Problem Option FM - a dangerous scam

[oldenu]

My wife signed up with OptionFM in late April . On the 13th May their so-called expert personal trader conned her into depositing $20k , then during a short trading session they succeeded in losing her $20k in a matter of a few minutes, after my wife had urged her personal trader to stop trading. To her horror, even without managing to place a bid during that session her balance dropped to about $1k within a few minutes. Even although she was distraught after the event, their 'recovery expert' tried to urge her to withdraw a further $30k to try to recover the lost $20k ! My wife's personal trader later stated that a colleague had illegally accessed his computer and wrongfully directed or performed the actions which emptied my wife's balance so rapidly. After several strong emails demanding an explanation , one of the managers phoned my wife to ostensibly offer an explanation to her allegations of gross irregularities. He denied all the allegations saying on each occasion ‘ no such thing happened’ , even accusing her of being a gambler. There was not an ounce of compassion or apology from the man . Instead he exhibited extreme anger and arrogance. He even suggested that it was my wife’s fault that she signed up for ‘robot’ software – which he outright disowned – the same software which my wife’s ‘personal trader’ confidently and enthusiastically endorsed as he advised her with her trades. We believe that not only are they dishonest and unethical but also very dangerous. People be warned ! If you go near this company unwittingly you could be facing financial ruin. It took my wife many days to come to terms with the loss of funds as well as the emotional trauma of dealing with this company.

Hi David,
I have had a similar experience with OFM. In my ignorance I submitted a formal complaint to the CEO of OFM (Jason Giannakides) 24 August 2016 about David Green Senior Account Manager. Today I realise that the address in Hong Kong is fictitious.
As OFM are licenced in Belize and not in the UK by the FCA could I claim against my bank for allowing these withdrawals to an unlicensed binary options broker?
Please find below a brief resume of my complaint letter.
Should I submit my complaint to their licensing authority in Belize?
Do I have any chance of recovering my initial deposits?

Best Regards,

Brian

Dear Mr Giannakides,


I am writing to make a formal complaint against David Green Senior Account Manager OFM. My complaint is that Mr Green failed to provide me with a satisfactory service when managing my account. He instructed me via phone to take irresponsible positions when advising me to place trades, risking way in excess of the 1-5% max of my trading account whilst trading binary options.


After opening a basic account, I then receive unsolicited calls from David James (Senior Account Manager) in Hong Kong persuading me to upgrade to Financier Level $40K. After upgrading, this man started trading with total disregard for the risk management of my account (1-5% max per trade). The accepted risk/reward is between 1-5% per individual trade was disregarded entirely. In a telephone ,call I told Mr James that he was motivated by “Greed” and the fear factor was ignored .He appeared to find my concern amusing. David James lost me $60K in a 30 minute 60 second trading session” scalping” Putting at risk up to 85% of my trading account.

During the trading session, I complained about the % of my account which was being put at risk, as my balance was less than $25K. A number of trades were declined as (There was not a contract available) His reply was Click the “HIDE BUTTON “ at the top of your screen”.This now left me not knowing my account balance. After the end of the session ,I told Mr James I did not want to do “Scalping” ever again. After looking at my account balance, I was shocked to find he had lost over 50% of my account.

His results: In 30 Minutes Trading
Total value traded: $352,400. 43 Won. 63 Lost.
Win% 40.5 Total Lost: $66K.

Mr James was unaware that on 30 May 2016, both the NYSE and London Stock Exchange were closed for national holidays. This seemed strange for a Senior Account Manager dealing with over 400 stock market analysts worldwide.


In March this year I became interested in binary options trading. After googling a number of companies the common thread appeared to be that they would only risk between 1%-5% of my account per trade. Unsure of which company to select your mission statement caught my attention:

Option.FM exists to grow wealth through successful investment, and support each and every client in their trading careers.

To be truly ‘in the money’, we have to invest consistently and insistently, never giving up and never giving in, until we reach the ultimate goal – financial independence and wealth.

Wishing you all a profitable trading experience here at Option.FM,

Jason Giannakides
CEO Option Financial Markets


This was exactly what I was looking for. A company committed to grow wealth through successful investment, and support each and every client in their trading careers.Please read on and discover what my unfortunate experience has been with OFM after having been allocated a Senior Account Manager


My Withdrawal Attempts?

On five separate occasions, I submitted withdrawal requests,which resulted in a follow up call from Mr James advising me to cancel the request, saying I could withdraw $30K next week.

