Original FPA Traders Court Submission:
I am submitting the case against: www.figfx.com
My Case is: Unfortunately I have to agree with Laurens from Netherland and THT from Vietnam, because I have the same experiences. I don’t talk about big money, but if this company does this for just a little money, then what does this company do, if this is about more thousand dollars?
In summary:
I opened a cent account at this company just a few days ago. I made a little profit, and when I wanted to withdraw my money, they disabled my account without any good reason, and they didn't send my money back.
(Meanwhile I've found a similar problem in scam alert folder: Figfx.com scamed my 29 usd please help)
My experiences:
- execution times are usually between 3-56 seconds
- if you want to withdraw your money, then they try to mislead you and they will find the way no to send your money back, of course without any good reason or explanation
- there are many other contorversial things on their page:
1. https://secure.figfx.com/why-trade-forex.aspx here they write the minimum deposit is $5 if you open a cent account, here this is $10 https://secure.figfx.com/cent-accounts.aspx ;
2. they write in this page that the minimum withdrawal is $10, but if you try to withdraw your money, then you’ll get an error message, that the minimum is $25;
3. theoretically there is a live help on their page, but this doesn’t work, you’ll get always a message that they are currently serving other clients, so send an offline message instead;
4. theoretically they don’t use dealing desk (NDD-execution), but in this case the execution times wouldn’t take more than 1 seconds, but here these are 3-56 seconds.
So, if you don’t want to lose your money, then stay away this „company”!
So here is my story:
I opened an account at this company and I made just a few trades, I didn’t use any EA and I made a minimal profit. It seems there are a few tricks, which this company uses.
They claim that their execution type is NDD. Despite of this the execution time is between 3 and 56 seconds in my experiences. There were times when the 3 second was valid, but another time it was between 22 and 56 (without any news). So they have small spreads, but they use delayed executions with market order . It means, you can’t control the price, so yes, you’ll never get requotes, but you may get another prices which you wanted (trick #1).
A few days later I tried to withdraw my money ($17.63) from FigFx. They write on their page, that the minimum withdrawal amount is $10. I made my request, but after I clicked the submit button, I got an error message, that the minimum amount is $25 (trick #2). I tried to chat with them online using live help, but it never worked in the last 1 month. You may believe, that you can get answers and solutions everytime, because you see a picture about their „live help”, but you’ll not able to use it, because in practice it doesn’t work (trick #3). So you have to send an offline massage, because as they wrote: „All our customer support representatives are currently serving other clients. It might be more reasonable to leave us a message.”.
As I wrote this status is valid for all time, so I notified their support team, that I have a problem with the withdrawal. Firstly they asked me to fill my trader profile. I made this and I submitted my ticket about this problem again. Meanwhile I asked them how I can change my ticket priority to high, because I didn’t find anything to do this on their page. And I had another question too about this „live help”. I didn’t get any answer for my first question, and my second question was answered: „We use ticketing system instead of live chat.”. It became important later, because they wrote this in another message:
„I would appreciate if you stop annoying everybody with your useless tickets. To us it appears you are using a very old browser that is unable to even submit a withdrawal request or see a chat window. Fix your issues, then start complaining about errors, if any.”
So these messages are controversial, as many other things about this company, as I mentioned above. Anyway I use the latest Firefox and I wrote to them, that it isn’t a client-side problem, but this „problem” on server-side. They use ASP-pages, which means Active Server Page. If you make a request, it is sent to the webserver, it processes the request and sends back the message (typically a dynamically generated webpage). In this case it was the „Sorry, the minimum amount for withdawals is $25.”.
So their trick #4: they try to mislead you with technical explanation, and if you don’t know the informatics, then maybe you’ll believe them. Meanwhile I made another deposit ($10) to skip the „minimal withdrawal” problem, and I wrote my opinion about their explanation.
After this they disabled my account without any good reason and I got this message:
„Your account has been disabled for addressing our team members with public insults in your previous ticket and in multiple occasions. You do not make any good addition to our family of trades, and you are absolutely not welcome here.
I would appreciate if this would be the last time we hear from you.
So vain you are, so vain.”
So this is their final trick (#5): they will find any false reason to close your account.
After this message, I asked them again to send my money back, but I didn’t get my money back ($17.63 + $10) so far and my account is still disabled.
Please, check our full conversation (support_ticket_1.jpg) in the attachement, and decide for yourself, what the truth is, and which behavior is incorrect!
