Fraud is a problem in all areas of finance. Wherever money is involved, there are scams, and forex trading isn’t an exception. Scams related to forex trading can often cost people thousands of dollars since forex trading involves large amounts of money. A trader’s life can be set back several years by something like this.

One of the most popular forex scams today is the increasing number of fake forex brokers. In this article, you’ll find out how you can tell fake forex brokers from legit ones.

What is a Forex Broker?

Brokers are independent financial companies whose main product is the forex trading platform. They provide traders with trading software, which makes it easy and flexible for them to access the forex market.

Brokers provide services to traders, such as leveraged trading, and make it possible for traders to buy and sell currency pairs. In turn, brokers gain money from the spread, which is the difference between the buy and sale prices. Brokers also generate money from additional costs, such as commission charges.

How to Check if a Broker is Reputable

To confirm if a broker is reputable, look out for the following:

Regulation

Regulation is the first and most important thing to watch out for. A broker registered and regulated by an international or regional regulatory body is called a “regulated broker.” Not one group is in charge of regulating all forex trading worldwide. Instead, these bodies are made up of governments and regional groups that work together to protect the interests of traders.

Regulation is also the hardest to fake. And that is why you should check it first; it will save you time and money.

Broker’s Website

Another fool-proof means of identifying a reputable broker is their website. What are the things you should look out for on a broker’s website?

Regulation information

As discussed in the last section, you must ensure the site is registered. Check the regulatory body it belongs to. The website should show the Registration ID, BSE, or NSE number. Some of these websites can be a clone of an existing broker, so you should check properly.

Suspicious Marketing

Only fake brokers or scams make false promises and suspicious marketing on their websites. Some will even include fake testimonials from non-existent users. If it sounds too good to be true, be careful.

Legal Information

The site should tell traders everything they need to know about taxes, trading rules, and other compliance measures and how the broker meets these requirements.

Background Information

With whom have they worked before? Many brokers with a lot of experience work for big, well-known companies. In addition, they have a history that extends back to at least five years. Try to find any official statements of profit and loss.

Contact Info

A legitimate broker’s website will have their address and ways to contact them. It could be emails and/or phone numbers. Not often do these details get left out.

Immediate and High Returns

When a broker promises you high returns immediately, that is the first sign that you are about to be scammed. Even for professionals, Forex is not a way to get rich quickly. No broker in the world could ever promise you those kinds of returns.

They do this to lure in new traders or people who need money but are having trouble getting it. It is one of the sneakiest scams because it takes advantage of real needs.

Online Reviews

Another important step is to read user reviews. After checking for other information, read what users have said about them. Many users tell their sad stories and experience with such brokers through their reviews.

Conclusion

When trading online, you need to use a safe and secure service. The first step you should always take is to look for licenses. Only regulated brokers protect traders from scams and hackers and provide fair and clear services. Also, user reviews can help you find the best service providers who care a lot about the user experience.

Another month, another sweeping wave of seed funding that looks to support some of the most intriguing and innovative businesses in the UK and Ireland. Well known as a hotspot for earning huge sums in funding rounds, Britain has, once again, emerged as Europe’s leader in July.   

With over 200 rounds securing a combined €433 million (£372 million), it wasn’t an overly active month, but still a significant one, with exciting projects in the realms of health, climate, and travel receiving significant funding in July. 

It’s clear that the process of receiving seed funding is becoming more streamlined, particularly in the UK, enabling inventive startups to grow and scale with relative ease. These are the businesses that have been able to make the most of the UK’s strong startup and seed funding environment in July 2022. 

Shackle, Suvera and Altruistiq headline July’s funding 

Kicking off the highlight reel of July’s seed funding is Suvera. Based in London, Suvera created a virtual care platform that works with GPs to help patients to get remote care. Specifically looking at chronic conditions, Suvera helps those with hypertension, diabetes, and the like. As reported by UKTN, their seed extension round brought in £5 million from the Google for Startups programme. 

