How I Got Burned by a Fake Broker Using the Virtual Dealer Plugin (and What I Found Out)

Hi everyone,

I’m new here. My name is Miss Meme (yes, that’s really my name – and yes, I know how it sounds). I’m a school teacher by profession, not a financial expert, but I’ve always believed in learning and doing my homework. Unfortunately, I only started investigating after I got scammed.

I invested $500 with what I thought was a legit broker using MetaTrader 5. The site looked professional, they had friendly support, and I could log in and see my trades. Everything seemed fine… until the trades started behaving strangely.

That’s when I knew something was off.

  • My orders were almost always filled at worse prices than I clicked.
  • Any small profit I made got wiped out mysteriously seconds later.
  • Stop-losses were hit even though the real market never reached those levels. And when I tried to withdraw — of course — they blocked me. “Ongoing security verification” they said.

That’s when I started digging.

What I found shocked me.

The broker was using something called the Virtual Dealer Plugin. This is a tool that’s actually made for MetaTrader platforms. It’s supposed to help brokers simulate “real market conditions,” but in reality, it gives scam brokers a way to manipulate everything behind the scenes.

They can delay your orders, slip you on purpose, create fake spikes to hit your stop losses, and even show you quotes that look real — but aren’t. You’re not trading with the real market. You’re trading against their system. And they control the outcome.

The craziest part? This isn’t even some secret hack. The Virtual Dealer Plugin is an officially available plugin supported by MetaQuotes — the company behind MetaTrader.

That raises a huge question: how can MetaTrader continue to provide tools like this knowing they’re being used to cheat people?

I’m just a teacher. I didn’t come into this world of trading to get rich overnight. I came to learn. But instead I got scammed, and now I want to make sure others don’t walk into the same trap.

And here’s what’s next for me: I just found out there are many more of these kinds of plugins — tools that brokers use to cheat traders behind the scenes. I’m going to start digging into each one, figure out how they work, and see if there’s any way for regular people like us to spot and fight back against them. I’ll share what I find here.

Because this shouldn’t keep happening. And companies like MetaTrader need to take responsibility for what they allow on their platform.

I might be “just a teacher,” but I believe in doing homework. I didn’t get my money back — but I wanted to share my story so others don’t fall for the same trap.

If you’re new here like me, don’t trust the platform alone. Dig into who owns the broker, check licenses, verify regulation, and watch out for too-smooth customer support.

Stay sharp out there,
Miss Meme (yes, seriously)

11 Likes

Hey everyone,
Just dropping in with another piece of the puzzle I’ve uncovered. I recently found out about another shady plugin some brokers are using on their MT5 servers — and I think sharing this could help someone avoid a financial disaster.

I’m not stopping here. I’ve made it my mission to understand every single scam plugin out there. I won’t rest until I’ve exposed the whole list — and until I’ve reclaimed, in knowledge and in justice, every dollar they took from me.

Let’s talk about the newest one I found.

What Is the MT5 Price Delay Scam?

Here’s the trick:

You hit “Buy” when EUR/USD is at 1.0845.
But instead of filling right away, there’s a 1-2 second delay.
Then boom — your trade executes at 1.0847.
Worse price. Every time.

At first I thought it was my internet. But it always slipped against me. Never in my favor. That’s when I realized: this isn’t a glitch. It’s manipulation.

Turns out, some shady brokers install server-side plugins like Virtual Dealer that delay or manipulate your trade executions. They wait and see if the price moves in their favor. If it does, they execute. If not? You get a requote or worse.

How I Found Out

I started comparing execution between that broker and a demo account from Pepperstone.

  • Broker A: Ping time = 168ms. Constant freezes during news.
  • Pepperstone demo: 22ms. Smooth price flow.

During a major CPI news drop, the “bad” broker literally froze the price for 3–4 seconds while my demo was already reacting.

The difference? That freeze lost me a clear scalp win. Not once. Repeatedly.

3 Ways to Spot This Scam

1. Check latency inside MT5

  • Right-click the server in the terminal.
  • Select “Rescan servers” or “Ping.”
  • If it’s over 100ms consistently, that’s suspicious.

2. Watch live price movement across brokers

  • Open the same chart (EUR/USD, for example) on two MT5 platforms — one you trust, and one you’re testing.
  • Watch during volatile events (news, London open).
  • If one is lagging or freezing… not good.

3. Log your trades with timestamps
Use a simple EA or journal to track the time you place a trade vs the time it executes.
If you’re seeing delays over 1 second on a regular basis — that’s not normal.

Major Red Flags I Saw

  • They asked me to deposit more to withdraw.
    Said I needed to “upgrade to premium” by adding $1,000 more to unlock my $250 withdrawal.
  • They blamed slippage and network issues for everything — even when my internet was fine and other brokers were working perfectly.