Update: I asked them several times to send back my money, and nothing happened for almost 3 days. After I submitted my review here (and they realized that I turned to the public) they sent my money back without the profit. Instead of an apology (what could have proven that it was only a mistake, and what could have solved and closed this case) they managed to dig deeper into their own dirt. If you are interested in how the real FigFx's behavior, check my thread for the details!
Another recommended thread: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/18617-figfx-modern-scammer.html
Here are my final experiences:
-the support is rude and anonyomus
-they use these "techniques" if you write the truth about this "company": misrepresentation, lying, defamation
-as I wrote, they use the process which is described below by Emeka from Nigeria: there is no problem as long as you don't want to withdraw your money. If you want to know why, then check this video about dealing desk brokers here: http://media.dailyfx.com/plus/dealing-desk-cartoon-final.flv
-execution is terrible (as I wrote usually 3-56 seconds) despite of the fact that they use ULLDMA-technology theoretically (execution times would be under 1 second, mainly 10-30 milliseconds)
-they write nice things on their page, but the honesty, the fairness and the reliability are just empty words without real content at this "company"
Unfortunately I can only confirm: STAY AWAY from this "company" and NEVER open an account at this "broker"!
The top 10 signs you found a scam broker:
-no online chat or help
-no exact or fake contact and address
-controversial texts on the pages, bad links
-not regulated (of course not all not regulated brokers are scammers, but it may be a sign), or fake regulation number
-tricky, not clear and/or illegal TOS
-anonymity in the e-mails and in the support too
-strange promotions and spreads to attract traders*
-delayed orders, long execution times (at instant and "market" execution)
-requotes (usually at instant execution), big slippages at open and/or at close (usually at market execution)
-reference to well-known banks without real connections and relationships, abusing of bank's name
*Just an example from the FigFx's promotion (affiliate program + 100% withdrawable deposit bonus):
EURUSD spread is 1 pip. They offer 1 pip affiliate rebate. In addition there is a 100% deposit bonus what you can withdraw theoretically after bonus/10 lot traded. It means you can make additional $10 profit/lot, it is 1 pip exactly on major currencies.
So, let's calculate and think together! Your register using an affiliate link, through an IB. You can trade with any major currency. In this case the spread is 1 pip fixed. IB will get this 1 pip, so FigFx will earn 0 pip. Let's say you deposit $100 and you get $100 bonus. After you traded your 10 lots, you will get another 1 pip after your closed positions. Let's examine the final result from the FigFx's side: 1 pip from the spread, 1 pip to the IB and another 1 pip to the trader!
It is 1-1-1=-1 pip (!) "profit" for FigFx after all trades! Is this possible?
Is FigFx a humanitarian organization? I don't think so.
New thread in the Scam Alerts Folder:
Review is submitted by Andras on 02/23/12
The company was first contacted about the issue on 02/21/12 the last contact was on 02/23/12
Details: I got this message, after I sent a message about that their live chat doesn't work.
February 22, 2012 14:40:
"Hello,
We use this ticketing system instead of the live chat.
Thank you & Have a nice day"
------------------------
I got this message after I asked how I can change my ticket priority.
February 22, 2012 17:41
"Hello,
I am not sure what "isn't exist" as you say.
I would appreciate if you stop annoying everybody with your useless tickets. To us it appears you are using a very old browser that is unable to even submit a withdrawal request or see a chat window. Fix your issues, then start complaining about errors, if any.
Thank you & Have a nice day"
------------------------
I got this message after I sent my answer and my opinion about their explanation.
February 23, 2012 10:47
"Hello,
You are absolutely a century's figure.
We have never seen such selfish, ignorant and idiotic behavior from one person.
Your account has been disabled for addressing our team members with public insults in your previous ticket and in multiple occasions. You do not make any good addition to our family of trades, and you are absolutely not welcome here.
I would appreciate if this would be the last time we hear from you.
So vain you are, so vain.
Thank you & Have a nice day"
------------------------
After this message I couldn't reach my account.
Later Javier Keeth posted a message in my scam alert thread: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/18995-figfx-scammers-stealers-withdrawal-problem-2.html#post82692
I wrote a reply to him: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/18995-figfx-scammers-stealers-withdrawal-problem-2.html#post82697
Additional info: their support is anonymous, but the name of their representative is Javier Keeth on FPA.
