Traders Union Experts Create List of Scam Brokers As Of 2021

Over the past 10 years, Forex trading has steadily gained popularity. The increased interest in the foreign exchange market gives rise not only to an increase in the number of traders but also to activity on the part of dishonest companies and individuals who are not averse to making money fraudulently on the popularity of the Forex market.

The good news is that recently the number of scam artists in the foreign exchange market has significantly decreased. This is thanks to global informatization, which allows you to learn about companies from the lips of their clients in a matter of minutes. You can also study the trading conditions of many brokers at one resource, the Traders Union. It is one of the most trusted information resources for the Forex market. Its experts have been analyzing the activities of Forex brokers for 10 years and, based on a variety of proprietary criteria, compiles current ratings of the best and worst brokerage firms.

So, the easiest way to choose a reliable broker is to study Traders Union ratings. It regularly updates both the lists of companies recommended for cooperation and the lists of so-called "embargoed" brokers. Visit the list to learn the main criteria for defining scam and scammers on Forex. On TU’s "List of Scam Brokers 2021" you can also learn whether your broker is embargoed (i.e., “blacklisted”).

Types of Forex scams

Forex scammers often promise traders the stars and other impossible-to-deliver assurances, such as low spreads, instant order execution, and high income as soon as possible. The scheme is always the same: to lure a naive trader (most often a novice), persuade him to deposit funds, and then disappear with the trader’s money. Today, there are 3 main types of scams in the foreign exchange market:

Types of Forex Scams and Scammers
Type of scam	How the scam works
Empty shell brokers	The simplest and most common type of Forex scam. A scammer creates a website (most often a Landing Page only), the main task of which is to attract as many users as possible and entice them to make a deposit. After fund-raising, such a broker simply disappears, taking with him the money from naive investors.
Forex bucket shops	The bucket shops create full-fledged trading platforms, but their clients' transactions are never brought to the global interbank market as promised. Trading is carried out within the scammer’s platform, while traders are offered unfair conditions that keep honest traders in the red. Also, Forex bucket shops never allow withdrawals.
Financial pyramids	This is a world-famous type of scam, which today is not as common as bucket shops and shell companies. The company introduces itself as a broker and collects money from depositors, promising fast or high income. Such brokerage activity is not permissible and is only deployed to deceived honest traders and to misappropriate their deposits.

Сharacteristics of a Forex scammer

It’s a far cry from the days when it was difficult to distinguish a scammer from a bona fide broker who responsibly fulfills all its duties to its clients. Today, thanks to the availability of information, the publication of ratings by unreliable companies, and the ability to read real reviews by traders, even a novice trader on Forex can protect himself from scammers.

We recommend analyzing a potential embargoed broker according to the characteristics listed below because their presence indicates that you may be dealing with an embargoed broker. The main signs of a Forex scammer are:

• guarantee of high-profits;
• assurance of safe and risk-free trades;
• lack of a license from reputable regulators to conduct brokerage activities;
• unprofessional behavior - cold calls, imposing its services, forcing an immediate deposit, etc.
• providing unpopular or generally unknown terminals for trading;

• leadership positions in fake ratings (often compiled by the scammer itself);

• lack of an SSL certificate on the site, which ensures the transfer of a trader’s personal and financial data over a secure and encrypted protocol.

How to distinguish a scam broker from a reliable company?

We have prepared a universal list of criteria for analyzing embargoed companies. The list will help you decide whether your trading partner is a reliable broker or a potential scam artist.

Some of the characteristics of a scam broker are:

• the company's website does not support the operation of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) cryptographic protocol;
• the absence of trading platforms that are popular among traders, such as MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5, etc.
• the lack of an international license from a reputable regulator;
• a narrow set of trading assets - usually less than 20;
• non-responsive support service; and/or lack of online chat;
• the company does not appear in the Traders Union rating of the best brokers;
• the presence of many negative reviews from customers; the inability to find reviews about the service and conditions on its network;
• the broker does not provide additional tools, for example, platforms for copying transactions, the ability to use automated robots and advisors;
• company representatives constantly call and write to impose their services;
• offers to replenish the account through little-known payment systems and does not support work with bank cards and verified electronic wallets.

Should you trust brokers on our embargo list. 

Today, various resources for traders publish embargoed brokers. They represent an anti-rating, which includes scammers and dishonest companies, including bucket shops and empty shell companies that do not fulfill their obligations to their customers as described in regulatory documents. 

Any user can make a list that presents his data as the ultimate truth. At the beginning of the journey, a novice trader knows little about which site can be trusted and which one can not. Many resources write inaccurate information about brokers and you need some trading experience to learn how to filter it.

For this reason, you need to rely on ratings from trusted sources. Traders Union analysts have been collecting data on Forex brokers for more than 10 years, so they can easily distinguish a reliable broker from a scam organization. Our site regularly updates the list of companies that are irresponsible in the performance of their professional duties. Study how the conditions of this or that broker have changed and the nature of the reviews of its clients. Traders Union experts promptly report on companies that have already ceased their activities, and we give details of the scam where possible.

Сharacteristics of fake and embargoed brokers

It is common practice for someone to publish ratings of scam brokers, so you need to be able to distinguish fake lists from real ones. The main signs of a falsified list of embargoed brokers:

1. The described trading conditions of the company do not correspond to reality. The broker never had and does not now have its trading conditions listed on its website.
2. The publication of unverified numbers, access to which is blocked.
3. Adding a broker to an embargo list only because of negative assessment is not objective and can be falsified.
4. Embargoing a company without giving a reason.

How to protect your investments from scammers on Forex?

To not lose money to scammers when trading on Forex, you need to work only with trusted brokers. You can find them on the list of reliable brokers on the Traders Union website a/k/a the International Union of Forex Traders, which has been operating since 2010. Resource analysts are responsible for conducting a comprehensive audit of brokerage companies to provide their clients with the opportunity to work on Forex with reliable brokers as comfortably as possible and without monetary losses.

Benefits of working through Traders Union

Traders who cooperate with Traders Union receive several benefits. The table below summarizes the main advantages of working on Forex through the Traders Union.

The Benefits of Traders Union in Numbers
Rebates (total payments made)	Over $10,000,000
Percentage of the rebate based on the spread	Up to 100%
The Traders Union has how many traders	More than 300 000
Number of brokers approved by Traders Union	Over 200
Payment to Traders Union for providing legal support	$0

The Traders Union website has also created a service for comparing brokers with each other, which is available to each client of the Union for free and allows you to compare the main trading conditions of an unlimited number of brokers in a matter of minutes. It significantly saves you time and makes it easier to choose a reliable brokerage company. The service is available on its site under "Forex Broker Comparison".

Conclusion of scam brokers on Forex

The field of brokerage services cannot do without scams. Funds of unprotected investors, and especially novices, are a tidbit for scammers who do not want to work and earn money honestly. Studying the ratings of TU’s embargoed brokers can make it much easier to exclude an unreliable Forex broker. The lists of scammers usually include companies without licenses; or with an unsecured connection, and which offer unfavorable terms or even scams to their customers.

Of course, some brokers are not scammers but simply provide poor quality services. For this reason, when compiling ratings of top companies, Traders Union specialists analyze the reviews of traders who have previously entrusted their funds to one broker or another. To avoid becoming a victim of scams and other dishonest schemes, we recommend choosing brokers from among the Top 20 at Traders Union.