Over in Ireland, Mark Abraham and his business, Shackle, attracted €5.4 million (£4.6 million) in funding from a whole host of big names. Guillaume Pousaz, the founder of Checkout.com, Li Fan, former head of engineering at Pinterest, Brad Bao, co-founder of Lime, Conrad Whelan, founding engineer at Uber, and Frontline Ventures all contributed to the seed funding of the Irish hospitality tech company, per BusinessPost. 

Raising the most among these UK and Ireland-based businesses in July 2022, Altruistiq also became one of the best-funded climate tech SaaS startups in the world, according to EU-Startups. Based in London, the business is looking to make the carbon reporting model effect more beneficial to climate action. Leading the funding was Molten and Norrsken, and joining them were Sir Ian Cheshire and Mudassir Sheikha. 

UK’s options put the country ahead of the curve 

As noted, the UK is massively leading the way in seed funding when comparing what gets raised in each European country. In July, the €134 million secured by UK businesses more than doubled that of the next closest, Germany, with its haul of €66 million. 

While the innovation of the company founders cannot be understated, there’s also something to be said for the ease with which UK businesses can now get help to secure funding. For example, legal tech provider SeedLegals  helps startups create all the legal documents they need to start, raise and grow their company cheaper and quicker than a law firm. 

As online services are so accessible, businesses seeking to enter into seed funding can eliminate the stresses that come with the traditional middle man role; finding them, trusting them, and waiting for them to do their work.With a more streamlined approach, business owners can focus more on growth strategies and scale. 

July proved once again that the UK’s startup space is thriving and that those with the money to empower innovative businesses are certainly taking notice. 

With the rise and ongoing evolution of cryptocurrencies, there has been an increase in the prevalence of crypto scams and fraud where people are defrauded of all their money (investments) due to cyber security hackers. Crypto investments like any other financial investments can be pretty risky, hence it is essential to know exactly how cryptos work along with their rules, regulations, and security behind whichever currency. Here’s a list of common cryptocurrency scams and how to avoid them:

1.     Fake Websites

As more people join and invest in the Crypto-verse, there has also been an increase in scammers who create fake versions of official websites and official crypto wallets in order to con investors. These fake websites usually have the same domain name as the official website but have slight differences and symbols that would make it difficult for a user to recognise that the website is an illegitimate version of the real one.

These fake websites seemingly run and function as efficiently as the true websites in the beginning. The scammers would most often display fake testimonials of trading records as a way to lure and convince those visiting the site that it is legitimate. Based on the fake testimonials, one would be convinced into investing money. In the initial stages, the scammers would allow a few people who invested to withdraw a bit of money in order to make their scheme seem lucrative and legitimate. However, once people invest more money and try to withdraw their profits, the website shuts down or declines the request. Tracing such people and even retrieving your money is virtually impossible.

2.    Website & Voice Phishing Scams

Similar to the above, scammers can use fake websites as phishing scams to attain credentials, passwords, recovery passwords of your crypto wallet along with other important financial details.  Attaining these details enables them to defraud you even further and won’t stop at conning and clearing out your crypto wallet.

There are also voice phishing scams where scammers contact and introduce you to a non-existent crypto company to invest in with promises of making great profits in a short period of time. Based on first-hand experience, after a few months of making an investment, the scammer would make contact and state that you have made profits and that they need to “send your earnings.’’ However, in order to retrieve your earnings, you have to give them your bank card details and additional credentials. The mistake we made was allowing this person who posed as a representative from a certain crypto company my mom had invested with to send a link that leads to a site where you enter your details. Unbeknownst to us, the link was actually merging whatever was on our computer to the scammer, so they could see whatever details we were entering. Thankfully we gave details to an account that contained no money and one which we do not usually use, of which we immediately contacted the bank and froze the card because of our feelings of distrust. Trusting my gut and taking the quick action of notifying my mom’s bank and changing all passwords really helped us evade the situation.