I got the whois record of figfx.com, and I found this e-mail: figfx.brokers@gmail.com
Company representatives' emails: Javier Keeth <figfx.brokers@gmail.com>
I am submitting the case against: www.figfx.com
My Case is: Unfortunately I have to agree with Laurens from Netherland and THT from Vietnam, because I have the same experiences. I don’t talk about big money, but if this company does this for just a little money, then what does this company do, if this is about more thousand dollars?
In summary:
I opened a cent account at this company just a few days ago. I made a little profit, and when I wanted to withdraw my money, they disabled my account without any good reason, and they didn't send my money back.
(Meanwhile I've found a similar problem in scam alert folder: Figfx.com scamed my 29 usd please help)
My experiences:
- execution times are usually between 3-56 seconds
- if you want to withdraw your money, then they try to mislead you and they will find the way no to send your money back, of course without any good reason or explanation
- there are many other contorversial things on their page:
1. https://secure.figfx.com/why-trade-forex.aspx here they write the minimum deposit is $5 if you open a cent account, here this is $10 https://secure.figfx.com/cent-accounts.aspx ;
2. they write in this page that the minimum withdrawal is $10, but if you try to withdraw your money, then you’ll get an error message, that the minimum is $25;
3. theoretically there is a live help on their page, but this doesn’t work, you’ll get always a message that they are currently serving other clients, so send an offline message instead;
4. theoretically they don’t use dealing desk (NDD-execution), but in this case the execution times wouldn’t take more than 1 seconds, but here these are 3-56 seconds.
So, if you don’t want to lose your money, then stay away this „company”!
So here is my story:
I opened an account at this company and I made just a few trades, I didn’t use any EA and I made a minimal profit. It seems there are a few tricks, which this company uses.
They claim that their execution type is NDD. Despite of this the execution time is between 3 and 56 seconds in my experiences. There were times when the 3 second was valid, but another time it was between 22 and 56 (without any news). So they have small spreads, but they use delayed executions with market order . It means, you can’t control the price, so yes, you’ll never get requotes, but you may get another prices which you wanted (trick #1).
A few days later I tried to withdraw my money ($17.63) from FigFx. They write on their page, that the minimum withdrawal amount is $10. I made my request, but after I clicked the submit button, I got an error message, that the minimum amount is $25 (trick #2). I tried to chat with them online using live help, but it never worked in the last 1 month. You may believe, that you can get answers and solutions everytime, because you see a picture about their „live help”, but you’ll not able to use it, because in practice it doesn’t work (trick #3). So you have to send an offline massage, because as they wrote: „All our customer support representatives are currently serving other clients. It might be more reasonable to leave us a message.”.
As I wrote this status is valid for all time, so I notified their support team, that I have a problem with the withdrawal. Firstly they asked me to fill my trader profile. I made this and I submitted my ticket about this problem again. Meanwhile I asked them how I can change my ticket priority to high, because I didn’t find anything to do this on their page. And I had another question too about this „live help”. I didn’t get any answer for my first question, and my second question was answered: „We use ticketing system instead of live chat.”. It became important later, because they wrote this in another message:
„I would appreciate if you stop annoying everybody with your useless tickets. To us it appears you are using a very old browser that is unable to even submit a withdrawal request or see a chat window. Fix your issues, then start complaining about errors, if any.”
So these messages are controversial, as many other things about this company, as I mentioned above. Anyway I use the latest Firefox and I wrote to them, that it isn’t a client-side problem, but this „problem” on server-side. They use ASP-pages, which means Active Server Page. If you make a request, it is sent to the webserver, it processes the request and sends back the message (typically a dynamically generated webpage). In this case it was the „Sorry, the minimum amount for withdawals is $25.”.
So their trick #4: they try to mislead you with technical explanation, and if you don’t know the informatics, then maybe you’ll believe them. Meanwhile I made another deposit ($10) to skip the „minimal withdrawal” problem, and I wrote my opinion about their explanation.
After this they disabled my account without any good reason and I got this message:
„Your account has been disabled for addressing our team members with public insults in your previous ticket and in multiple occasions. You do not make any good addition to our family of trades, and you are absolutely not welcome here.
I would appreciate if this would be the last time we hear from you.
So vain you are, so vain.”
So this is their final trick (#5): they will find any false reason to close your account.
After this message, I asked them again to send my money back, but I didn’t get my money back ($17.63 + $10) so far and my account is still disabled.
Please, check our full conversation (support_ticket_1.jpg) in the attachement, and decide for yourself, what the truth is, and which behavior is incorrect!
