Unregulated crypto brokers: A Forex scam by another name

Is crypto really a thing? Yeah, it’s a thing. Love it or hate it, trust it or be suspicious, bearish or bullish, there’s a wide spectrum of reasonable positions to pick from. But if you expect crypto to just disappear at this point, you’re dreaming.

The birth of bitcoin in 2009 generated the public’s awareness of and fascination with cryptocurrencies. In the decade since, hundreds of other “coins” have been invented, a fraction of which have become established as more or less stable and durable. It comes as no surprise that the shiniest new toy in tech has become the object of an investment and speculation boom (some would say “bubble”). Two opposing facts feed two competing narratives about the wisdom of investing in bitcoin et al.:

One: Its value has been subject to wild and erratic fluctuation on a scale hardly seen in any other commodity or currency ever. The only predictable thing about the value of bitcoin is its unpredictability. Volatility, thy name is bitcoin.

Two: Notwithstanding the above, for all its instability, there’s no getting around the fact that bitcoin’s worth has grown by orders of magnitude since its launch. As of this writing, it’s sitting in the neighborhood of $32,000. That’s serious growth.

But investing your money with an online broker is not the same as investing in crypto. And if you’re using an unregulated broker, you may end up as just another statistic. Many of these platforms are literally nothing more than repackaged forex brokerages. And while regulated forex brokers deserve a place in the constellation of legitimate retail investment options, what we’re talking about here is something far more problematic.

First of all, despite the general growth that crypto has experienced in the macro over the past few years, its massive volatility in the micro makes it a particularly hazardous investment over the short periods of time typical of forex. It would take just a minor blip or correction in the normal bitcoin scale of things to totally wipe out your investment.

Second of all, no matter how much Bitcoin (or USD or euro or anything else) is worth when you’re trading retail forex, it doesn’t matter because you never own any of the underlying assets. You’re literally just betting on the changes in the asset’s price.

Third, in many cases, unregulated brokers are notorious for running total scams. Whether they choose to call themselves forex or crypto, these scam brokers are basically interchangeable; in fact, there are numerous examples of a single enterprise running multiple online platforms. And they have all developed quite a reputation for holding onto their customer’s deposits tighter than a pitbull with a steak.

One of the most popular ways of preventing customer withdrawals is by means of a deceptive bonus scheme whereby giving out unasked-for “free money” in fact encumbers the entire balance until an utterly unrealistic volume of trading has been met. Read the fine print! There are a million other tricks, but the bottom line is that a scam broker is walking away with your deposits while making it look like legitimate trading.

Meanwhile, we at MyChargeBack have been working night and day to stay ahead of the curve to get scam victims their money back, even as the scammers keep innovating.