How to Check if a Broker Is Legit

Check the regulator’s official site — not just what the broker claims.

  • [FCA UK]
  • [ASIC]
  • [NFA USA]
  • [CySEC]

Also check reviews on:

  • [Forex Peace Army]
  • [TrustPilot]
  • [BrokerChooser]

If you see a pattern of “blocked withdrawals,” “slippage scam,” or “bonus traps,” run.

Final Thoughts

I’m still learning and still testing. But this one lesson was worth $500 of my own money:
If something feels off, trust that instinct. Log everything. Compare brokers. Don’t stay loyal to a logo.

Hope this helps someone.
If you’ve seen something similar or want help testing your broker, drop a comment and I’ll try to share what I’ve learned.
I will continue my research and if I find something interesting I will definitely write to you

3 Likes

My broker (Coinexx) does the same thing. Most noticeable on lower time frames, obvious trend line breaks, swing highs & lows broken, ect… much worse the larger the size & when there’s other traders executing at once. It’s a negative symptom of a bucket shop. A competition for liquidity.

2 Likes

Thanks so much for jumping in — I really appreciate you sharing that, especially naming Coinexx directly. What you described sounds so familiar. The pattern you mentioned — trendline breaks, swing points getting skewed, execution getting worse with size or during active hours — that’s classic manipulation masked as “liquidity issues.” And you’re right — it’s textbook bucket shop behavior.

Are you still trading with them now? How are you handling the situation? I’d really love to hear more about how you’re managing — are you planning to switch brokers, or are you tracking these anomalies to build a case?

I’m collecting as many of these real stories as I can. The more we compare notes, the closer we get to exposing the full list of dirty tricks these platforms use.

Let’s keep this thread alive — your insight might be the exact thing someone else needs to recognize what’s happening to them.

2 Likes

Hey again, fellow traders

I’m back with another chapter of my ongoing journey to expose shady practices used by scam brokers on MetaTrader 5. First, they lured me in with tight spreads and a sleek interface. Then I uncovered price manipulation via plugins like the Virtual Dealer and Price Delay Tool.

But if you’re thinking: “At least I can still get my money out” — think again.

Meet the Withdrawal Blocker

This one hits hardest. After weeks of gains (or so I thought), I clicked “Withdraw”.

Nothing happened.

Literally, nothing.
No confirmation, no rejection. Just… silence.

That’s when I learned about the Withdrawal Blocker plugin. It’s not just a bug or delay — it’s designed to trap your funds under the illusion of technical issues or regulatory checks.

How It Works (and How They Justify It)

The Withdrawal Blocker is a server-side plugin installed by dishonest MT5 brokers. It can:

  • Intercept withdrawal requests and silently drop them
  • Trigger fake “compliance flags” to justify freezing your funds
  • Display misleading messages like:

“Your account is under audit by our risk department.”

  • Loop you into endless KYC reviews or bonus terms violations
  • Say your account is flagged for “suspicious activity” (especially after a profitable trade)

And here’s the cruel irony:
While you wait, they’ll keep calling you to deposit more — pretending the delay is temporary.

The Black Hole of Customer Support

I tried everything:

  • Emailed support — no reply.
  • Called — got disconnected.
  • Live chat — “We’re escalating this. Please be patient.”

It’s a psychological squeeze, designed to wear you down until you either give up or agree to deposit more to “unlock” the previous amount.

In short: your money never left the broker’s system.

What to Look Out For

If you ever hear phrases like:

  • “Your withdrawal is under review due to suspicious activity”
  • “We need an additional deposit to verify your bank card”
  • “You must trade a certain volume before withdrawal is approved”

RUN.

These are all signs of a Withdrawal Blocker scheme in action.

What You Can Do

  1. Test small withdrawals early.
    Don’t wait until you’ve made $500+ to try your first withdrawal. Test with $20, $50, $100.
  2. Check for licensing.
    If the broker is unregulated — especially in offshore zones like St. Vincent or the Seychelles — it’s a red flag.
  3. Ask around.
    Forums like this one saved me. If I had searched the broker name on BabyPips earlier, I would’ve seen the warning signs.
  4. Report it.
    File a complaint with your country’s financial regulator. It may not recover your funds, but it helps build a case.

Final Words

I’m not stopping until I understand every scam tool these fake brokers use. The Withdrawal Blocker was the final slap — the cold realization that the platform wasn’t “malfunctioning.”

It was rigged.

And they counted on me being too tired, too confused, or too embarrassed to fight back.

But not this time.
I’m not letting it go — not until they return every cent of the $500 they stole from me.

