Filled with False Information to Deceive Traders
iFOREX has complicated its origin with 2 different web pages showing 2 different details of the same company. It has 2 active websites.
The first is with the domain (https://www.iforex.cz/). The company provided mendacious information about being founded in 1996 and into an internet trading platform since 2004.
iFOREX review team has found that the (https://www.iforex.cz/ ) domain has been registered in the year 2008 only. The company is circulating wrong information at its website.
- domain: iforex.cz
- registrant: IFOREXCZCC
- admin-c: DBA6018224628
- nsset: IFOREX1
- registrar: REG-ZONER
- registered: 02.01.2008 06:14:17
- changed: 27.01.2020 15:21:31
- expire: 02.01.2021
The same web page claims the company to be owned by a Budapest based company Ebrokerhaz Befektetesi Szolgaltato Zrt, best known as Ebrokerhaz Zrt. The company is registered in Hungary and has mentioned in its terms of conditions that it is regulated by the Hungarian National Bank to provide its services in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary only.
The second website is with the domain (https://www.iforex.in/). This also cites the company to be incorporated in the year 1996 but is owned by Formula Investment House B.O.S. Ltd.
iFOREX review team have found that https://www.iforex.in/ domain details has been protected. There is no reliable source to estimate the operational dates of the website.
The address of the company is provided to be Cyprus based. It claims, if trusted to be genuine, then, it is registered with the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (BVIFSC).
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The mistrusted origin details have left us confused about the basic origin and registration of the company. If it is based out of Hungary, it does not have the approval to provide services outside that area. If it is based out of Cyprus, why is it regulated by British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission?
Fined by CySEC
The Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission has fined iFOREX for providing the services which are not licensed by the CySEC. It was also fined for not taking the necessary steps to reduce the operational risks to the customers. In addition to this, comes the dishonest and unprofessional behavior with the clients. The misleading content on its website, insufficient communication with the customers and not analyzing the risks involved for clients. Also, it has failed to maintain the mandated details of the customers. The fine amount was gigantic around 138,000 Euro.
Terrible Trading Platform
In place of the widely accepted Meta Trader, iFOREX provides its private trading platform, FXnet. Meta Trader is the monarch of the online forex trading platforms. It has never been difficult for any trader while using its analytical technical analysis, a flexible trading system with algorithmic trading. Owned by MetaQuotes Limited, the platform can be used for personal computers and support mobile applications also.
The company’s trading platform, on the other hand, does not allow API trading or any other digital trading and scalping. Furthermore, the platform is not available in the desktop version. It is only available in mobile and website based applications. FXnet also has an additional need of a cluster of software to be downloaded which is the cheap third party promotional strategy of the company.
The trading platform of the company keeps on freezing throughout the trading day. It does not support automated trading. iFOREX trading has taken the least steps in removing the bugs from the platform. The main concern here is that the iFOREX provides the password to the trading account and a trader cannot change the password. The frequent disconnects along with recurring crashes definitely make traders to sense the absence of the trusted MetaTrader 4.
No Demo Account and Bogus Spreads
The company, claiming to be a global leader in forex does not provide any demo account to the prospective customers. Any new investor must be provided with the demo accounts to study the trading trends. It also helps to validate the company’s commitment for the leverage and spread. The trading conditions are in a race around condition with the company’s claim.
The company has failed to provide the trading conditions on its web portal. There is no availability of different trading accounts. It is into forex, CFDs, indices, currencies, etc. There is only a trading account provided to all of the traders, irrespective of their trading experience and their requirement. This account requires a minimum amount of $100. It is high as compared to the competitors who are providing the standard accounts with investments as low as $10-$50 and provide free demo accounts also.
The leverage is claimed to be 1:400 which is also too high as compared to the generalized leverage limit of 1:50 set by many US financial institutional regulation bodies. Another setback is the bogus spread committed to the traders. While the company claims the spread to be 2 pips for EUR/USD pair, it is actually 2.5 times the claimed part. It lies in the range of 5 pips while you are trading on FXnet and never comes down than that. The company provides a “protected account” which is not free at all. The trader has to invest $100 and then this account is available for 14 days.
