I’m reaching out for help please. My c-trader account has unscrupulously been emptied of funds. In the early hours of Sunday morning i noticed 15 trades had been opened and closed each lasting just a few seconds. Each for a small loss. Alarmingly 99% of the £7500 taken is accounted for as broker fees. When i checked the trade audits i can see that the channel used to place the trade is noted as ‘phone trading ’ and not ‘c-trader 2 ios’ that i see in the logs for every single previous trade i have executed. I have raised my concerns directly with the broker who say they’re looking into it, but i fear i have been scammed and this method has been used to liquidate my account. Can anyone advise what the term ‘phone trading’ relates to? Your inputs will be warmly received.
I’m sorry to hear this happened. I’m not sure what ‘phone trading’ means in this case either, but it might be worth asking your broker for more details on how ‘phone trading’ works on their platform. Hopefully, they can look into it and get this resolved quickly for you.
Thankyou for your response. The broker has said that this is in process. I fear i may have been scammed. I pointed out the phone trading, but hit a wall of silence, hence i wanted to ask the BP forum. Maybe someone else will know? I could only upload one attachment so here’s another showing the term ‘phone trading’.
Thanks again.
First question. Who is the broker? Where are they/you based?
Are they trading on your behalf? If so, how many, what is your trade size?
Did you make any trades? If so, how many, what is your trade size?
If not, looks like a scam. How can they charge a commission on no trades.
Sorry, reread that you had 15 trades. At least from your screenshots, it looks like that specific trade was open on 3 minutes.
That’s really suspect.
Is this a bitcoin copy trade service?
Thank you for taking the time and trouble to respond. I’ll name the broker once it’s determined if my funds are to be returned or not! Which as things stand looks highly unlikely. To answer you questions, i hadn’t authorised the broker to trade on my behalf or anyone else. I’ve never shared any of my password credentials that i use to login to the c-trader platform hosted on the brokers website, hence my original question as to what is meant by the term ‘phone trading’ as this is noted as the channel used to place the trades? I’m really curious and keen to understand the point of entry? As i said each of the 15 trades lasted just a few seconds, with the net result effectively liquidating all my account and 99% of each trade taken by the broker as commission! I did do my research and there were red flags, but i couldn’t and still can’t find ANY negative reviews regarding scamming. Maybe someone else on here may be able to shed some light on the term ‘phone trading’. Thanks again:-)
You should investigate if this same type of incident is happening to other traders with that broker or if it’s isolated to you. A broker stands to make more money over the long term by doing honest business rather than a one time money grab that could ruin their reputation.
If they can’t resolve this and make you whole, consider letting them know that you reserve the right to try this in the court of public opinion. This would include posting an evidence based review on forex peace army, trust pilot, and even a video on YouTube exposing the fraud. If they aren’t a fly by night operation and are trying to grow a sustainable business, this will get their attention.
Brokers that don’t have regulation rely on reputation.
You probably want to find out how long the company has been in business. How old is their website domain. What’s their contact information. Is it on their website. Google map the business address. See if any other businesses have that address. This is easier depending on the country you’re in. In the US and UK there are business registrations and you can see a lot about who owns the company.
But all the information they provide could be fake.
If you want to message me the company name, I can do some digging for you. And then you decide if you want to post about it.
Thank you for your response. I can’t find any posts/reviews good or bad about the company. I believe they have been in business since 2015 or at least been registered not regulated for that time. I got lured in via a Watts App group and as one of the members i was given one free signal each day and access to ‘VIP’ trades on demand. I was told this was a way of building their brand. I was continuously being encouraged to increase my funds, and to allow/permit the orchestrator host/custody of my account so she could trade on my behalf. Which of course for the latter i never did, but more red flags!! More alarming for me is the fact that the watts app group has now gone silent and the orchestrater has not been online for the last few days. I have been able to make contact with one of numbers from the now redundant group and he has told me the group was renamed and moved about a week ago. He was undecided about joining and funding his account, but is now extremely thankful that i have warned him of my experiences. The official line from the broker via email response is that they continue to look into the matter, and quote, preliminary conclusions may be available by Friday. That’s not been forthcoming and call me paranoid, but i read this as cryptic message as the following day was when the group went silent which was yesterday! I agree with all your points about reputation and have noted your suggestion about how i may want to up the heat so to speak regarding posting my experiences. Once again thanks for taking the time to respond.
Thanks Samewise that a really kind offer of help. I’ve checked out the Broker and I have a pretty good picture of their business credentials in terms of country of registration etc. There’s no info at all on the companies listed on their website. None of their contact phone numbers connect. Looks to me like the registered address is on Richmond hill, with other companies listed with the same address and PO Box. Eg, Mr Broker LLP. Nothing negative at all on scams though etc. The website also states that none of the info is intended for any country. So all the red flags are there but nothing to confirm it. Next steps will be to take MartialChartsFX advice emailing them again with some ultimatums. Thanks again.
After reading your reply, I doubt that being in business long term was ever the goal. It sounds like they got their payout and did a runner and will be rebranding in order to rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, the scam might have been the business model.
Moving groups is a bad sign. Change name, rinse and repeat. Do you feel like sharing the name here? Maybe of you get enough word out, we can catch them in the act or get more contact information for the guys running it.
Sorry to hear this.
Hi, i certainly plan to. Whilst they continue to communicate with me i need to err on the side of caution. I was sent an ip address of the number which ‘apparently’ infiltrated my account which obviously neither proves or disproves anything! Ive been told that they’re still looking into it. Im 99.9% sure that ive been scammed, but cant help but wonder why they’ve not just cut me off. Thanks again for your responses.
Well its been at least 2 weeks since you started this. If they’ve haven’t figured out what happened in that amount of time, that’s a problem. What else did they say to you?
Trades where made during illiquid time probably with specific counterparty which then sold the share at the best market price and made arbitrage profit. Seems to be a scam by somebody who hacked your account
This was incredibly helpful samewise-thank you soooo much. The broker is recorded on the register. The threat of telling the SVGSA and others as suggested by (MartialChartsfx) seems to have prompted the broker to have a rethink! I’ve been offered two proposals. Obviously the proof will be in the eating!! Not sure why the delay. Any thoughts on that? BTW i chose option 2.
Option 1:
Make a one-time payment of $4,700 before December 24.
Option 2:
Pay $3,000 before December 24;
Pay $2,000 before January 24;
Pay $1,700 before February 24.
Thank you kindly for your response ontario 
i’ve asked several times now, but they have always swerved this question. I was told my account was accessed via their web application from an IP address in Ireland. Although my trades are placed using the same method they have not been able to explain why my results and fee certificates don’t show phone trading!