A List of Fake Crypto Sites:

Tip: Press Ctrl+F to search

• btc[.]imtoker[.]cn
• imtokenhot[.]com
• imtoken[.]im
• 1mt0kem[.]me
• imtoke-n[.]me
• apisglass[.]com[.]cn
• imtoken-lm[.]cn
• imtoikne[.]net
• app-imtoken[.]com[.]cn
• xz[.]app-imtoken[.]net[.]cn
• xz[.]imtoken-app[.]org[.]cn
• imtokenhk[.]com
• imtoken[.]net[.]im
• imtokenn[.]ee
• imtoken[.]ms
• imtoken002[.]com
• imtoken006[.]com
• imtokenwallet[.]biz
• bgj[.]im
• irn-tokan[.]com
• green[.]im-tokens[.]store
• metamasuk[.]io
• dapp[.]tokenpocket-app[.]me
• wangshangtouzhuxianjinwang[.]
• sz51ly[.]com
• xn--metamask-ul5o017z[.]com
• rneta-rnask[.]com
• xn--metamsk-rgc[.]com
• app-token[.]im
• imtokenhot[.]com
• api[.]imtoken1[.]app
• appapi[.]tokenpro[.]pro
• token-lon[.]pro
• facai[.]im
• btc[.]imtoker[.]cn
• max[.]aguagua[.]com
• hnbaishihengtong[.]com
• www[.]tp-imtoken[.]top
• dapp[.]tokenpocket-pro[.]orgdapp[.]
• Token-pockets[.]pro

3.    Fake Crypto Apps

Similar to fake crypto websites, there are fraudulent crypto applications that are being passed off as legitimate. Scammers are taking advantage of the fact that there is no third party such as a bank or centralized authority to flag suspicious transactions made with cryptocurrency and that once an investment or transfer is made, it cannot be undone or reversed, giving scammers even more leeway to defraud people.

According to the FBI, over $42 million has been stolen from investors using fake crypto apps in under a year. How was this possible? Well, it starts with the marketing and ads on social media and different websites that promote an app that resembles an official crypto website. The marketing then lures and persuades investors to download a fake crypto app. As mentioned previously, the same scheme is used where illegitimate trading records are depicted in order to attract more investors. Most importantly, these counterfeit applications use similar names, symbols, and icons to that of legitimate apps, and only have slight differences which would be difficult to be aware of. The most difficult part is that these counterfeit apps can also be found on official sites such as Apple’s App store and Google Play, although both companies are constantly making means to eliminate apps that impersonate bona fide apps and those that engage in illegal and fraudulent activity.

The usual process that leads to the defrauding of investors is often through the use of social media and marketing these fraudulent pages there. Most of the time, fake trading and crypto social profiles and pages will target people by engaging in conversation with them and introducing them to an actual legitimate crypto site such as Coinbase, which they can invest in. The victim would then be convinced to buy cryptocurrency from the legitimate company and have it exchanged through a “mediated” app such as Metatrader, which can still be found on both Apple and Google official stores. From there on, the scammer will pose as though the investor has made profits, and once one tries to withdraw their earnings, they are blocked and unable to.

An investigation was conducted where a server was found that hosted numerous fake trading, banking, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrency apps. Within this server were fake apps posing as major financial firms and popular crypto trading platforms including Barclays, Gemini, Bitwala, Kraken, Binance, Bitcoin HK, Bittrex, and TD Bank. Each of these fraudulent apps had a specific website tailored to look similar to the impersonated brand in order to attract, convince, and defraud victims.        

