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FCA WARNING AGAINST CRYPTO-BROKER ‘SAFEMARKETS’

Spread financial intelligence

SafeMarkets is an unlicensed Forex & Cypto Currency trading broker: Until recently, their website listed a company called AlmaMarkets LTD, with an address at: 47 Churchfield Road London W3 6AY United Kingdom, as operator of the website. Currently, an Estonian company Optiumcommerce OU, Harju maakond, Tallinn, Kesklinna Linnaosa, Narva mnt 5, 10117, with a registration number 14421704, is listed as operator.

A Scam Broker review of SafeMarkets finds that they are offering the new Tradologic CFD trading software for Forex and Crypto Currency Trading. The website’s social media links do not work and are “hashtagged”.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned against Safemarkets already a few weeks ago. According to the regulator, the two forex brokerages have been providing financial services in the country without being authorized. The FCA noted that some firms who provide financial services in the UK without their authorisation knowingly run investment scams.

  1. Tefik says:

    I am using the safemarkets platform since recently. So far everything is alright. Their service is spot on and making very good returns.Unregulated by the FCA does not necessarily mean its a scam

  2. Iwobi says:

    I agree. From my personal experience so far safemarkets are showing themselves as a very good platform.I am receiving the necessary support and guidance for a beginner as myself

  3. DL says:

    Definitely a scam and any firm that have brokers calling up hourly pressurising investors to invest more money are clearly not acting in their clients best interests. Stay away – not to be trusted and anyone promoting them are either being ripped off at we speak or part of the scam!

  4. Varun Sharma says:

    Every company out there is trying to get more money from you. All of them earn from the trades executed, spreads etc. but 90% of their profits come from money lost on the platform. It’s the same for all. That’s why they have bonuses and tons of other ways to keep you with them for as long as possible.

    1. Mike says:

      No!! any trading company that is legitimate must assure the investor that his/her money is going to be safe and the investor can trade in a regulated platform.Regulated because if something goes wrong the regulator can get your money back if common business rules of fair trade are broken.

      Safemarkets uses pressure selling to prey on beginners to hand over power of attorny to some manager.They hide the droconian rules which they have dreamed up to protect their illegal activity to firstly get the initial deposit and impress the new investor with a huge profit.Then they get the novice to invest considerably more and once they have got that second deposit the then bring in all these rules to stop the investor from withdrawing their profit. They then just leave any balance sitting there with the excuse the investor has not achieved the x 40 volume of trade from initial deposit hence cannot withdraw.

      The company is a scam. It’s auditors are it’s own compliance team? Now who would invest in a company that does not submit to a public audit of its accounts by professional auditors? Stick with regulated licenced companies.

  5. Amar says:

    Safemarket is scam! I know some people that work there. They employed in company ARC Solutions in Bosnia and Hercegowina in Sarajevo. But that is only for public. When people get job there they told them that they work for safemarket. They have two group of people. First group knows englisch second germany. That people call you and told you names like Kate,Mark,Roy, Dean or someting like that but that isnt their names. Company arc solutions is registred in our country on man Irhad Ušanović, but that is only because in our country for open company you must have nationalty of Bosnia and H. In reality that men isnt boss. They told you that they are difrent then others and that they have a team of financial people, but they dont. They told you that they call from UK but they are in Sarajevo and they olso have more companies in all over the world. They will give you bonus 100% but when you take that then you cant back your money. Trust me it all is scam. I ‘d like too report this for someone but dont know where. Because law in my country doesnt know scam like this.

    1. Tamir Cohen says:

      Hi Amar, thank you very much for sharing this information with us. We are aware of ongoing investigations of some enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, those guys (and many other) have developed an excellent skill in hiding away. In many cases those call centers (boiler rooms) are working for many different platforms. Those Kates, Marks, Roys, and Deans are going for investors money vie many different brands.

        1. Tamir Cohen says:

          Hi Amar, actually all sort of information. Who is their current payment partner and current bank data, for example? We already have information on the scam artists behind the site and would like to establish a case against them.

  6. John says:

    I have just got all my money back (yesterday!) from Safe Markets.

    If you want to know how this was achieved, contact me via this blog.

      1. John says:

        Have you looked at Option Stars and Stern Options who have loads of complaints about them under their respective names and on their Facebook pages, and so forth.

