An illicit broker with the name LegalTrader is what we will be checking out. The name itself is alarming as the broker overdoes it. With a name like that, there’s a high chance that the broker is illegal. That’s the cliché with this broker; their name is exactly the opposite of what they represent. Due to several complaints lodged against the broker, we had to investigate the broker. Get to learn what we found out in this thorough legaltrader.com review.
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The name itself was the first red flag, as we wouldn’t expect a legit broker to have such a name. It’s clear that the broker wants users to ignore checking their license status. Thanks to our keen eye, that’s the first thing we check with online brokers.
And it turns out that LegalTrader is an offshore broker that has no compliance credentials. What they offer is non-existent, and anyone who signs up is risking it all.
We have to give them props for coming up with an ideal website. The website will easily fool the naked eye. Most newbie traders will immediately sign up without having a second thought. You must do your due diligence before signing up.
One way of finding out whether a broker is legit is by reading reviews. Our team of dedicated experts will try and expose all rogue brokers and ensure the trading world remains safe.
Once you land on their homepage, there’s a picture slide with available features. What caught our eyes was the account manager feature. With this being an anonymous website, we doubt that they have professional account managers.
Our fears were confirmed after we found out that the broker hires call agents as account managers. These call agents will make frantic calls urging you to deposit more funds. There’s no expert advice from them as they are call agents.
You find that the broker claims to offer tailor-made commissions and top conversion rates on their affiliate page. Most affiliate members we know are avoiding this broker for a reason. There have been rising complaints from affiliate marketers regarding non-payment of commissions.
These affiliate marketers also face the wrath of victims who’ve lost funds with the broker. Victims are angered with the fact that affiliates directed them to a trading scam.
This is the question that you should ask every time you want to trade. The broker should have credibility and offer protection to investors. We are sure LegalTrader is an unlicensed trading platform.
The broker does what they want, and this puts members at the mercy of the platform. Another missing feature with the platform is the segregation of accounts. The broker is transferring all funds to a single personal account.
There’s a slide that claims that members get access to over 1,000 trading assets. These trading instruments are available under four classes of trading assets. The four include commodities, forex, indices, and stocks.
When it comes to stocks, all brokers want to offer FAANG company stocks. The broker also claims to offer CFDs on Crypto under one wallet. There’s no mention of their wallet or crypto coins available on the platform.
Central Finance Outsource Ltd is the name we find at the disclaimer at the footer of their homepage. It’s hard to find information on the company as this is an offshore Company. According to their data, the company is located in the Commonwealth of Dominica.
The problem is that there’s no mention of the CEO or CFO of this company. We don’t get to see a single name on the platform. This is clearly an anonymous trading platform.
On looking up the domain of this website, it’s clear that the website is for sale. As we suspected, this is another short-term website offshore brokers use to scam investors. Once they have their fill, the brokers sell the website off.
Anyone who buys it will have legal issues with website terms and conditions. The broker will probably open another shop with the same scam tactics. It’s the reason why we expose them so that they don’t get time to breathe.
Those who were unlucky and deposited funds know how much painful the platform has become. No one has made any withdrawals for the past year. Most of the victims are turning to online trading forums to vent their anger.
Sadly, regulators can’t do anything as the broker is anonymous. That’s why the broker ensures that no name is found on the platform. We can’t find any digital footprint that can point to a single scammer.
LegalTrader furnishes users with five accounts. These accounts include Student, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and VIP. The minimum acceptable deposit with this broker is ridiculous especially for the standard account.
Student account holders must deposit $2,500 to start trading. This is 10 times the industry minimum trading balance. Even the account features almost match with few differences such as educational center and trading mentor.
Each deposit comes with a welcome bonus which is another trap set by offshore brokers. Naïve investors might think that this is a fair trading condition. After all, once you deposit $100, the broker offers a welcome bonus of the same amount.
Regulators are against bonuses and commissions as brokers use them to block withdrawals. You must pay back the bonus before any withdrawals. It could be hard for a broker who deposits $10,000 and makes losing trades of $1,000. Such a trader must deposit $10,000 to withdraw the balance.
There’s no contact as the broker tries to block communication. The broker closely monitors all the communication avenues. You better stay away as this broker rarely responds to email or phone calls. You only get a call from the broker when they need you to deposit funds.
Bank and wire transfer methods are available for depositing funds. Withdrawing funds with this platform is the biggest obstacle facing investors. No one has managed to withdraw funds which says a lot about the platform. Please stay away, as Legal Trader is another online trading scam.
LegalTrader is a scam waiting to pounce on unsuspecting investors. These are offshore brokers taking advantage of naïve investors. We hope authorities in relevant jurisdictions will act quickly. Issuing a warning will help expose the broker and eventually shutting down the website.
With the broker clearly lacking in transparency, we don’t recommend interacting with them. Please stay away from legaltrader.com.
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Harpreet Sahota, a short-haul trucker living in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., was finding herself exhausted this summer, sometimes working six days a week and still not having much to show for it.
Then she got laid-off for a couple weeks, and decided she needed a new source of income — to find a way to work less, but still have enough to live comfortably.
That’s when an enticing ad popped up on Facebook, offering her an investment opportunity. Sahota clicked and entered her contact info.
