Forex Trading Scams & How to Avoid Them

John Carter
5 min readAug 7, 2020

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The Forex trading industry is a very big one. The ability to participate in an industry that does $5 trillion in turnover daily, is a huge opportunity. In the past, participating in the industry was the exclusive preserve of central banks, multinational firms and international banks. When it comes to speculating in and profiting from this market, only banks, hedge funds and ultra-high net worth individuals had the opportunity to earn. However, a combination of technological breakthrough, entrepreneurship and deregulation opened the industry up to retail traders to also participate in the market. As a result, the average, everyday individual like us can speculate in and make money out of the forex market. Although there are no official counts of traders globally, millions of individuals have been attracted to forex trading, that it can be said that an entire economy or industry in itself has been birthed out of catering to the needs of retail traders. This “industry” consists of forex brokers, trading education specialists, forex signal providers, amongst others, established to serve traders and make their trading easier and better. However also present in the industry are phonies who do not exist to serve anyone but to rip others off, under disguise. Sadly forex scams are not ending anytime soon as they will continue to be as long as the forex market exists.

As newbie traders and even as veterans, these phonies will come our way and it is important that we be have the requisite knowledge to identify and steer clear of them. This piece provides exactly that; addressed herein are the types of forex scams that exist and features to look out for in spotting scammers.

Types of forex scams

Forex scams exist in various forms with newer forms being invented from time to time. However, below are the most popular forms:

1) Forex Education Scams

One of the most popular forms that scams in the forex trading takes is that of forex education. Here, these scammers promise to teach you how to trade; with claims that you will become an expert trader in no time, and that you will make exponential amounts of money (with minimal capital investment) with the strategies they will teach you.

These exist in two forms: some will actually give you access to paid courses, but what you end up getting is substandard content that you can get online at no cost at all; these are far more common. The other form are those that will take your money and give you absolutely no value at all.

2) Forex Signal Scams

We can conclusively say that these are the most popular forms of forex scams. Forex trading signal scams exist in the form of phonies promising to send you daily winning signals to trade the markets. They tell you that with their signals you can make extraordinary amounts on a daily basis, in the region of 200% or more returns daily. They pose as expert traders with several years put into the craft, claiming that they have discovered “secret” methods that can give you maximum winning everyday. What a good number of them do is subscribe to free, or cheap signals provided by others and then copy and paste them to you in return for your subscription.

Some however take your money and never provide you with nothing.

3) Forex Investment Scams

A growing method of scamming people under the guise of forex trading are forex Investment scams. Here, persons pose as professional and experienced traders; they ask you to invest your money with the promise that they will help you make exponential returns. They are getting quite popular and more aggressive on social media of recent. Usually what comes out of this is that they take your money and you don’t get to hear from them anymore.

4) Forex Broker Scams

This is the least popular form of forex scams, and one quite rare at that. Fake forex brokers entice you to open forex brokerage accounts with them, with promises of benefits that cannot be found anywhere else; what happens is that they take your money and then that will be all.

To avoid this, thoroughly research any broker you choose; and then getting recommendations from persons who have used that broker in the past is important.

5) Forex Trading Bots Scams

A trading bot is a software that enters and exits trades without you being physically involved. Many scammers pose to sell “profitable” bots, of which many are fake.

How to spot forex scams

There are various forms of forex scams, but they all have some factors in common; they are outlined below:

1) Promise of extraordinary profits and benefits

Most forex scams promise to give you access to exponential profits and benefits. The forex education scammer will promise to make you insanely profitable in no time; the forex signal scammer will promise you hundreds to thousands of pips to gain in one day; the forex Investment scammer will promise to double your money Ina very short period of time; and usually they don’t make mention of any risks attached to doing business with them. If it is too good to be true, then it is probably a scam.

2) Unverifiable Trading Results

In other to prove credibility, these scammers tend to post screenshots of earnings or testimonials by people who have signed up to their service. Usually these “proofs” are unverifiable by a third party.

3) Unprofessional emails and contacts

While this is not a rule cast in stone, usually, many scammers operate with unprofessional emails and hurriedly set up websites. A credible organisation will take the pains to set up a professional email, website amongst other points of contact.

4) Lack of Reviews

One seemingly overlooked factor common among scammers is that you don’t find reviews about them online. This is because usually they are new (or “rebranded”) and as such don’t have a track record that others can review. The “proofs” you see are usually those posted by them, and not others.

What next?

Learning to profitably trade the markets takes a considerable amount of time. However, that does not mean you cannot start to make money from the markets even in the present. Through the use of verified winning forex trading signals, you can start making money from the markets and unarguably one of the best providers is 1000PipBuilder. Much reviewed and highly rated online, 1000PipBuilder is your plug to consistent profitable trading. Want to start earning right away? Click here.

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John Carter
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I am a Forex trader and I have worked within financial markets for over 12 years