Next up? I’m digging into the “Reverse Execution” plugin — where your winning trades suddenly become losses in the broker’s back-office system.
Coming soon.

If you’ve been hit with a withdrawal freeze, share your experience below. Let’s expose these scammers together.

2 Likes

I’ve seen warnings like “Don’t trust brokers who offer only MetaTrader” here and in other forums and on other websites. They do tend also to be the offshore ones who’ve chosen to avoid effective regulation that really protects their customers, don’t they? :thinking:

3 Likes

Oh, no. It’s basic behavior. I’ve experienced it through every retail broker I’ve had. To avoid it, I use only limit orders, supplying them with liquidity. When you demand liquidity, you’re at the whim of their liquidity providers or others. I’ve curtailed my system/strategy to not use stop loss orders (market orders) anymore. During risk events, liquidity dries up and the retail broker is always trying to stay ahead of the spread, sometimes too much and market orders are executed.

2 Likes

Thanks for explaining that — makes a lot more sense now.

It’s honestly eye-opening to hear how you’ve adjusted your whole system around these structural issues. I hadn’t really thought of stop losses as “market orders in disguise,” but now that you mention it, I can see how they can become liabilities during volatility.

Have you found that trading without stop losses ever exposes you to catastrophic risk, or do you manage that purely through position sizing and manual monitoring?

Also, I’m curious — do you think these behaviors are more about the liquidity providers themselves, or is the broker still “tuning” the environment in their favor on top of that?

Really appreciate your perspective — it’s helping me rethink how I approach all this.

1 Like

Yes, exactly — that warning is rooted in real, repeated patterns.

MetaTrader (especially MT4 and MT5) is just a trading platform, not a broker itself. And while it’s used by many legitimate firms, the problem is that anyone can license it and run it independently — including unregulated offshore brokers with no real oversight.

These brokers often:

  • Use MetaTrader because it’s customizable (e.g., they can install shady plugins like Withdrawal Blockers or Virtual Dealers),
  • Avoid proper regulation (FCA, ASIC, etc.) to cut costs and dodge accountability,
  • Appear legitimate due to the familiar MT5 interface, even though the platform’s backend can be manipulated.

So yes — the phrase “Don’t trust brokers who only offer MetaTrader” is shorthand for: “Be cautious if MT5 is the only thing giving them credibility — especially if they’re offshore and unregulated.”

It’s not about MetaTrader itself being bad — it’s about how it’s used by those who don’t want to play fair.

Let’s talk about MetaTrader’s (MetaQuotes’) moral responsibility in all this.

While MetaQuotes (the company behind MetaTrader 4 and 5) provides a powerful and flexible trading platform, they’ve made a conscious business decision: they sell licenses to anyone who can pay, without vetting how those licenses are used.

That creates a serious moral problem.

MetaTrader is not a neutral tool in this context. Its features — such as broker-side plugins, admin-level control over order execution, and invisible manipulation capabilities — enable unethical behavior. This includes:

  • The Withdrawal Blocker plugin
  • Reverse Execution plugins (which flip winning trades into losses)
  • Fake price feed delays
  • Admins editing account history invisibly

These tools aren’t bugs. They are documented features of MetaTrader’s architecture, available to any licensee.

And when MetaQuotes sells its software to offshore, unregulated, and clearly abusive brokers, without any oversight or willingness to intervene, it becomes complicit — not legally, maybe, but morally.

The result?

  • Thousands of small traders lose money not because of markets, but because of platforms engineered to deceive.
  • Scam brokers use MetaTrader’s reputation to appear trustworthy.
  • MetaQuotes remains silent, profiting from license sales, while disavowing responsibility.

MetaQuotes could do more:

  • Require compliance checks before issuing licenses
  • Restrict access to abuse-prone plugins
  • Respond to community reports of systemic fraud
  • Cooperate with regulators in scam investigations

But so far, their silence protects their business model — not the users being defrauded.

So yes, it’s not just about which broker you choose. It’s about realizing that the platform enabling these scams has its own responsibility, and so far, it’s choosing profit over ethics.

I wrote a lot, but I’m not sure you got my text. All disappeared suddenly. Could you tell me if you got it or not? In a nutshell, I believe that MetaQuotes has a moral responsibility for the use of MetaTrader 5.

Hidden Enemy: When Your Broker Flips Your Trades Behind Your Back

Hey fellow traders,

You know that moment when everything clicks?
Your analysis is tight.
Your entry is sharp.
The trend is in your favor.

And then… boom — the market reverses, your stop gets hit, and you’re left scratching your head.

Was it just bad luck? Or something more sinister?

Let’s talk about something most new traders have never heard of — a broker-side trick called Reverse Execution.


What Is Reverse Execution?