David James told me not to contact Customer Support and to only deal with him personally.The reason being ,he did not want anyone to think he was a bad account manager.

When I complain about him having no risk management strategy, his reply was “It happens, don't worry I will put it right”.After my account dropped to less than 14K I get a call from Sean Adams, Head of the Recovery Dpt. at OFM He claims to have loads of money and sends me a screen shot of his OFM account showing in excess of a million dollars. He does not do “60 second trading” he trades long term ,because60 second trading is too risky.He only trades when the market is right and he is quote “The best in the business” He will restore my account to it's previous level in 2/3 months and after a year up to $600K.However, to undertake recovery of my account, I must deposit another 27K into my account as I only have a remaining balance of 13K. He can only undertake to recover accounts with a balance of $40K. Needless to say, I declined his offer. He rang me again the following week and I refused to speak with him further. I am concerned that you may be unaware of how some of your account managers operate . Risking more than 5% per trade is akin to gambling and must lead to a complete wipe out of the account at some point.

I have closed my account because David James did not follow the accepted norm in binary options trading of trading 1-5% of your balance per trade, which resulted in massive losses to my account.

I joined OFM because I thought you were a reputable licensed binary options company., who would act in a responsible manner to secure long term profits.Can you find any evidence to support that David James acted responsibly in the management of my account?

Summary

This situation has caused extreme stress for both myself and my wife.

I require a full investigation as to how I was ill advised by David James to place extremely large trades risking my entire account. Because of this abuse of trust, I require a return of my deposits less withdrawals ($41364) within 28 days 22 September 2016



Yours Sincerely,

Brian Louden

encl

Random selection of comments from Binary Options Brokers.

My attempted withdrawals record

Account statement (2)

 

[Noel Mac]

Hi Brian

Unfortunately, your account of trading with OptionFM could be replicated by many others, just by changing the names of the guilty parties at OptionFM. I suspect that those names aren't real anyway, and they just pick them out of a barrel and change identity when things go sour. Try to Google any of the "prominent" and "senior" trading managers in OptionFM, and, apart from angry customer complaints, I suspect you'll come up with a zero profile, certainly a lot smaller then your own.

In the case I am familiar with, it was a similar experience - a senior Tier 1 account manager, Don Michael, persuading a small scale novice investor to up the ante from her own exploratory $25 bets (they are bets, not "investments"), to join the ethereal league of what were then Imperial Account holders that required a $100K stake to join. It seems that they can't get rich by fleecing small quantities at a time. That gave the client entitlements to the valuable mentoring and trading directions from such an experienced account manager, plus a system of "insured / protected trades" that guaranteed against loss. This was comforting for a novice playing at the big table with high stakes. He even insisted that she NEVER trade personally, but only followed his personal directions.

While they did issue an eTrading Guide that counselled risk management, including only betting a percentage of your account in any one session, this account manager said that you didn't need to do that with his experience on your side! “As your account manager, I know exactly what is good for you and to your portfolio.” and "In trading, you need trust." and "Let the expert do his job."

The middle period of trading (a few major trading sessions spread over several months) was full of encouragement about the trading success, although after post-event analysis with fresh eyes, this 20 year experienced manager responsible for presumably a large number of high-value clients NEVER managed in any trading session to reach even a 50% success rate. Overall he managed to win less than 150 out of more than 350 trades. This is with the backing of the best tools and the best analysts in the business! So the claims of success were only plausible if indeed there was a regime of protected trading. Otherwise the following statements are lies: "We make a good team." "(Client Name) made a huge success. .... Because she listened to me since the beginning.” and “That is why (Client Name) is not an independent trader. That’s why she has a team behind her that, that helps her to do that.”

Then there were problems with withdrawal, with verbal or email requests to the account manager being ignored, and with formal requests being suppressed, just like with you. Then came some interesting and illogical hurdles to withdrawing money, that required huge new deposits. By that stage he had discerned that the client's family could keep the cash coming in, since the client was financially stressed by the amount of money locked up in OptionFM. He even gave them assurances of the outcomes, with the (now apparently common) incitement to put in more for greater return, with an extra assurance that their money was not at risk, and that they could only win by doing this : "Or at least try to go up, because it only works for your benefit. It cannot damage you in any way.”