Another stumbling block is the terms and conditions associated with the bonuses provided by the company. The company has mentioned its supremacy that it has full rights to suspend or cancel the liable bonus to the traders. The leading emulators, on the other hand, provide various types of bonuses and promotional offers to the traders alongside maintaining the quality of basic services.
No demo account without any privilege to choose from the available live trading accounts, and on the top is the false commitment of the spreads that define the global quality of the company. In addition to this the deposit and withdrawal conditions are also not defined in any of the legal documents provided by the company.
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If we trust the website of the company, then the company is supposed to be compatible with credit/debit cards, bank wire transfer, E-wallet like Neteller, Skrill, etc. for depositing funds. While the minimum deposit amount is not clarified there are no details about the fee associated with the transactions.
The withdrawal is in no other waters. There is no information over the website about the minimum withdrawal; the modes may be considered the same as the depositing channels and no clarity over the withdrawal fees as well.
Badly Nurtured Social Media Accounts and Client Support
The company has lately maintained official accounts on Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook account was last updated in the year 2019 while the Twitter account was lastly updated in the year 2018. The quality of content is also below a satisfactory level.
iFOREX does not perform well in terms of technical support to the trading platform. The trading platform keeps on crashing and the traders are left at the mercy of the support team. Numbers and mail id are provided but the quality of support is low. Unfortunately, the traders end up losing while failing to put an execution on a heavy traffic trading day.
References:
- https://www.iforex.in
- https://www.cysec.gov.cy/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=3ffc6803-f4a3-4537-ac16-ab9e3f0caf0a
- https://www.iforex.cz/
Online FOREX trading platforms are a perfect place for scammers to make millions. FOREX has a huge amount of risk involved in trading even when you are using a reputable company. This makes it easy for unreputable companies to take your money. Here is what I have found.
iFOREX and their ridiculous Claims:
iFOREX was founded in 1996 by a group of bankers and FOREX dealers and is now one of the largest and most respected firms in the industry.
You don’t have to be a professional to trade online.
iFOREX is dedicated to providing its clients the highest level of customer support.
iFOREX Scam Reality
FOREX trading can be legitimate for governments and large institutional investors concerned about fluctuations in international exchange rates, and it can even be appropriate for some individual investors. But the average investor should be wary when it comes to FOREX offers. – Source cftc.gov
There are pages and pages of complaints about iFOREX. It has an incredibly low review rating on many FOREX review sites.
Company Address:
Formula Investment House Ltd.
15 Nikis St. Syntagma Square, 10557 Athens, Greece.
The owners and managers of this business are hidden. iFOREX is not a reputable or respected online trading plateform.
CFDs and spot FOREX trades are not traded under the rules of a recognized or designated investment exchange. Consequently, engaging in CFDs and/or spot FOREX trading may expose you to substantially greater risks than investments which are so traded. One of iFOREX’s subsidiary companies acts as the market maker and principal to all foreign currency contracts executed by you with iFOREX. – Source iFOREX.com
In other words, they are using their own platform and they increase your chances of losing money. Your money is not placed in the market by a legitimate dealer and they keep your loses and commissions. It is in their best interest for you to lose money.
To open a new transaction and trade online with iFOREX, you need a minimum deposit of US$100. The minimum transaction size for a new account is $2,500 (or the equivalent), with up to 400:1 leverage.
If you cannot invest at least $10,000 USD into opening a FOREX account, you likely are going to get a market maker or straight-through processing account. In their disclaimers, you will see that most market maker brokers boldly relate that they will always act in their best interest, regardless of whether it coincides with your best interest. These brokers are called market makers because they make their own markets. In other words, these firms use their assets to manipulate bids, spreads and trades within an intra-company submarket dominated by the firm’s own assets.
