Originally Syndicated on February 1, 2023 @ 5:08 pm
OffshoreLeaks investigation blows the lid off organized crime networks, including Gulf Brokers, responsible for multiple scams operating from the UAE, and scamming investors in countries like India, Cambodia, Indonesia, etc.
It took OffshoreLeaks almost a year to get to the bottom of the Gulf Brokers Scam.
The painstaking investigation involved sifting through hundreds of documents, speaking to dozens of confidential informants, and compiling all information about Gulf Brokers, its sister concerns, and its operators.
This network of organized criminals is behind several trading scams operating in multiple countries since 2018, wiping out millions of dollars every month from the market and destroying thousands of lives. Due to the lack of rules in many countries and the lack of extradition treaties, criminals are sure that the law will never catch up with them. As a result, their crimes have become frighteningly grotesque.
In most cases, the victims have no recourse and are resigned to losing their money. Gulf Brokers is not a registered broker in most countries; they target investors, in India, South-East Asia, and Africa. Gulf Brokers is a limited liability company registered in Seychelles. Ever been to Seychelles? Me neither…
This means, that your funds are not protected, insured, or regulated by your government. You are handing it over to an offshore account, and trusting them to invest it wisely. They don’t, and we have the receipts to prove it –
GulfBrokers has a dismal score at WikiFX.com, with a score of 3.34 out of 10 –
OffshoreLeaks has just identified the masterminds of this gang but also has an exhaustive record of their criminal history along with minute personal details of all their key accomplices, in some cases down to what cars they drive, where they dine, and who they date. We are giving out all of this information except for pictures and names of people. This is because it is against the law unless OffshoreLeaks.com makes this information public.
Analyzing the Domain – GulfBrokers.com
If gulfbrokers.com is offering you trading advice or investment opportunities you should check to see if they are regulated as they are probably breaking the law.
These types of sites are called HYIPs (high-yield investment programs) and are well known for scamming people out of all their money by promising the world and delivering nothing.
Gulfbrokers.com appear to mainly market to clients in Europe and the USA via telephone and posting on social media such as Tiktok and Instagram.
Most of their scam call centers are located in South India. OffshoreLeaks.com will be publishing the details in its report.
Some of the associates who helped GulfBrokers run this scam –
- Copreus Pvt Ltd – Sri Lanka
- Victoria Partners
- ZPH Marketing
Gulf Brokers regulation & safety of funds
The company behind Gulf Brokerz is registered in the Republic of Seychelles. Here is a screenshot:
We learn through the website that the brokerage is regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles with a license number of SDO13. Here we remind readers that the financial regulator of Seychelles, the FSA, cannot compare with prestigious regulatory agencies in Europe, most importantly because it does not provide participation in a financial mechanism by which clients’ losses may be recovered in case of bankruptcy or fraud. There is also no assurance for the segregation of accounts, which exposes the clients to the possibility of commingling – combining the broker’s finances with those of the client. Furthermore, the agency requires a meager $50,000 start-up capital, whereas CySEC requires at least $730,000.
After checking with the online registry of the Financial Services Authority we may conclude that the brokerage is in fact licensed by the authorities in Seychelles
The brokerage does provide the MetaTrader 5 trading platform and offers a test drive as well, which isn’t something common with scammers. On it, we could see that clients are extended a leverage of up to 1:500, which is absurdly high and cannot be provided anywhere in Europe due to new restrictions set by ESMA. Furthermore, we could see a spread of 3 pips on EUR/USD, which is twice the industry average. Even if we ignore all of that, the lack of credible regulation makes us think that clients of the brokerage may be at risk in a big way.
Traders needn’t worry about such a risk if they choose to trade with a brokerage regulated and authorized by a prestigious regulatory agency. Such agencies are the FCA in the UK and CySec in Cyprus which have been leading names in Forex trading for some time now. Their regulatory framework is made up of a lot of strict rules that keep customers from being scammed. Such rules include the segregation of accounts which assures that commingling with the client’s money is not possible. Furthermore, a license by such a regulatory body entails participation in a financial mechanism by which clients may be compensated if they suffer losses due to fraud or bankruptcy. With the FCA the compensation is up to 50 000 pounds, whereas with CySEC it is up to 20 000 euros per person.
Gulf Brokers’ deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
How does the scam work?
Besides judging the brokerage beforehand through the info given on its website, a valuable piece of information in the trading world would be precisely how a scam would go about. Here is a description of the typical three steps:
When you click on an ad promising quick money, you will be redirected to a website where you must register and provide your address, email address, and phone number. After sharing your personal information, you will be receiving calls from brokers, who will urge you to invest with them and win big. After a few minutes of hearing their pitches, you decide to deposit $200–250. And just like that – the scammers take a fat commission from this initial deposit.
After they are done with you, senior scammers begin working you into putting in even more money. They say it’s the only way to profit even more from trading. After making the mistake of investing even further, you’ll begin wanting to get out of this and withdraw what you have left.
Unfortunately, con artists have no such thing in mind. They will now begin persuading you to wait it out and not withdraw right now. The motive here is quite straightforward – traders have a limited time window for filing a chargeback with their bank and getting their money back. The “recovery department” will simply want to mislead you into missing this crucial period and, along the way, losing any chance you might have of getting the money back.
What do victims of the GulfBrokers Scam have to say?
Here are some quotes –
Targeting Sri Lanka people and word wide they run under name of Copreus (Pvt) Ltd in WTC East Tower, Colombo 00100, Copreus (Pvt) call and do research about investment and after that gulfbrokers.com will call you from the same location and Pretend to be from somewhere Else be safe guys save your own money do not invest in this company
RTruth – TheForexReview.com
These bastards are full of scams, they will force you to invest more & more and you will end up with no money. Someone will call you from UAE , after registration they will pass all information to broker sitting in UK and he will advise you to buy some IPO, advised IPOs will start increasing as per their prediction and you will feel to invest more money and at the same time they will force you to invest more & more but remember IPO values shown to you in real time are all scam, they are controlling on backend, once you will be convinced and invest huge amount, everything will go down and you will be trapped badly.
Naveed – TheForexReview.com
Thankful for this article, someone from Gulf Brokers called me in my phone and he is a foreigner and then he transferred me to a filipino manager, I’m really convinced by him, I supposed to deposit amounting to 100,000 pesos to invest in stocks in mcdonalds today, I’m really optimistic but I changed my mind now, luckily I did research for this company and I will not answer him anymore after reading this because its hard to lose my hard earned money during this pandemic.
Jim – TheForexReview.com
Will withdraw whats left with this scamming company. Keep on telling me to deposit more and more for 5 mos already til i get bankrupt. They will only blame the market and wont make any remedy unless putting money in is the only solution. A lot more things are irregular with them. I advise never to entertain them.
Victim – ForexBrokerz.com
Our Verdict on Gulf Brokers
We do not recommend traders trade with Gulf Brokers. Your funds may not be safe with this broker. Instead, look for regulated and reputed brokers who can really help grow your investments. Unfortunately, we cannot credit Gulf Brokers for their Seychelles license, because it does little to guarantee the safety of their client’s funds, and as we already noted, it cannot be compared with a license issued by well-respected financial watchdogs like FCA in the UK, CySEC in Cyprus, or ASIC in Australia.