        If you email me i already have pertinent information about Option Stars, which i can email you should you email me for more information.

      2. John says:

        I got my money back through exposing them with the information I have on them, such as who owns the business, where they are based and where they operate from, including information about their staff who are then compromised and are then left with little choice other than to refund your money.

    1. John says:

      I received my money back through a company who specializes in this field.

      Obviously i do not want to give to much away here; but if you were to send me a private email, i can provide proof of this, and the other refund i have received; as they also got my money back from another platform (scammer!) a month earlier; so i can vouch for their professionalism.

      That is two out of two, which i am sure you will agree is an excellent strike rate.

      Or if individuals provide their name, telephone number, and email address, i will pass it on to the company concerned, who will contact them as to how they can and will help them for a reasonable fee.

      I am willing to do this as i have had a very bad expedience with these low lives, and want to help others get their money back, as before this i did not know where to turn.

      I can also provide my telephone number to you via my email address if you want to get more details of how it was achieved.

    2. TONY GREEN says:

      Hi John,
      how did you get your money back from SAFEMARKETS? Your the first person that I know of who has! I am in bad financial difficulties,any help would be appreciated. Your phone no. would be appreciated.
      Regards
      Tony Green
      email: [email protected]
      Tel-07791608096

      1. John says:

        Hi Nicola,

        Here is my email address for anyone who needs help getting refunds from Safe Markets or from other fraudulent platforms: [email protected]

        email me and i will get back to you.

        Be assured that you have been scammed as Safe Markets are not who they claim to be, as they are not regulated and have no licence to operate with any government departments in any country.

        They should re brand themselves as their true identity which is Unsafe Markets,

      2. John says:

        Hi Nicola,

        Here is my email address for anyone who needs help getting refunds from Safe Markets or from other fraudulent platforms: [email protected]

        email me and i will get back to you.

        Be assured that you have been scammed as Safe Markets are not who they claim to be, as they are not regulated and have no licence to operate with any government departments in any country.

        They should re brand themselves as their true identity which is Unsafe Markets.