How to Spot & Avoid Crypto Scams

• Do not send your credentials to anyone who claims to be from any cryptocurrency brand. As much as we all know that financial investments are risky, it is even more imperative to take the necessary precautions in order to not be defrauded. Always probe, ask questions, and conduct more research if a person or company approaches you (often with something that seems too good to be true).
• There will always be differences that’ll help you spot a legitimate website or app from a fraudulent one. In most cases, it’s always in the spelling, font sizes, colors, and shapes of icons used along with the placing of icons.
• Check if the app has a Google Editor’s choice badge — a distinction provided by Google Play to help recognise developers and apps with outstanding quality. Apps with this badge are less likely to be fake.
• If a company or site advertises high and quick crypto returns, it is most probably fake.
• Credible and reputable crypto applications have millions of downloads and reviews on App Store and Google Play Store. Any application with a low figure of downloads, posing as a popular brand or trade name, should be considered cautiously.
• As mentioned previously, research and educate yourself on the ins and outs of crypto including how things work. Bitcode Method, a credible news source, offers guides that help crypto investors and those interested in cryptocurrencies to know more and navigate the world of crypto.
• If you are unsure about an application or website, contact support through the company’s official website. This could help you avoid potential financial losses and you falling victim to fraud.
• In Germany, the buying, selling and trading of cryptocurrency is still fairly new as people could only invest after a new law was passed on the 1st of July in 2021. Since then, more means to regulate and secure the market have been applied.
• One of the means applied to regulate and secure the crypto markets in Germany consists of the use of Bitcoin machines like an ATM in some locations within the country, which allow an investor to legally purchase Bitcoin. These machines are an improvement that inherently helps to advance trust and the feeling of security about cryptocurrencies to potential investors and is a more secure way to help protect investors from fraud and being scammed.

With the rise in the popularity of cryptocurrency, scammers are continuously finding new ways to defraud people. It is thus vital to know as much as possible about cryptos along with which sites are credible. The world is in a frenzy, and difficult life situations happen which lead to people being in desperate need of money. Though understandable, it is important to not fall for the promises of great income at a fast rate as the chances are that you’ll be scammed. Apart from the pointers mentioned above on how to be aware of and avoid crypto scams, it is also important to trust your gut instinct and intuition. If something feels off and you aren’t feeling settled about a website or app you’re thinking of downloading or investing in, lean into that and trust your instinct while further taking the necessary action of conducting in-depth research. This could help save you from potential loss of money and you falling victim to a scam.

It has long been known that inflation in the United Kingdom has been skyrocketing out of control for the past few months.  There are a number of forces at play here, not least the country re-opening up after the Coronavirus pandemic so there has been extra strains on a supply and demand front, but Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine certainly has not helped matters, particularly with that further influencing the current energy price crisis.

Whilst those factors can, and have certainly been blamed for the current state of affairs the country faces, both the Bank of England and the United Kingdom Government also share in that blame given their own handling of things and a severe lack of planning and swift, urgent action.

Inflation now sits at a 40 year high and the BoE have already warned that that it could top 13% this year, and their late answer has been to raise interest rates in an effort to stem that growth.  The Government has finally outlined plans for an energy price cap, but they are unwilling to fund it via a windfall tax on the energy companies and that will not go down with the vast majority of the country mean they are already paying more for everything, even though petrol and diesel prices continue to fall – which is not reflected in the growing prices.

Whilst it is expected that the energy cap plan will temper inflation, it certainly is not coming down yet and it is not expected to for quite some time.  For those who like a flutter betting sites are bound to have a few economy related odds somewhere that people can dabble with, as it certainly feels for many that Prime Minister Liz Truss is gambling with their futures with her decisions so far.

Jack Leslie, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation recently explained.

“High inflation continues to drive Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, but the outlook has brightening considerably over the past week. The Energy Price Guarantee should prevent a second winter surge in prices. However, high inflation is set to be with us for some time, particularly for low-income who continue to be hit hardest by high prices.”

Food prices continued to spike over the month of August, heavily driven by necessary basics such as milk, cheese and eggs and the rate of the rise was the highest since 1995.  With the prices of services suffering its own inflation effects, it obviously means that the counter effect on a real life wage reduction for the majority of taxpayers continues to further widen the gap and create hardship – even for those who have been lucky enough to secure some kind of employment pay rise.

It was widely expected that the BoE would raise interest rates again last week, but following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, that decision was delayed and the Monetary Policy Committee is now expected to make that announcement on September 22.

Chief economist at the Institute of Directors, Kitty Ussher explained that rates would likely continue to rise in the more foreseeable future.

“The fact that the falling headline rate is due to changes in the price of petrol and diesel, which is driven predominantly by the international price of oil rather than by domestic factors, means news is unlikely to alter expectations of a rise in interest rates.”

This news, and continuing expectations for the direction that inflation will continue to go in will not calm worries and tensions amongst those already struggling to put food on the table – and that will not get any easier as we move into autumn and winter and the cold weather hits.