The end game, like with many others, was a frantic trading session, where ultimately, all of the account was bet. In one minute period, 11 trades of US$15,000 were placed! The end result was the surgical extraction of all the client's money - the account was very precisely emptied to just a few hundred dollars.

After this, the account manger went into hiding and disappeared from contact for weeks. Contact was eventually made by a William Robbins, with the now familiar title "Head of Recovery". William sympathised with the plight of the client, but offered to recover the position, if only more money could be put on the table to start trading again, with him as the new account manager. This offer was declined. William then removed himself, and the client was then further distracted by the introduction of a new player, a Peter Roman, a senior analyst who declared himself to be the "CEO of Recovery". At one stage the client also sent a letter to the supposed CEO, Jason Giannakikes, but was advised by their customer complaints area that it would not be forwarded to him.

To cut a long story short - OptionFM only responded to the dispute when it was raised with the Belize IFSC, along with clear evidence of OptionFM's violation of the IFSC's code of conduct, which should have threatened their license. That led eventually to the introduction of a Ross Smadja, supposedly Deputy Vice President, Customer Relations, and later still by "Kelly" from the legal department, who curiously didn't even disclose her surname to the client, or to the IFSC!. Collectively, all of the contacts in the company stalled and did not accept responsibility for the outcome, even though they acknowledged in a number of ways that some wrongdoing had been committed. (The client supplied them with corroborating audio records of the fraudulent misrepresentations of their account manager, which they did not dispute to be at odds with their own records.) OptionFM made offensively low offers of "gesture payments" that were a fraction of the $400,000 that had been lost, and ultimately they walked away from the sham "negotiation" and, soon after, it appears, from their licensor.

OptionFM is no longer licensed. For some months on their new (March 2016) website they promoted they they had been continuously licensed by the IFSC since 2015. That was false even at the time they posted the claim on every page of their web site. They have only in May withdrawn that claim to being licensed. More recently, they appear also to have abandoned their parent company in Belize, BO Technologies Ltd. They seem to have adopted a new parent company Artemis Technologies Ltd, based in the Caribbean island tax haven of St Vincents, which, with apologies to the residents of that island, does not have the best reputation for the place to conduct honest business.

I suspect that we need to collectively hammer regulatory authorities (they seem to need multiple complaints), the media, and the very businesses that give them oxygen - the banks we trade through (and those which OptionFM / Artemis Technologies use to accept client deposits), the foreign exchange services that handle their transactions, and the credit card companies that facilitate client deposits.

I'm sorry that our stories (and others) are so familiar that they convincingly point to a systemic way of doing business, not just an accident of a rogue trader (no matter whet the "recovery managers" say. We have a crooked company here, that is crooked by design, and crooked from top to bottom.

 

[Pharaoh]

The "recovery department" at these scam firms is not there to recover your money. Just as they take parts of their call scripts from Wolf of Wall Street, they take the name "recovery" from "recovery room scam" for the exact same meaning. The offer to recover money for a scam victim is really a ploy to recover even more money from the victim's wallet.

 

[lukes]

Another story from myself with Option FM.

The behavior of these people was incredibly, rash , disgusting and utterly remorseless...

To cut the story short. I used my entire savings, parents savings and girlfriends with increasing pressure from option FM and their account managers and deposited over $43000 in total.

They lost it all, screamed at me if I ever traded on my own which is ironic because I made a significant amount on my own but they always went and lost it all in a day or two even threatening to close my account if I didn't use the account managers....

I used my debit card for all transactions and received huge transaction fees on top of the money as well...

In the end they actually tried and used my card as they didn't believe I had no more money left and tried to deposit money in themselves...which is surely illegal!? The recovery manager this was...I deposited another 1k then he said I was lying and that "it was urgent" they deposited more and tried to do it himself....

I am not sure what to do...I have lost everything.

Can I speak to my bank or?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[FxMaster]

Another story from myself with Option FM.

The behavior of these people was incredibly, rash , disgusting and utterly remorseless...

To cut the story short. I used my entire savings, parents savings and girlfriends with increasing pressure from option FM and their account managers and deposited over $43000 in total.

They lost it all, screamed at me if I ever traded on my own which is ironic because I made a significant amount on my own but they always went and lost it all in a day or two even threatening to close my account if I didn't use the account managers....

I used my debit card for all transactions and received huge transaction fees on top of the money as well...