  7. Dave West says:

    So what chance is there and by whom to get money back from Safemarkets, given that they get you to sign and return documents to a ‘compliance department’ acknowledging the risk, emails to give a ‘trading manager’ permission to trade on your behalf, and they have a section on their website stating that if bonuses are accepted then no profits can be withdrawn until a trading volume of a 40 x factor is reached?
    I happened on their website by accident. I think I read a report of two guys visiting the TV program Dragons’ Den and showing the ‘Dragons’ (obviously gullible, like me!) how quickly money could be made, possibly trading cryptocurrencies. When I clicked on a link in that report I ended up at Safemarkets.
    I have lost a few thousand dollars with this bogus (in hindsight) company but it could have been much worse.
    Looking back now, yes, I was an absolute idiot because I did a little investigation to find that they were not regulated anywhere. You see I started only with $250 so wasn’t too worried. As they traded a couple of times a week on my behalf and I watched my account balance grow, I thought: “This seems ok”. As some one else said: “Just because they aren’t regulated, doesn’t make them scammers”! Ha!
    Over a period of five months as my balance grew to $5000, then $8000 and finally(!) $13,700 I still retained my doubts and when I was a couple of times told that I could not withdraw any money because I had accepted a series of bonuses along the way – which they either offered or readily agreed to – they finally decided to break what all along they had insisted was their own rule to the protection of clients’ funds, namely never investing more than 10% of account balance on any one day trade.
    During all this time the number of times I was asked to add funds to my account or take part in ‘opportunities’ – like “credit card values are rising because that’s how soccer fans are funding their trips to the World Cup, etc – went on increasing.
    Because I was still quite sceptical that they were a genuine company, despite the convincing facade of their website, I steadfastly refused any more contributions. But by that time my total investment was $3550 (about £2,700) and bonuses given probably around $3,200, so taking $6000 away from my account total it appeared that I was sitting on profits of $7700.
    This is how they apparently work. Show the client (mug in my case!) that lots of money can be made even from modest investing and then ask for further deposits. Plus tie you in by giving the bonuses. My answer was always that I had no more funds to invest and that in any case I wanted to see the completion of ‘a complete circle’ of the whole operation, that is investment, to profits to withdrawal of some profits back into my bank account.
    If they had wanted to convince me/con me further they could have agreed to that and when funds actually appeared in my bank account they would have come back and tried to persuade me to invest further.
    So now guess what happened next? By the way I eventually went through three ‘account managers’ in those five months. The first one, Eric, went on a training course and never came back. Eventually I was told he had ‘done something wrong’.
    It was the second guy, Adam, who I believe deliberately finished off my account, probably when they realised I was not going to give them any more money. So this is what happened:
    This Adam guy told me that it would take months to get my account to a level where the bonus restriction could be lifted for me to withdraw any funds. So he had consulted colleagues and it was proposed to try to jack-up my balance by taking out ‘safe’ mid-term trades over a couple of weeks by – breaking their own 10% rule – opening a trade with 50% (!!!) of my balance. He was ‘going on a training course anyway’ during this time. It’s academic now whether or not I should have agreed to that.
    Nearing the close of this trade I got a call stating that the investment (they said in Bitcoin, which HAD fallen) had ‘gone bad’. I could lose the whole stake – AND the other 50% in my account! I said I should not lose more than the 50% invested. Not so I was told by some other guy manager going by the name of Tim, but ALL funds, but if I could send $2000 they could safeguard the loss (this was on a Friday with the trade to close at noon on the Monday).
    Naturally I refused to send any money and he said I could lose the lot.
    After the trade was said to have closed (that’s if any trade was entered at all – what do you think?) I got an email saying ‘Sorry you have lost all your funds’ – all $13,700!! “These things happen” was the explanation from a third man put in charge of my account. The second guy, Adam, who had made the (bad) trades had been promoted!! I then had a third manager.
    What I can see now from this experience is that we are dealing with a virtual call centre of pressure sellers trying to get funds for no trading at all. They have this compliance department that gets you to agree to all that they do on your behalf so that when they decide your account is no longer economically viable – that is the client cannot be pressured into sending any more money – and they invent some spurious action to axe your account completely, you cannot legally claim any funds back??
    As previously stated by another writer, no legit company would continually pressurise clients into sending more funds. You may have heard the sales mantra that a good salesman never takes ‘No’ as an end to the proposed transaction but just keeps on repeating the request for a deal. Also: ‘the first one to blink loses’.
    The final pressure for the $2000 ‘insurance’ from this guy Tim went on for some time in a phone call. If he asked me once he asked me a dozen times for the funds. Each time I told him I had no intention of sending any more money. Then I would lose my money, he said. I was tempted to put the phone down but decided to ‘see him off’. At one point during the call neither of us said a word. It reminded me of a very brief experience working in a legit call centre and the tactics that were encouraged.
    So the next day after the final ‘$13,700 losing trade’ I checked my account to find that they allegedly had made two Bitcoin trades, not one, hence the total loss on my account which now read 42 cents!
    YOU CANNOT CONTEMPLATE DOING ANY ‘BUSINESS’ WITH THIS SCAM SET-UP SAFEMARKETS!
    This message is off the top of my head. There is more detail if I am asked.

  8. John says:

    The way these companies operate is generally via the use of affiliate marketing to generate sales leads. You click on an advertisement on the internet or receive email spam taking you to a landing page with a very enticing opportunity. The affiliate is paid a commission when you “deposit” money into the website.

    After that, the company operating the website does everything they can to get you to deposit as much money as possible and then try to make you lose all of your money or simply not allow you to withdraw your money. This is how they profit.

  9. John says:

    Should any one want info on how to get their money refunded, they need to post their email address here, or get their email address forwarded to me via the site admin. Then i will proceed to give the necessary information on how i got got money back.

  10. John says:

    Should any one want info on how to get their money refunded, they need to post their email address here, or get their email address forwarded to me via the site admin. Then i will proceed to give the necessary information on how i got my money back.

