Request for Information – Who Are The ‘Zoo Broker Scam’ Operators Behind Silver Wolf, Brown Fox, Blond Bear, Or Blue Seal?

Update May 20, 2019 (5.30pm): Offer, the ExchangeITonline CEO sent an email to FinTelegram today saying that his crypto exchange is not doing business with any Forex platform. He would apply proper KYC/AML procedures, he argued. Our team checked again and found that all of the scam sites of the Zoo Broker Scam network actually link to exchangeITonline for crypto deposits on their platforms. We asked Offer for a respective statement to continue our research and would be happy to learn more details.

On May 2, 2019, the Italien financial markets watchdog CONSOB issued an investor warning against Silver Wolf Limited and its scam broker brand ECNpremium. Hence, the operators introduced a Brown Fox Limited as the new operator of ECNpremium on its website. The Financial Commission included the Silver Wolf and its brand FXtrade777 (www.fxtrade777.com) in its warning list in May 2019, and the perpetrators simply switched the domain to www.fxtrade777.net. These are new scam sites but with connections to the well-known perpetrators Gal Barak and Uwe Lenhoff. FinTelegram requests additional information to further its investigations.

Know Patterns and Known Perpetrators

This new and vast network of scam broker sites works with well-known patterns. Frontend companies are in Estonia and the offshore entities are registered on the Marschall Islands. The special feature is that the scam companies name themselves after the different animals of the forest like

• Silver Wolf Limited (Marshall Islands)
• Brown Fox Limited (Marshall Islands)
• Blue Seal Limited (Marshall Islands)
• Blonde Bear OÜ (Estonia)
• Cherry Goose OÜ (Estonia)
• Exchange IT Online OÜ (Estonia)
• Pexil Financial OÜ (Estonia)

The Brands Involved

The Zoo Broker Scam network operates about a dozen broker scam pages. Below are listed just a few of those illegally operating brands:

Actually, our FinTelegram Research Team checked most of the sites listed above and they are all working in the very same way. Just the brand, design and wording is slightly different. The Zoo Broker Scam network is sort of serial production of retail broker scams.

Payment Service Providers Involved

The Zoo Broker Scam operators evidently bet on crypto for their fraud operations. FinTelegram already pointed out in great detail that most of the next-generation of broker scams work with their own crypto exchange. In the case of TradesEasy, ECNpremium or FXtrade777, for example, traders can deposit crypto via the Estonian crypto exchange Exchange IT Online (www.exchangeitonline.com) powered by Exchange IT Online OU.

Checking at that the Bitcoin (BTC) address of TradesEasy, one finds that in total 23 payment transactions happened. The last payment received was on May 18, 2019, i.e. clients are still depositing with the broker scam.

As a matter of fact, the Zoo Broker Scam brands work exactly like the 4xFX scam of Gal Barak and his E&G Bulgaria. Our FinTelegram Research Team uncovered how this 4xFX worked with their own Estonian-registered crypto exchange to defraud its clients anonymously.

When it comes to credit card payments, the Zoo Broker Scam sites work with the Payment gateway of the Indian-registered Payment Gateway Solutions Pvt. Ltd (Mumbai).

The scam sites we checked do not offer bank wire as a payment option. Unfortunately, they learned their lesson and evidently recognized that it’s possible to follow the money and finally find the beneficiaries. However, with Exchange IT Online, one can still make bank wires to purchase the cryptos.

Boiler Rooms On The Balkans

Allegedly, the Zoo Broker Scam operators work with the very same boiler rooms that have been used to defraud retail investors with the scam broker sites of Gal Barak and Uwe Lenhoff. Hence, this Zoo Broker Scam brands would be the heirs of the meanwhile closed XTraderFX, SafeMarkets, Option888, XMarkets, TradoVest, or OptionStarsGlobal.

Investor Warnings Against the Zoo Broker Scams

The network of scam brokers received warnings from several financial markets authorities in different jurisdictions in the EU:

• UK FCA warns against FXtrade777 in Jan 2019
• Italian CONSOB issues warning against FXtrade777 in Jan 2019
• Italian CONSOB issues warning against DeltaFXMarkets in March 2019
• Italian CONSOB warns against CFDpremium in April 2019
• Spains CNMV included DAX300 in its warning list in Jan 2019

Many other financial watchdogs included the Zoo Broker Scam sites on their respective warning lists. The network is still very busy and seems to work in the tradition of the “Wolf of Sofia“, Gal Barak, and his partner Uwe Lenhoff. Both have been arrested in February 2019 on charges of financial crime, money laundering, and fraud.

Report Zoo Broker Scam Activities

If you are aware of any activities of the Zoo Broker Scam organization and/or if you are a victim of one of its illegally operating broker brands please share your information with our FinTelegram Research Team using our whistleblower system.