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In early April, I found out about a police raid on the offices of AC Markets. This was an event that I felt that FPA members should be made aware of. Still, I held off publishing an article on the website about it until I could giver ACM a chance to respond. They did, and I included their full response in the article.
You can read the original article here...
Broker Responds to Police Raid
Despite the rather vicious name calling I've seen between AC-Markets supporters and MexBank supporters here in the FPA's forums, I was impressed with the professionalism displayed by ACM in their response, at first.
Recently, there was an incident of someone spamming the FPA's forums to advertise another brokerage. These people created 6 accounts and posted using anonymous proxies. I was checking those IP addresses to see if the spammers had any additional accounts. That's when I noticed that some of the AC Markets supporters were using some of the same anonymous proxies. I dug a little deeper and kept finding more and more pro-ACM postings came via anonymous proxies, including this posting...
Since I've got some moderation capabities, here's what I can see about the IP fxchen was posting that from...
This made me really wonder what was going on. Why would a proud Canadian be posting from a German anonymizer? I kept digging. Finally, I found the interesting part. 20 FPA forum accounts were created from a single IP address, 15 of them on the same day.
These are the FPA forum accounts created from that single IP address....
booker – 1 post
bret – no posts
capitalkingeldonmorales – no posts
DavidStanton - no posts
dwight4x – 1 post
edrake – 1 post
Ellsworth – 1 post
forexseth – 1 post
francisforex – 2 posts
fxchen – 4 posts
gale – 1 post
Kory – 1 post
moon – 1 post
murray – 1 post
omarjennings – 1 post
oscarben – 1 post
Piposaurus – 1 post
rbone76 – no posts
solis – 5 posts
vern – 1 post
All of these posts were pro-ACM or anti-MexBank. All of these accounts were created after the article I posted about AC-markets.
The IP address that all of these account registered from is 212.203.114.182. This IP belongs to AC Markets. You can check this yourself at IP 2 Location - IP locater or What is my IP address? - dslreports.com.
Tracing the problem further, FPA account Freddy4x has made 18 postings, all pro-ACM or anti-Mexbank and all starting just a few days after I posted the article about ACM. This account has a different creation IP than the other 20, but has posts from the same IP addresses as posts from Ellsworth, fxchen, nisse, and vern.
There are several other suspicious accounts, but the first 20 are obviously under the direct control of ACM. Freddy4x's account is also involved.
Under the circumstances, I am banning all of these accounts. I will have a careful cross-check of the forum and reviews databases to see if there are any other overlaps.
I am deeply disappointed in AC Markets for this behavior. Making multiple accounts to spam the FPA's forums with fake claims to be from happy customers is highly unethical. I call on ACM to track down the employees who performed or authorized this action. I hope ACM seriously disciplines all those responsible. ACM also owes a formal apology to all the members of the FPA for posting lies in the forums.
Up until now, the FPA has been very careful to be neutral on the issue of MexBank vs. AC-Markets. At this point, I'm personally betting that MexBank comes out on top when that argument ends up in a court of law.
You can read the original article here...
Broker Responds to Police Raid
Despite the rather vicious name calling I've seen between AC-Markets supporters and MexBank supporters here in the FPA's forums, I was impressed with the professionalism displayed by ACM in their response, at first.
Recently, there was an incident of someone spamming the FPA's forums to advertise another brokerage. These people created 6 accounts and posted using anonymous proxies. I was checking those IP addresses to see if the spammers had any additional accounts. That's when I noticed that some of the AC Markets supporters were using some of the same anonymous proxies. I dug a little deeper and kept finding more and more pro-ACM postings came via anonymous proxies, including this posting...
Ilya Painotov, why do you want these IPs?? You gonna come over to Canada and ask me to open an account with you? Why would FPA even consider giving you these, it must be contrary to laws and regulations to do so...but what the hell do you care, have you ever been a law abiding citizen??? I am sure that in Putnam valley, where you live, you must be offering the locals a nise false image of yourself. How many web blogs do you have? Do they all just talk about who you are going to sue? Just seen the one were you say you will sue Cecil Robles of Fundamental Traders. Oh, and here is one saying you are suing some double glazing window installer from your area. What's your Beef man, want to make everyone's life a misery!!??
Since I've got some moderation capabities, here's what I can see about the IP fxchen was posting that from...
The IP Address is: 192.251.226.206. The host name is: anonymizer2.blutmagie.de.
This made me really wonder what was going on. Why would a proud Canadian be posting from a German anonymizer? I kept digging. Finally, I found the interesting part. 20 FPA forum accounts were created from a single IP address, 15 of them on the same day.
These are the FPA forum accounts created from that single IP address....
booker – 1 post
bret – no posts
capitalkingeldonmorales – no posts
DavidStanton - no posts
dwight4x – 1 post
edrake – 1 post
Ellsworth – 1 post
forexseth – 1 post
francisforex – 2 posts
fxchen – 4 posts
gale – 1 post
Kory – 1 post
moon – 1 post
murray – 1 post
omarjennings – 1 post
oscarben – 1 post
Piposaurus – 1 post
rbone76 – no posts
solis – 5 posts
vern – 1 post
All of these posts were pro-ACM or anti-MexBank. All of these accounts were created after the article I posted about AC-markets.
The IP address that all of these account registered from is 212.203.114.182. This IP belongs to AC Markets. You can check this yourself at IP 2 Location - IP locater or What is my IP address? - dslreports.com.
Tracing the problem further, FPA account Freddy4x has made 18 postings, all pro-ACM or anti-Mexbank and all starting just a few days after I posted the article about ACM. This account has a different creation IP than the other 20, but has posts from the same IP addresses as posts from Ellsworth, fxchen, nisse, and vern.
There are several other suspicious accounts, but the first 20 are obviously under the direct control of ACM. Freddy4x's account is also involved.
Under the circumstances, I am banning all of these accounts. I will have a careful cross-check of the forum and reviews databases to see if there are any other overlaps.
I am deeply disappointed in AC Markets for this behavior. Making multiple accounts to spam the FPA's forums with fake claims to be from happy customers is highly unethical. I call on ACM to track down the employees who performed or authorized this action. I hope ACM seriously disciplines all those responsible. ACM also owes a formal apology to all the members of the FPA for posting lies in the forums.
Up until now, the FPA has been very careful to be neutral on the issue of MexBank vs. AC-Markets. At this point, I'm personally betting that MexBank comes out on top when that argument ends up in a court of law.
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