  11. Stefanie says:

    Big scam!!! Never invest in Safemarkets.com! Everybody in front of me tell the truth. After 6 weeks and a lot of investigations I lost all my money. In Germany they have german names like Christian Wolf or Robert Jaeger and speak with an russian accent.With me happend nearly the same like Dave.After asking for withdraw, they ask for a last invest for a big deal and gave me guarantee to send all money back to my bank account directly, latest at noon next day. And after the invest of 7000. – € (!)for insurance, the money should be save. Next day , after a sleepless night, the call of Mr. Jaeger, that money for insurance comes to late and he will talk to Visa and Mastercard because of the insurence and send an email in a few minutes. Immediatly I had a look to my trading account and was very happy and unburdened to see 21.000,-€ on my account. Just 5 minutes later I was unlogged. After login second time all my money was gone, just 2,80 € in my account and I get the promised email with information that my money comes to late and the trade feeded all my money and that these things happen and thats nothing new(!!!). After several trys to get an answer an a call back…nothing, only the information via mail that they call me back in 2 weeks to start with “recovery”. That all happend 2 weeks ago. Now I have to try to “recover” myself with a lot of outstanding debts.With help of an advocate I try to get my money back an I also report to responsible authority. So once more: Don’t invest anything on this unlicensed trading plattform Safemarkets.com. They are all big scammers and just want your money to make their own business. Sorry for my englisch but I’m hopeful for any help from other people or maybe the information from John.

    1. Stefanie says:

      Hallo John, sorry for being late, but I have to work on weekend.Is there onother way to give you my email adress then post it here? And is the way you offer to get the money back also possible in Germany?

      1. John says:

        Hi Stefanie,
        Please see the last post from Dave West who I have helped.
        Yes the company concerned will get your money back, as their work is carried out in every country; so Germany is no problem.
        Could you set up a temporary email address or ask admin to foreword your email to me.
        I will look later at setting up a temporary email address to solve this problem.
        Please note that Safe Markets look at these Blogs, this is the reason I am secretive, as we want to keep them in the dark as to who is helping you; as this is far more effective

        1. Stefanie says:

          Hi John,
          Yes, I know what you mean. Thats the reason why I don’t want to leave my email adress here.But how can I ask admin? Don’t know how it works. A new temporary email adress? Ok I can try….Otherwise I also have to wait what happend with help of the advocat who is specialized on theese scams as well and other people I involved.But for sure I want to be in contact with you, also to inform other people…

          1. John says:

            Hi Stefanie,
            Admin will see the posts if they are able to help on this front; but you should set up a temporary email address which is relatively easy, and then we can get things moving.
            Once I have communicated with you, I will pass your name, email address and telephone number to the company concerned; who will set the ball in motion to recover your funds.
            The problem as you can appreciate is that I cannot pass on your details if I don’t have them; as without these details nothing is going to move forward.
            Once you provide the necessary details, things with then move quickly as you will find in due course.

  12. John says:

    If those wanting help provide their email addresses i will be able to provide the necessary information to help them get their refund by return email; as I cannot email the posters on here who require more info if they don’t post their email addresses here. This of course should be self evident.

    Two have left their details on here and i have responded to their inquiries.

    This is the last comment i am going to make on this; as if they can’t work this out, i am afraid i cannot and will not help them; as it should be obvious why i have not posted my details on here.

  13. banksouth says:

    Update to my experience losing money to the proven scammers at Safemarkets, which I described earlier.
    I needed help from some one to get my funds back and so got in touch with John who offered, on this post, to pass on contact details for the people who very recently got his money back.
    I have had a long telephone conversation with John – actually two calls – and I am now in touch with those people who have said they will do everything they can to get my money back also.
    From what I have learned from John’s experience, what he now knows about these Safemarket criminals and what these professionals he contacted know and how they go about recovering funds for their clients, I feel a lot more confident that all is not lost.
    Obviously it is early days for me in the attempt to get my money back, but now I know something about the people who are acting on my behalf I not only feel more confident of success but also feel that I can recommend to others that this is the way to go.
    Your decision, but give yourself the best shot and contact John for the same insight and contact details he passed on to me. You need to send John your email address either in a message here or privately through admin, if that is possible. Personally I wouldn’t waste any time. Just send an email address to him here. If you don’t want to give your main email, get a temporary gmail address that you can ditch later. – DAVE WEST

  14. Bob Pottinger says:

    Hi John,
    I am in the same situation as Tony Green. How did you get your money back? It seems to me it is a brick wall currently.
    Regards
    Bob Pottinger

  15. Brian S. Stock says:

    Having heard about binary trading,i decided to trade with safe markets and it started all nice with the initial deposit of $30000 which my account manager traded well for me and i could see the progress,so convinced it was the way for me .i was contacted by their representative,convinced me to deposit more funds which i did,not knowing they had other plans for me,last month i placed a withdrawal and i was denied and eventually got locked out of the accounts,tried all possible means to recover my funds but all failed,until i came across a review of safe markets on trust pilot,and how Marcfinley@consultant,com was able to recover their money ,i desperately wanted my funds back i decided to mail him,well am glad to say i just recovered all my funds back as well,cant believe true consultants are still out there.Thank you marc

