors often close it down and seize all of the remaining funds. In actuality, the initial investors are being paid back from the money created by the current investors, and a steady flow of new investors is required to keep the funds flowing.
Bid/Ask Spreads Manipulation
The prevalence of these frauds has lessened with time, but they are still present. For this reason, selecting a Forex broker who is registered with a regulatory authority is important. In order to pull off these frauds, spreads would typically be closer to 7-8 pips than the typical 2-3 pip spread.
Scams involving software
Forex robot scammers entice newcomers with the promise of large profits with little effort or knowledge. They may use fictitious or misleading figures to persuade customers to purchase their product. Their claims are flawed because no robot can adapt to and thrive in every environment and market. Professionals usually use software only to illustrate past performance and identify trends. All software should be formally and independently tested, but be wary of trusting the reviews themselves because they can be bought. If their product did exactly what they claimed, they would not be selling it and would instead be using it exclusively themselves.
Account Management
There are numerous instances of managed accounts, and these accounts might be a particular kind of forex fraud. These methods frequently involve a trader taking your money and using it to purchase a variety of opulent products for themselves rather than investing it. There isn’t enough money to pay the victim back when they eventually ask for their money.
Pyramid and Ponzi schemes
These are the most common types of affinity fraud. They guarantee high returns for a small initial investment. Early investors typically see a return on their investment, and motivated by their perceived success, they recruit their friends and family into the scheme. However, the ‘investment opportunity’ does not actually exist, and their initial return is funded by money paid in by other scheme members. When the number of investors begins to dwindle, the scammers close the scheme and take the money.
Scams in the boiler room
This type of scam involves the scammers convincing people to buy shares in a worthless private company on the promise that when the company goes public, the value of their shares will skyrocket. They rely on “urgency,” implying that an opportunity will be lost if they do not act quickly, preventing the target from properly researching the opportunity. However, the company does not always exist and may have a falsified phone number, office, and website. When the scammers have made all of the money they can, they will vanish with everyone’s money.
