iFOREX Scam

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.  My subscribers have requested that I take a look at a company called iFOREX.  Here is what I have found.

iFOREX Scam 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.

Here is how iFOREX is promoted:

iFOREX Scam Video

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.