Update: I asked them several times to send back my money, and nothing happened for almost 3 days. After I submitted my review here (and they realized that I turned to the public) they sent my money back without the profit. Instead of an apology (what could have proven that it was only a mistake, and what could have solved and closed this case) they managed to dig deeper into their own dirt. If you are interested in how the real FigFx's behavior, check my thread for the details!
Another recommended thread: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/18617-figfx-modern-scammer.html
Here are my final experiences:
-the support is rude and anonyomus
-they use these "techniques" if you write the truth about this "company": misrepresentation, lying, defamation
-as I wrote, they use the process which is described below by Emeka from Nigeria: there is no problem as long as you don't want to withdraw your money. If you want to know why, then check this video about dealing desk brokers here: http://media.dailyfx.com/plus/dealing-desk-cartoon-final.flv
-execution is terrible (as I wrote usually 3-56 seconds) despite of the fact that they use ULLDMA-technology theoretically (execution times would be under 1 second, mainly 10-30 milliseconds)
-they write nice things on their page, but the honesty, the fairness and the reliability are just empty words without real content at this "company"
Unfortunately I can only confirm: STAY AWAY from this "company" and NEVER open an account at this "broker"!
The top 10 signs you found a scam broker:
-no online chat or help
-no exact or fake contact and address
-controversial texts on the pages, bad links
-not regulated (of course not all not regulated brokers are scammers, but it may be a sign), or fake regulation number
-tricky, not clear and/or illegal TOS
-anonymity in the e-mails and in the support too
-strange promotions and spreads to attract traders*
-delayed orders, long execution times (at instant and "market" execution)
-requotes (usually at instant execution), big slippages at open and/or at close (usually at market execution)
-reference to well-known banks without real connections and relationships, abusing of bank's name
*Just an example from the FigFx's promotion (affiliate program + 100% withdrawable deposit bonus):
EURUSD spread is 1 pip. They offer 1 pip affiliate rebate. In addition there is a 100% deposit bonus what you can withdraw theoretically after bonus/10 lot traded. It means you can make additional $10 profit/lot, it is 1 pip exactly on major currencies.
So, let's calculate and think together! Your register using an affiliate link, through an IB. You can trade with any major currency. In this case the spread is 1 pip fixed. IB will get this 1 pip, so FigFx will earn 0 pip. Let's say you deposit $100 and you get $100 bonus. After you traded your 10 lots, you will get another 1 pip after your closed positions. Let's examine the final result from the FigFx's side: 1 pip from the spread, 1 pip to the IB and another 1 pip to the trader!
It is 1-1-1=-1 pip (!) "profit" for FigFx after all trades! Is this possible?
Is FigFx a humanitarian organization? I don't think so. New thread in the Scam Alerts Folder:
Review is submitted by Andras on 02/23/12
The company was first contacted about the issue on 02/21/12 the last contact was on 02/23/12
Details: I got this message, after I sent a message about that their live chat doesn't work.
February 22, 2012 14:40:
"Hello,
We use this ticketing system instead of the live chat.
Thank you & Have a nice day"
------------------------
I got this message after I asked how I can change my ticket priority.
February 22, 2012 17:41
"Hello,
I am not sure what "isn't exist" as you say.
I would appreciate if you stop annoying everybody with your useless tickets. To us it appears you are using a very old browser that is unable to even submit a withdrawal request or see a chat window. Fix your issues, then start complaining about errors, if any.
Thank you & Have a nice day"
------------------------
I got this message after I sent my answer and my opinion about their explanation.
February 23, 2012 10:47
"Hello,
You are absolutely a century's figure.
We have never seen such selfish, ignorant and idiotic behavior from one person.
Your account has been disabled for addressing our team members with public insults in your previous ticket and in multiple occasions. You do not make any good addition to our family of trades, and you are absolutely not welcome here.
I would appreciate if this would be the last time we hear from you.
So vain you are, so vain.
Thank you & Have a nice day"
------------------------
After this message I couldn't reach my account.
Later Javier Keeth posted a message in my scam alert thread: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/18995-figfx-scammers-stealers-withdrawal-problem-2.html#post82692
I wrote a reply to him: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/18995-figfx-scammers-stealers-withdrawal-problem-2.html#post82697
Additional info: their support is anonymous, but the name of their representative is Javier Keeth on FPA.
I got the whois record of figfx.com, and I found this e-mail: figfx.brokers@gmail.com
Company representatives' emails: Javier Keeth <figfx.brokers@gmail.com>
