On October 28, 2024, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) released a PUBLIC WARNING against Elite Wealth, Titans Trade, and Lucrativefxtmtrade for falsifying credentials to solicit funds from unsuspecting investors.
According to the statement, the three fraud trading platforms were using the registration, credentials, and address of licensed HF Markets.
Read more about how these entities disguised themselves as legitimate operations.
What is HF Markets (HFM)?
HFM is an online trading platform that offers Forex trading in SA through a selection of 1000 CFDs, Commodities, Bonds, Metals, Shares and Indices that include 500+ trading instruments. According to the HFM website, they offer 1:2000 leverage.
HFM gives clients access to the MetaTrader Suite with additional plugins such as the Autochartist Plugin and Premium Trader Tools by FX Blue Labs. Additionally, mobile trading can also be done through their self-developed app.
The HF Markets is a legitimate forex broker in South Africa and the HF Markets Group of companies are registered in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, South Africa, Seychelles, and Cyprus.
HFM was previously known as HotForex and currently hosts over 2.5 million clients.
Who is impersonating HF Markets?
According to the FSCA press release, HFM reported three entities impersonating the broker: Elite Wealth Consultants, Titans Trade, and Lucrativefxtmtrade.
FSCA disclosed that the three entities are conducting fraudulent activities by soliciting funds from the public and posing as a legitimate business using HFM’s credentials.
The three entities were offering financial services such as forex trading and cryptocurrency investments, activities that require registration and regulation which they do not have. Instead, the three entities project HFM’s registrations.
The HFM had confirmed that it does not have any association with the three entities.
Read the full FSCA statement below:
Here’s what we found so far about these entities.
EliteWealth Consultants is not who they claim to be
EliteWealth Consultants claim to be registered in jurisdictions such as Seychelles, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Spain, and the UK.
However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the UK had already published a formal warning against EliteWealth, confirming that the provider is not registered with them.
Additionally, Spain’s financial regulatory authority, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) has also raised alarms against the unauthorized operations of EliteWealth in their jurisdiction.
EliteWealth’s Big Red Flags
Aside from the FSCA’s formal warning against EliteWealth, here are a few more red flags on EliteWealth’s platform.
No information on spreads
The alleged broker does not provide any clear information about their broker spreads. This raises significant concerns, as most reputable brokers should have their spreads on their websites or trading platforms.
For the case of EliteWealth, no information about spreads can be found on their website.
Does not disclose leverage offerings
Similarly, no information about leverage offerings are accessible on the site. Leverage plays an important role in trading, and traders will want to know what kind of leverage a broker offers.
Without clear information on leverage, traders cannot gauge risk exposure of make well-informed decisions.
No withdrawal requirements
There is currently no information about withdrawal fees, policies, or requirements on their website, or anywhere online.
Ill-conceived Legal Documentation
The website does not link to documents that include their Terms and Conditions, Terms of Business, Privacy Policy, Dispute Resolution Risk Disclaimer, and other relevant documentation for a brokerage company.
Upon checking their website, two links at the bottom of the page show “Privacy” and “Terms.” However, clicking the two links will lead the user to a fake Privacy Policy that seems to have been lifted from various companies’ Policies.
Neither page shows the Terms of Service that the website uses.
Overall lack of transparency
The lack of transparency is a recurring theme for EliteWealth Consultants, raising many red flags for users.
This is a serious concern for traders that would entrust their hard-earned money to a broker that has no clear guidelines.
Some brokers might justify this by saying that all information are accessible on their User Dashboard, which means only registered members can view a broker’s legal documentation. However, this exposes traders to many risks, as brokerage websites will require an account fee upon sign up, exposing the trader’s credit and financial information.
Traders are encouraged to conduct further research, however, trading with this broker must be done with extreme caution.
Lucrativefxtmtrade just the same scam
Upon checking the website of Lucrativefxtmtrade, it is exactly the same in design and content as EliteWealth.
The only difference is the website has an embedded a live bitcoin price chart that looks nothing more than a facade, with an outdated price chart and abysmal features.
Titan Trade lies about license and registration
Like the two previous websites, Titan Trade follows many of the same features and content, however, what is striking about the Titan Market is how it claims to be licensed and registered in multiple regulators in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia.
On their website, a specific page is dedicated to a list of bodies that they claim to be registered at. However, upon checking the directory of these government bodies, Titan Trade either cannot be found on the directory, or the reference no. that they display is of a different company.
For example, they claimed that they were registered with a Money Transmitter License with the Arkansas Securities Department.
While the Department does provide this kind of licenses to companies, the Reference Number That Titan Trade provided was not applicable to this kind of license.
However, it does correspond to a different brokerage registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Website Copycat
As further proof that these three are fraudulent entities, let’s take a look at their website.
EliteWealth and Lucrativefxtmtrade have the same content and layout on their websites. Barely anything is different from the home page to the service page, and even the about page.
Meanwhile, TitanTrade might follow a different visual scheme, however, the content is undoubtedly the same as the other websites. TitanTrade reshuffled the same content from the previous two websites.
What’s more damaging is how these two websites display the address, registration, and credentials of HF Markets on their Contact Page.
Meanwhile, take a look at the privacy policy disclaimer found on each page of HF Market’s official website. It clearly shows that the address and registration details of Lucrativefxtmtrade and EliteWealth were lifted off from the HF Market website.
Fake Team Members
Lucrativefxtmtrade and EliteWealth both show a list of key individuals of their so-called forex platform. The website lists the following names as Team Members: Nick Collison as the CEO, Steve Peters as the ICT Director, and Jean Brown as the Office Clark.
Upon doing a quick image search, we have identified that the photo used for Nick Collison is a stock image, while the two other “team members” Peters and Brown show no results when searched for, indicating that they may be AI-generated.
Clearly, the three people above are not real people. This is a surefire sign that these entities are forex trading scams as no regulatory body will provide them with a license without a real representative.
Protect yourself from scams. Don’t lose your hard-earned money.
Multiple regulatory bodies had already flagged these entities about fraudulent activities. Trading with these organizations should be exercised with caution and carefully considered.
It is essential to conduct further research and to consult other verified traders before doing business with any broker.
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