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ForInvests.net is now nominated for Scam Broker of the Year 2010
We've seen a lot of cases of brokers misbehaving. Among all those bad brokers, the ForInvest Group has gone to great efforts to stand out.
FPA member RahmanSL asked about ForInvest in the FPA's forums. He wanted to get in touch with someone who won a trading contest there, and said he couldn't get any answer when he wrote to ForInvests about this. A new member of the FPA identified himself as Swiss-Advisor. He claimed to be a happy client of the ForInvests group and posted emails and quotes from their website. When RahmanSL asked for documentation of the “Broker of the Year 2009” claim made on the ForInvest website and in one of Swiss-Advisor's posts, his reply was...
He further tried to insult RahmenSL (a Malaysian) by calling him “Malawayan guy”.
The discussion grew more heated, with more FPA members joining in. Another account using the name KingSO was created and claimed to be from another happy client. Another FPA member who had been ready to open an account reported that when he tried to fund his account via PayPal, he got an error saying that ForInvest's PalPal account could not receive money at that time. He contacted ForInvest and says they told him that PayPal had a new policy that it could not be used by any broker. A second FPA member who had been defending ForInvests also claimed...
FPA senior member Pharaoh contacted a US broker that takes PayPal. They claimed no knowledge of this. He then contacted PayPal directly. They said that there was no such policy. The truth is that individual companies can gain or lose the ability to use PayPal.
Swiss-Advisor rejoined the conversation and ignored the incorrect info reported by customers over PayPal as well as the undocumented Broker of the Year claim. Instead, he accused Pharaoh of promoting an unnamed broker. We can't recall Pharaoh ever saying anything good about any broker. He also posted some more advertising material for ForInvests.
The FPA's AsstModerator got a complaint from a review moderator about fake reviews coming in for ForInvests.net from Jordan. He checked. Swiss-Advisor, KingSO, and the fake reviews were all from the same location in Jordan. He locked down the KingSO account and told Swiss-Advisor to explain himself and answer some questions. Swiss-Advisor was then replaced by MarkZ, who admitted to being a ForInvests.net representative.
MarkZ finally explained the lack of current FINMA regulation by stating...
He ignored questions about why his company kept their “fake” license for a number of years and why the company website still claims the company is regulated. They are allegedly applying to the FSA. If so, we hope the FSA demands a higher level of truthfulness than we've seen so far.
At this point, FPA member West Coast Pips joined the conversation. He'd done news trading with ForInvests.net using SNW. He reported that his first trade worked perfectly, then he encountered serious problems with later trades not showing up in his platform. The crux of the matter comes down to a statement MarkZ made in the FPA's Forums and reviews.
Blocking client access to a trade is not the act of a decent broker. If some form of real cheating happened, that is grounds to nullify a trade later, not to block the client's ability to manage a trade that could be legitimate. In our view, blocking a client's access to a running trade makes the brokerage 100% responsible for the best possible management of that trade.
He then made wild claims about a hacking robot that somehow manipulated data feed, could change the number of lots in an existing order, and more. West Coast Pips was using SNW. It only clicks buy or sell based on the data in a news release. The lot size and other parameters of the trade are manually pre-set by the trader before the news event happens. There is no ability to change the lot size or alter any data feed.
SNW is hated by bucketshop brokers. A gain for a trader is a loss for that type of broker. A dealing desk broker usually can't hedge against SNW. Only a NDD/STP/ECN type broker will allow this sort of trading. ForInvests claims to be NDD/STP on its website.
RahmanSL's exchanges with MarkZ became very heated. Every time RahmanSL stepped over the line of what should be said in a fair exchange, MarkZ complained to the FPA. Several of RahmanSL's posts were edited slightly because of this. Then MarkZ called RahmanSL a “Malawayan guy” and accused him of being a terrorist. The Forums Team told MarkZ that he needed to watch his language too. At than point, MarkZ decided he wanted his forums account terminated. He later claimed it was because his company had a policy against having employees speak in forums.
A google search for “Malawayan guy” shows that the term was only ever used by Swiss-Advisor and MarkZ. Further research by the FPA's assistant moderator showed the same Jordanian location as Swiss-Advisor being used to post similar messages in other forums. MarkZ proudly claimed to be posting from “Huston”, but was posting via the Houston-based web hosting site used by ForInvests.net. This means he could be posting from anywhere in the world.
Further google searching shows that ForInvests.net was nominated for Broker of the Year in 2009, and lost. There was a push in some forums to get them the Middle East Broker of the Year award. They lost that one too. Under the circumstances, we can't prove where they are, but know they are not in Switzerland and that their Houston, Texas presence seems to be handled from a remote location.
West Coast Pips filed a scam complaint. All the other investigators decided to pretend to be very busy, so Gerard took the case. When the same strange stories of the “hacking robot” surfaced, Gerard brought a SNW representative into the email conversation to further explain the issue. After some more nonsensical explanations, ForInvest representative Sheffer O. decided to use MarkZ's issue over his forum account as an excuse to cut off all contact. Gerard bypassed this and got one final message through giving ForInvests until Monday, February 15th, 2010 to negotiate in a rational fashion. The final response from ForInvests was to declare the case closed. Since ForInvests missed the deadline, we agree.
MarkZ, Sheffer O., and the non-Swiss Swiss-Advisor all share a very similar style of writing. They also have the same style of attacking those who ask inconveneient questions, not answering those questions, and cutting off contact when their methods of diverting attention fail.
This broker has information on their website that is evidently false. They refuse to discuss a serious issue with a trader over a large amount of disputed funds.
We see no choice but to declare then to be a scam.