In the end they actually tried and used my card as they didn't believe I had no more money left and tried to deposit money in themselves...which is surely illegal!? The recovery manager this was...I deposited another 1k then he said I was lying and that "it was urgent" they deposited more and tried to do it himself....

I am not sure what to do...I have lost everything.

Can I speak to my bank or?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

IT will be good if you can open new thread in scam folder to get more suggestion about how to get your money back.

 

[WexfordCalling]

I feel like such a fool and was greatly cheered by this site. I received an email which led me to 'playing around' with 250 euro when a 'Nicholas Manis' contacted me and assured me he would show me how to work this. before I knew where I was I signed up for 40,000, received a MacBook, which surprisingly doesn't work and then was passed over to Sam, who took some information down and said he would like me on his team if I invested 100,,000. Stupidly I did so and to avail of a promising deal where I would be drawing out 30-40,000. Back to Nicholas who lost the lot in 10 days. I am now at the stage where a Mr. Goldman is to call me but having slowly copped on, I know it is only to extract more money from me. I have now contacted WinChargeback but would dearly love to be part of a something that would close them down. I am just kicking myself for not investigating them more.

 

[Hatty]

Hi all,

Having read through this thread can someone please help me? Have any of you any experience with what's happening to my mum?

My mum has deposited £2850 with this company and now realises it's not what she thought! (Scam). She can log onto her account and can see £4500 in it! She has asked to withdraw the £2850 she has put in but they are telling her to click this click that to enable the withdrawal but she hasn't clicked anything. She's been told she's shouting at them getting annoyed with them and that they haven't got time to be speaking to her as they have other calls lined up. The conversation ended that she will need to send an email to withdraw the funds and it will take 4 weeks. We are already onto Fraud Action but today she has received a call from a Manchester number but supposedly someone in Hong Kong?!?

She told them She was out and doesn't have access to her computer they are calling her back on Friday but they'll need her bank account number and sort code to deposit the money back to her.

I know she's been scammed but what do we do now? Her account shows £4500 and I don't think they can trade without her clicking something. Please can anyone help?

Many thanks, H

 

[FxMaster]

Hi all,

Having read through this thread can someone please help me? Have any of you any experience with what's happening to my mum?

My mum has deposited £2850 with this company and now realises it's not what she thought! (Scam). She can log onto her account and can see £4500 in it! She has asked to withdraw the £2850 she has put in but they are telling her to click this click that to enable the withdrawal but she hasn't clicked anything. She's been told she's shouting at them getting annoyed with them and that they haven't got time to be speaking to her as they have other calls lined up. The conversation ended that she will need to send an email to withdraw the funds and it will take 4 weeks. We are already onto Fraud Action but today she has received a call from a Manchester number but supposedly someone in Hong Kong?!?

She told them She was out and doesn't have access to her computer they are calling her back on Friday but they'll need her bank account number and sort code to deposit the money back to her.

I know she's been scammed but what do we do now? Her account shows £4500 and I don't think they can trade without her clicking something. Please can anyone help?

Many thanks, H

IT will be good if you can open new thread in scam folder to get more suggestion about how to get your money back.

 

[amandeep]

Hi all,

Having read through this thread can someone please help me? Have any of you any experience with what's happening to my mum?

My mum has deposited £2850 with this company and now realises it's not what she thought! (Scam). She can log onto her account and can see £4500 in it! She has asked to withdraw the £2850 she has put in but they are telling her to click this click that to enable the withdrawal but she hasn't clicked anything. She's been told she's shouting at them getting annoyed with them and that they haven't got time to be speaking to her as they have other calls lined up. The conversation ended that she will need to send an email to withdraw the funds and it will take 4 weeks. We are already onto Fraud Action but today she has received a call from a Manchester number but supposedly someone in Hong Kong?!?

She told them She was out and doesn't have access to her computer they are calling her back on Friday but they'll need her bank account number and sort code to deposit the money back to her.

I know she's been scammed but what do we do now? Her account shows £4500 and I don't think they can trade without her clicking something. Please can anyone help?

Many thanks, H

Hi, who is her broker, send Email to him/her requesting a withdrawal.

 

[Hatty]

Hi, who is her broker, send Email to him/her requesting a withdrawal.

Yes will do but they keep asking her to go onto her profile and keep trading when she insists on withdrawal they get angry with her telling her she's not listening and that she's arguing with them, when she's not!

They end the conversation then someone from HK rings and from what I can gather reading through the thread he's trying the same but a different tactic