UK-regulated Alpari UK and New Zealand-regulated FXOpen have warned people of several websites that claimed to be affiliated with them, when in truth, they didn't.
This week, we see two forex brokers released warnings related to allegedly fake affiliation connection. UK-regulated Alpari UK and New Zealand-regulated FXOpen have warned people of several websites that claimed to be affiliated with them, when in truth, they didn't.
The Case Of Fake Affiliates
In Monday (18/8), Leaprate reported that Alpari UK have warned its customers of four charlatan websites: alpari-cr.com, alparimalaysia.com, alpari-cn.com, and en.hj-fx.com. The websites are said to have claimed to be Alpari subsidiaries, which according to the well-known forex broker is not true. It is feared that the websites aim to collect personal data to gather funds or marketing purposes, which makes Alpari warned its customers not to provide personal information to anyone who said they are from the aforementioned websites.
We have done a quick look into the four addresses, but it seems that the websites might not care so much for Alpari warning. Alpari-cr.com is apparently have gone offline. A click to alparimalaysia.com is redirected to another website, an apparently legit www.forexbrokers.my which we are not sure what the relationship between them are. While alpari-cn.com and en.hj-fx.com are directed to two Chinese language website which regrettably, we could not check the content because no one in our staff could read Chinese.
The following day after Alpari announcement, FXOpen released a warning notice that an entity bearing the name of BE IN FOREX (www.beinforex.com) is not in any way affiliated with them, although if we see the website, it may seem that they do. According to FXOpen, The customers are hereby informed that BE IN FOREX is not and was never affiliated to any of the FXOpen companies. Please be further informed that in no way FXOpen has authorized BE IN FOREX to enter into agreements with third parties on behalf of FXOpen, to receive funds or to commit any other activity on behalf of and/or in favor of FXOpen.
The accused fake affiliate is apparently gathering funds under the guise of 'selling' trading signals. They promised to send free trading signals and give out 4 USD per each lot traded, just by opening a trading account in FXOpen through a special link, make deposit into it, and filling some kind of application form. The special link certainly made it seem as if BE IN FOREX is an FXOpen affiliate. See the following screen cap.
Beware of False Claims
Back in March and April, we have written about the rising trend of legit forex broker domain lookalikes and an epidemic of forex broker website clones. The cases have proliferated as such that UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have subsequently released special warning against fraudulent website clones. People then are warned to take special care in logging in and giving personal info into apparently-familiar websites, because it could be fake.
The current outbreak, however, underlines another weakness of online business: anyone can falsely claim to be related to you and smear your name by cheating people out of their money. In the cases above, if the would-be victims are correctly asking the forex broker first, then they might be saved. But if they are not, the broker could get bad reputation through no fault of theirs. Therefore, we suggest you to be cautious against anyone who solicit money by carrying the name of famous forex brokerage services or investment firms. Be aware that the claim might be false.
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