Original discussion thread for ForInvests
West Coast Pips' Scam Complaint Thread
Official FPA Scam Finding against the ForInvest Group
Review Page for ForInvests.net
We've seen a lot of cases of brokers misbehaving. Among all those bad brokers, the ForInvest Group has gone to great efforts to stand out.
FPA member RahmanSL asked about ForInvest in the FPA's forums. He wanted to get in touch with someone who won a trading contest there, and said he couldn't get any answer when he wrote to ForInvests about this. A new member of the FPA identified himself as Swiss-Advisor. He claimed to be a happy client of the ForInvests group and posted emails and quotes from their website. When RahmanSL asked for documentation of the “Broker of the Year 2009” claim made on the ForInvest website and in one of Swiss-Advisor's posts, his reply was...
He further tried to insult RahmenSL (a Malaysian) by calling him “Malawayan guy”.
The discussion grew more heated, with more FPA members joining in. Another account using the name KingSO was created and claimed to be from another happy client. Another FPA member who had been ready to open an account reported that when he tried to fund his account via PayPal, he got an error saying that ForInvest's PalPal account could not receive money at that time. He contacted ForInvest and says they told him that PayPal had a new policy that it could not be used by any broker. A second FPA member who had been defending ForInvests also claimed...
FPA senior member Pharaoh contacted a US broker that takes PayPal. They claimed no knowledge of this. He then contacted PayPal directly. They said that there was no such policy. The truth is that individual companies can gain or lose the ability to use PayPal.
Swiss-Advisor rejoined the conversation and ignored the incorrect info reported by customers over PayPal as well as the undocumented Broker of the Year claim. Instead, he accused Pharaoh of promoting an unnamed broker. We can't recall Pharaoh ever saying anything good about any broker. He also posted some more advertising material for ForInvests.
The FPA's AsstModerator got a complaint from a review moderator about fake reviews coming in for ForInvests.net from Jordan. He checked. Swiss-Advisor, KingSO, and the fake reviews were all from the same location in Jordan. He locked down the KingSO account and told Swiss-Advisor to explain himself and answer some questions. Swiss-Advisor was then replaced by MarkZ, who admitted to being a ForInvests.net representative.
MarkZ finally explained the lack of current FINMA regulation by stating...
He ignored questions about why his company kept their “fake” license for a number of years and why the company website still claims the company is regulated. They are allegedly applying to the FSA. If so, we hope the FSA demands a higher level of truthfulness than we've seen so far.
At this point, FPA member West Coast Pips joined the conversation. He'd done news trading with ForInvests.net using SNW. He reported that his first trade worked perfectly, then he encountered serious problems with later trades not showing up in his platform. The crux of the matter comes down to a statement MarkZ made in the FPA's Forums and reviews.
Blocking client access to a trade is not the act of a decent broker. If some form of real cheating happened, that is grounds to nullify a trade later, not to block the client's ability to manage a trade that could be legitimate. In our view, blocking a client's access to a running trade makes the brokerage 100% responsible for the best possible management of that trade.
He then made wild claims about a hacking robot that somehow manipulated data feed, could change the number of lots in an existing order, and more. West Coast Pips was using SNW. It only clicks buy or sell based on the data in a news release. The lot size and other parameters of the trade are manually pre-set by the trader before the news event happens. There is no ability to change the lot size or alter any data feed.
SNW is hated by bucketshop brokers. A gain for a trader is a loss for that type of broker. A dealing desk broker usually can't hedge against SNW. Only a NDD/STP/ECN type broker will allow this sort of trading. ForInvests claims to be NDD/STP on its website.
RahmanSL's exchanges with MarkZ became very heated. Every time RahmanSL stepped over the line of what should be said in a fair exchange, MarkZ complained to the FPA. Several of RahmanSL's posts were edited slightly because of this. Then MarkZ called RahmanSL a “Malawayan guy” and accused him of being a terrorist. The Forums Team told MarkZ that he needed to watch his language too. At than point, MarkZ decided he wanted his forums account terminated. He later claimed it was because his company had a policy against having employees speak in forums.
A google search for “Malawayan guy” shows that the term was only ever used by Swiss-Advisor and MarkZ. Further research by the FPA's assistant moderator showed the same Jordanian location as Swiss-Advisor being used to post similar messages in other forums. MarkZ proudly claimed to be posting from “Huston”, but was posting via the Houston-based web hosting site used by ForInvests.net. This means he could be posting from anywhere in the world.
Further google searching shows that ForInvests.net was nominated for Broker of the Year in 2009, and lost. There was a push in some forums to get them the Middle East Broker of the Year award. They lost that one too. Under the circumstances, we can't prove where they are, but know they are not in Switzerland and that their Houston, Texas presence seems to be handled from a remote location.
West Coast Pips filed a scam complaint. All the other investigators decided to pretend to be very busy, so Gerard took the case. When the same strange stories of the “hacking robot” surfaced, Gerard brought a SNW representative into the email conversation to further explain the issue. After some more nonsensical explanations, ForInvest representative Sheffer O. decided to use MarkZ's issue over his forum account as an excuse to cut off all contact. Gerard bypassed this and got one final message through giving ForInvests until Monday, February 15th, 2010 to negotiate in a rational fashion. The final response from ForInvests was to declare the case closed. Since ForInvests missed the deadline, we agree.
MarkZ, Sheffer O., and the non-Swiss Swiss-Advisor all share a very similar style of writing. They also have the same style of attacking those who ask inconveneient questions, not answering those questions, and cutting off contact when their methods of diverting attention fail.
This broker has information on their website that is evidently false. They refuse to discuss a serious issue with a trader over a large amount of disputed funds.
We see no choice but to declare then to be a scam.
Original discussion thread for ForInvests
West Coast Pips' Scam Complaint Thread
Official FPA Scam Finding against the ForInvest Group
Review Page for ForInvests.net