“Within five minutes, I started receiving calls from these different financial companies,” she said, and one called LegalTrader.com caught her attention.
The representative promised a 70 per cent return on her investment.
“I thought, why not?”
It started with about $300 to open an account, but that small investment quickly snowballed into an avalanche. Sahota says smooth-talking representatives soon convinced her she was getting big returns on her investment, telling her she should invest more to make more.
So she sent more money. Then she was told she was losing funds, and she needed to invest more to get back on track.
“I took $15,000 from my credit line,” she said.
“And we had some gold jewellery that my mother had for my marriage, saved, and we ended up selling that and using that money, and maxed out my credit cards.”
While LegalTrader’s website looks professional, searching the company’s name turns up plenty of websites and forums accusing it of being an illegitimate business that scams people out of their money.
But Sahota, despite knowing there were some red flags, decided to ahead with it anyway, convinced by the company’s agents that she would hit pay dirt.
Matt D'Amours/CBC
Matt D’Amours/CBC
She made direct transfers and payments with her Bitcoin wallet, a method of paying with the cryptocurrency.
“I got myself into debt,” she said.
Sahota spent more than $102,000 on investments and fees. When she tried to withdraw from the funds, she was told the payments would come by Bitcoin transfers, but those transfers never came.
RCMP says crypto scams increasingly common
Unfortunately, scams like this one are increasingly common. Cryptocurrency fraud in particular went up 400 per cent in Canada between 2017 and 2020.
“Fraud is big business for organized crime around the world, and criminals are always exploiting new ways to take your money,” says the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in a recent statement.
From cryptocurrency scams to those involving fraudulent investment firms, the RCMP says there are many ways Canadians are duped out of their money.
In some cases, the RCMP explains, “scammers are known to be spoofing credible financial institutions in an effort to con victims into believing they are legitimate and transferring them funds.”
Canadians have lost more than $120 million in 2021 so far, up from $53 million in 2017. In Quebec, more than $10 million was lost in 2017, while that number shot up over $15 million this year, according to RCMP data.
The RCMP says there are several ways investors can protect themselves, starting with buying crypto-assets through a registered trading platform.
Check the Canadian Securities Administrators’ National Registration Search to see if the entity is registered with securities regulators, the RCMP says.
People should also resist pressure tactics, and be skeptical of “guaranteed” high returns, the RCMP says.
“Fraudsters work hard to override your instincts with complex documents and use overcomplicated, inconsistent, jargon-filled explanations,” the RCMP says.
“If you can’t understand it and can’t get your questions answered, walk away.”
People hide behind Bitcoin’s anonymity, expert says
David Khalif is the co-founder and head of operations of Viridi Funds, a registered investment adviser based in the U.S. that specializes in cryptocurrency.
Unfortunately, when people hear all the hype around cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, they are easily drawn into what they think is a surefire way to make easy money, he said.
Sarah Rieger/CBC
Sarah Rieger/CBC
But the first thing people like Sahota should consider is that they don’t need to hire a company to invest in cryptocurrency, he said. It can be done on your own.
When someone says, “send me some money, I will invest on your behalf,” people should be concerned, because once you send money via a Bitcoin transaction, it’s gone, Khalif said.
“There’s no saying, ‘hey customer support, give me my money back.’ There’s not even a really good way to sue them, because in many of these cases, these people are anonymous,” said Kahlif.
“That’s why I always urge people to be very careful about the too-good-to-be-true, emotional side of investment.”
There are also cases where these fraudulent firms will use fabricated numbers to convince people their investments are paying off, convincing them to invest more money, Kahlif said.
He said, at the very least, people should be researching these firms extensively before investing.
Trying to get the w**d out, while Meta cracks down
Sahota has been trying to get the w**d out on social media abut these scams. She made a Facebook group,and she has heard several, similar stories — including another Quebecer who lost thousands to LegalTrader.
“I decided to take action and guide other people and combine everybody together so we can take action together,” she said.
And it all started by clicking on a Facebook ad.
When CBC Montreal sent a screengrab of the ad to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, a spokesperson issued a statement, saying the ad was in violation of Meta’s unacceptable business practices policy.
In particular, Meta does not allow ads that “scam people out of money or personal information.”
The statement says Meta is working to combat online scams, security breaches and fraudulent advertising.
“We have begun to use proactive detection technology to help remove content that violates our policies,” the statement says.
But people continue to be part of the equation, as teams review content and users are able to report anything suspicious, the statement says.
“Everyone on Facebook and Instagram play a part in keeping the platform safe and respectful,” Meta says.
LegalTrader did not reply to several requests for comment sent by email, and phone numbers listed on the site appeared to be out of service.
Please Beware of that Legal Trader also operates by many other companies names. They’re SAME SCAMMERS wanna see more details and all proofs about it checkout the FB page and group “Legal Trader Scam Alert “ do not invest single penny. Your money is not safe with them. You will get scammed just like many of us got. Almost 12 other people in the FB group got scammed by this company.Read my other reviews on Trustpilot as well. Don’t fall for positive reviews on Trustpilot ,you will regret Big Time. By posting I’m just trying to help other people. Already reported to CBC News Montreal checkout the News Article December 15th. I already exposed these scammers.