      1. John says:

        This is a reply I received from fraud investigators, regarding this post.
        “If you see any emails that end with consultant they are scams.”
        Your readers can make of this what they will.
        I have been caught out by a so called recovery company, so have a good idea how they operate.
        The company who got my refunds from two platforms are in the process of recovering this money for me also; and I have every confidence in them, due to their previous success with the two aforementioned two platforms; once two outstanding issues have been dealt with.

  16. incognito says:

    Few tips to get money back from SCAM companies:
    1. DO NOT give access to your account by the traders. If they have access your money are los
    2. DO NOT accept bonus (welcome bonus, account power, reimbursing losses from the company etc) never agree on that. If they lost you a trade, accept the loss but don’t accept the money back guarantee trades etc

    I was part of this business, never worked in Safemarkets, but i have experience in 3-4 famous SCAM companies. I know that many of you lost a lot of money and i am sorry for that. I left this business 1 year ago and i believe that this is the best decision i ever take.

    ADMIN if u have any questions i can help revealing more about the companies that you are investigating now. Companies connected to Gal Barak

    1. Tamir Cohen says:

      Thanks for sharing your experience with us and our readers. Any intel on scam sites from Gal Barak and others would be highly appreciated. We already reached out to them several times without any answers.

  17. Good Afternoon. I would appreciate the information on how to recover my lost money.my email address in [email protected]

    I invested £3785. They traded on my behalf till account was at £4275. Last night I logged into my account and saw an active trade taking place. I closed the trade, made a small profit and decided to withdraw all my funds. I changed my account password and initiated the withdraw request. Got an email saying withdraw request approved. This morning I logged back into my account and was told my password was incorrect. Tried a number of times and then asked for a password reset. After getting the reset password, I logged back into my account to find my withdraw request had been cancelled and a series of losing trades had been made all within 5 minutes of each other and all were losing trades. As a result there was only a £10 Balance in my account. So not only did they fraudulently change my password so they could log in, they deliberately made losing trades, 9 hours after I made a withdraw request.

  18. Lynda says:

    John
    I have been scammed too , please could you confirm is there a danger too in sending in identification documents as Safemarkets seem now to insist on full identification documents passport drivers licence and utility bill and certain part of credit card prior to making a withdrawal. I have suspended their permission to deal and would appreciate information on recovery contact. many thanks Lynda

  19. John says:

    Hi Linda,

    They insist on the aforementioned against money laundering, so they state; then when you produce these documents as requested, they show these to the bank/s as “proof” that you have deposited the money of your own free will; but you can not take your money out without your doing this.

    This is one of the dirty tricks they use.

    Don’t send these documents in as once you send these documents in you have confirmed authorization of payment; then you will not see your money again; and definitely don’t trade with them as you will then have entered into contract with them and given them power of attorney to trade on your behalf (lose on your behalf). Then they will tell the bank or credit card company, that you lost your money gambling, which you will not be able to prove as you have given them power of attorney. The whole game is to use methods such as these to keep your money, as this is the reality of their so called Forex Trading Platform and how they make their money.

    This way, you should be able to get a refund through your bank or Credit Card Company. But, If this payment was past the recall date, you will be very unlikely to receive a refund, as you made the deposit of your own accord; so the banks and credit card companies will not help you, and don’t want to know.

    If more money was involved you could get a refund through the company that I refer people to; as if it is less it is not worth your or their time and money.

    Safe Markets, Option Stars Global, Stern Options and so forth are just low life criminal parasitical low lives.

    I hope this helps.

  20. Bruce Glasgow says:

    I have been trying for a month to get my money back from this company and no success, all I get is silly emails asking for the same thing which I provided a month ago. Now the login page doesn’t respond so I can’t even look at my account. I think this is definitely a scam now. I am considering legal action, any advice on how to proceed and who to contact at this “company” would be appreciated.

  21. Penny McQuaker says:

    As I note from various sources including my bank that Safemarkets.biz is a scam, can I get back the money that I invested with them plus the money I made from them or I just write it off.

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