Imagine placing a “Buy” order — but instead of your broker filling it as a buy, they flip it into a “Sell” on their end.
You think you’re going long, but they’ve quietly reversed your trade.

To you, everything looks normal. Your chart, your trade panel, your take profit — all say “Buy.”
But in reality, your order is going the opposite direction on the broker’s server.

It’s like playing chess where your opponent secretly moves your pieces — but only when you’re about to win.


Why Would a Broker Do This?

Let’s be honest: some brokers are not on your side.

Especially unregulated offshore brokers, who operate more like casinos than financial institutions.
These guys make money when you lose.

So they deploy dirty tricks to tilt the odds in their favor — and Reverse Execution is one of the nastiest.

Here’s the deal:

  • If your trade loses — they keep the money.
  • If your trade wins — they lose money.
  • So what do they do? Flip the trades to make sure you’re always on the wrong side of the market.

How It Works (Behind the Scenes)

  1. Order submitted by you
    You hit “Buy” on your MT4/MT5 platform.
  2. Order reversed by the plugin
    The broker’s server secretly turns it into a “Sell.”
  3. Fake interface shown to you
    You see a buy position in your terminal, but it’s all just smoke and mirrors.
  4. Your win becomes their loss — and vice versa
    If the market goes up (you should profit), you actually lose — because they logged it as a sell.

This doesn’t happen on every trade — just enough to keep you confused and consistently losing.


Why It’s So Hard to Spot

  • Everything looks normal on your screen.
  • Your charts reflect your planned direction.
  • You don’t get error messages or weird delays (at least not right away).
  • But over time, you notice a pattern:
    You win less than you should. Stop-losses get hit in suspicious ways. Breakouts fail more often than not.

Most traders blame themselves.
But maybe — just maybe — the game is rigged.


What You Can Do About It

If this gave you chills (it should), here’s how to protect yourself:

  1. Only trade with regulated brokers.
    Look for licenses from top-tier regulators like the FCA, ASIC, or CFTC. Don’t touch shady offshore brokers.
  2. Compare price feeds.
    Use a third-party charting platform like TradingView or cTrader to compare price action and execution in real time.
  3. Demo test under stress.
    Try trading news events or placing multiple small trades at once. If slippage or errors appear only when you’re winning, that’s a red flag.
  4. Keep trade logs.
    Export trade histories regularly and take screenshots before and after key trades.
  5. Ask the community.
    BabyPips forums are full of experienced traders — don’t be afraid to ask, “Hey, is this normal?”

Final Thoughts

This isn’t to scare you — it’s to educate you.

Not all brokers are evil. But some are. And if you’re new to trading, you deserve to know the tools they might use against you.

The Reverse Execution plugin is one of the most deceptive. It’s not illegal in all jurisdictions — but it’s definitely unethical.

So if your gut says something’s off — trust it.
Because in forex, your best weapon is awareness.

Got questions? Drop them in the forums.
Ever seen weird execution issues? Share your experience.
We learn best when we learn together.

1 Like

What broker did you use that scammed you? And why did you pick them?

Did you share anywhere what broker you used?

I’d rather not name names publicly at this stage—I’m in a weak position to start pointing fingers without rock-solid proof. No trump cards yet, and the last thing I want is a defamation lawsuit from a well-resourced scam operation.

What I am doing is sharing what I’ve dug up while researching how these setups work—how price delays are injected, how withdrawals get “pending” for weeks, how license claims are faked, and how the whole thing can be dressed up to look 100% legit.

To be honest, I’m also not proud of how I got lured in. Let’s just say the ad was slick, the promises were shiny, and I wanted to believe. That part’s on me. But if I can help others spot the same traps before they fall into them, maybe it wasn’t all for nothing.

Not publicly, no. At least not yet. I’m being careful—without hard, verifiable evidence, naming the broker could backfire legally. Right now, I’m focused on exposing the methods they use, because those patterns are often more useful than just one name.

Once I have something that would actually hold up under scrutiny, I might reconsider.

2 Likes

Sound reasonable. Can you say what country this broker is based?

It’s often very difficult to tell that, reliably. They’re often not actually based wherever they’re registered and/or licensed and/or regulated. The dishonest ones (of whom there are many) mislead people about everything.

1 Like

I forgot about this. I was thinking, maybe the broker is regulated in the country where the poster lives, but that doesn’t have to be a fact.

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No, indeed not. Very often the broker isn’t even regulated in the country where the broker lives.

Very often the broker isn’t even regulated by a real regulator but by a subscription service one -

Oh wow. So I read that and was thinking, are there these types of subscription services brokers in places like the US or UK, or not because they’d have to be regulated to operate? So you’d only find those in noy US and not UK and not EU countries, right?

1 Like