The Internet is a wonderful thing and a world’s playground for shopping, dating, informing, and basically – living. Unfortunately, at the same time, the internet is also a playground that attracts numerous online trading scams that can easily harm uninformed traders. Also, flashy banners and commercials and reviews that claim a certain online trading service is perfect are not helping either.
Unlike the ‘real world’, the internet is still unmonitored in great measure. In many cases, it is up to the good will of internet users to act ethically. Online trading scams have no ethics whatsoever and are enjoying the unregulated environment where their frauds can go on and on, without being noticed by the government or police. When police or regulators notice something is wrong, sometimes it is already too late.
However, avoiding scams is not difficult, but it requires some attention and knowledge. Here are 3 tips that can help you avoid online trading scams.
Check out the Website
This one is pretty straightforward, and yet, so many traders fail to do this first step. The fact is – everyone can create a good looking website. There are hundreds of online services with great templates that cost around $5 and can be easily applicable to any domain. You don’t even have to know the basic HTML code.
Such websites often fall apart and can’t load properly, as scammers don’t care about such details. They are also lacking some general elements such as ‘About us’ or ‘Contact us’ section. Frauds have very low standards, otherwise, they wouldn’t be frauds. Make sure to check out the website and don’t hesitate to ask customer support for more info about the product. You might find out very quickly how the product is a scam, and how so many features advertised are not available at all.
Also, look for some basic spelling mistakes and bad content. Scams don’t want to invest a lot of money in a product that will last for a few months (until they manage to collect a serious amount of traders’ money) and be shut down. Look for terms and conditions and never trade with service that doesn’t provide this important document publicly. Also, a great number of broken images, visuals that are not consistent etc. can indicate that the online trading service is a scam.
Be Objective and Realistic
There is no better feeling in the world than when someone says that you can turn your $100 in $1,000,000 in just one month. But think about it! Can something like that be true?
Unfortunately, scam victims often really believed that their minimum investment will make them millionaires. Scam online trading services convinced them that there is no risk involved and that this is an amazing opportunity waiting just for them to come and grab it. Frauds will threaten, spam and be very convincing, so it is important to keep a clear head. Keep in mind that all percentages listed on the websites are expected maximums. For example, if your binary broker says 85%, in most cases that means up to 85%, so it can be 70%, but 10% as well.
Also, read the fine print, and don’t rely on those numbers too much as the past performance doesn’t say anything about future performance.
Check out Others are Thinking
There is something called a law of large numbers which says that it is impossible for a great number of people to be wrong. While this theory can be questioned, it is sure that if other traders are claiming a certain online trading service is a scam – it probably is.
Many companies are listed as scams by local regulatory bodies as well. Don’t hesitate to ask and check their status, after all, it is your money we are talking about. Many regulators have special customer services whose main purpose is educating the public, and these professionals know more than online forum members. Use every tool and service you have available to protect your money from online scams, and enjoy all benefits of online trading.