If a brokerage tells you that it’s placing your trade order on the open market but your account contract says that the broker makes its money on the bid/sell price, that broker is likely misleading you and is not putting your order on the open market at all. Instead, this type of market maker broker will place your order on an in-house market in which the brokerage can manipulate the bid/sell price to its advantage.
FOREX brokers that do not charge commissions collect profit from speculating on the bid/sell spread. Ninety-nine percent of the time, commission-free brokers are market maker brokers. No one can stay in business by not charging a commission and losing on the bid/sell price, so in most cases, these firms are market makers so that they can control their profits. Some report that FOREX brokers usually only release about 30 percent of their profits to their clients. If you happen to make money on a trade, it is often because the broker’s interest coincided with your bid.
– Source Top 5 Identifying Traits of a Bad FOREX Broker
Here is how the iFOREX scam works:
They get you to make a small investment and help you make a few deals.
They make it very difficult to get your money back.
They then hound you to make a large investment.
With the increased risks of using their unregulated platform you lose your money with additional deals.
“The FOREX chart is controlled by iFOREX team. Even if u win they will alter the market chart and show your investment in profit? loss? Do not trust or invest in this scammed team. Complete frauds. They will tell they are from France but they stay in Srilanka. At the time of investment they will call u 100 times and at the time of withdrawal you wont get any response from them.” – Source Mouthshut.com
“What is the use trading if you cannot withdraw your funds? Withdrawing my money is proving to be a real problem. Despite submitting the required documentation a number of times I cannot get past the standard response of ‘You did not provide the required documentation’. No assistance received form either the account manager or the accounts department to complete the withdrawal.” – Source Forexpeacearmy.com
iFOREX representatives have been known to use highly unethical sales techniques to get people to risk money with their online trading platform.
Here is one example:
While I was reading through and watching video regarding some of the financial terms, My eyes caught an advertisements regarding iFOREX. Which promises to teach how the foregin exchange market works. Having no experience or understanding of this market. I was curious to try it out.
The advertisements said ‘Click here to get your free training’ and all.
I did the necessary registrations giving away my email-id and contact information, while I was sitting on the desk at my workplace.
Today, I got a call from some so called ‘training manager’ under the name Rizwan, who was talking in a rather rudely way. He asked or rather demanded me to go online and open the account on their website. Now when I told him that I don’t want to and not interested anymore the guy starts threatening me by saying they will take legal actions against me. He was forcing on this point that ‘you accepted the terms and conditions on iFOREX.com by which you will have to trade with us failing which I may face consequences‘.
By then I became very furious and hung up. In no second my home number ranged again. when I picked up the call, same guy started talking to me in high tone demanding why I hung up on him!
According to him, the company iFOREX.com has my IP-address and can track me down and make me face legal actions.
– Source therodinhoods.com
You can’t open iFOREX accounts in two of the three countries this scam claims to be licensed in.
Cyprus
United Kingdom – The British Virgin Islands are a territory of the United Kingdom.
Here is the full list of iFOREX restricted countries:
Afghanistan
American Samoa
Argentina
Australia
Congo
Congo the Democratic Rep
Cyprus
Eritrea
Guam
Guinea
Haiti
Hong Kong
Islamic Republic of Iran
Korea [North]
Lebanon
Liberia
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Myanmar
New Zealand
North Mariana Islands
Puerto Rico
Rwanda
Singapore
Somalia
Sudan
Syrian Arab Republic
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States of America
Virgin Islands (US)
iFOREX is on the list of online trading suspicious schemes provided by the AMF.
iFOREX Scam Conclusion
In my opinion, iFOREX is a FOREX scam. They use their own internal market maker account to add additional risk to take advantage of uneducated investors. You can’t open iFOREX accounts in two of the three countries this scam claims to be licensed in. They use abusive marketing techniques to cause new investors to invest large amounts of money. Avoid the iFOREX scam.