Resolved: Fort Financial Services (FortFS) blocked my trades and rejects withdrawals

LeShagg

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17
Fort Financial Services heavily delayed my withdrawal request and then finally rejected it and blocked my trading account by setting my „profile to the high risk category“.
According to their „refund policy“ each withdrawal can now take up to 45 days and is limited to 900€ per request. Only one request at a time is allowed.
That means, to withdraw my account balance of 26,000€ it will take 3,5 years.
However, until today, I have not received any withdrawal at all.

The fact that my withdrawal requests have been delayed from the very first moment on, the support always giving various reasons that I should wait few more days finally leading to this „ban“ which lets them act to another withdrawal policy, lead to only two assumptions:

1. the company is not willing to pay the funds back, holding it as long as possible to profit from it

2. the company is not able to pay it back

Either way, a serious and reliable broker will always do its best to refund as fast as possible.

If the withdrawals will be executed fast I see the intend to play fair in this matter and therefore this scam report is obsolete.

I am going to keep this report up to date.


A detailed timeline with emails and chats can be found below.


September 2019

I opend the account in september 2019, verified it and deposited about 26,000€ via skrill and perfect money to benefit from the VIP status.


10.01.19
I traded several hundret lots, made some profit and wanted to withdraw 4000€. Since the withdrawal limit via skrill is limited to 1800€ I requested two withdrawals of 1800€.
The second one was rejected the next day with the reason „ the limit is exceeded“.

17.01.20
After one week, I contacted the support, asking about the remaining withdrawal.
I was refered to the terms that state a withdrawal can take up to 5 business days, so it would be processed the next day.

19.01.20
Two days later I contacted the support again. I was told, there are technical difficulties at the moment since they are working on a method to process withdrawals automatically.
Within the next week this should work.

06.02.20
I tried if withdrawals now would be processed automatically. Requested another 1500€.
It was not processed automatically.

I contacted the online support:

17:02 You are now chatting with Michael Gimelfarb - Common Queries
17:02 XXX: Hi there,
I have a skrill withdrawal "processing" for almost one month now. Could you plesae check what is going wrong there?
17:04 Michael Gimelfarb: I will create a ticket to the financial department on your behalf, sir. In addition, I will make an extra phone call to make sure that this situation is resolved as soon as possible. Fin. department specialists will contact you within the next 24 hours via e-mail.
17:05 XXX: okay. However, this is the thrid time I contact the support and I always shall wait till next day. I dont get any further response.
17:06 Michael Gimelfarb: Very sorry for the inconvenience, sir, I will do my best to personally make sure that this gets resolved asap.

07.02.20
The first withdrawal of 1800€ was cancelled.
Still no funds received, request of 1500€ still open.

13.02.20
Still no funds received. Opened a support ticket.

14.02.20
Answer to my ticket:

Dear Client,

The withdrawal request is to be operated within 2 business days (today or on Monday).
We apologize for the inconvenience caused and thank you for understanding!

Sincerely yours,
FortFS

18.02.20
Received an email: „Risk management notice“

Dear XXXX!

During our KYC and AML policy monitoring procedures, your involvement in gambling activities was detected.
Since you have citizenship of Germany and according to EU Supranational Risk Assessment on money laundering and terrorist financing (SNRA), Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations and German legislation, our risk management allocated your profile to the high risk category.

Therefore, unfortunately, in accordance with paragraph 1.8 of the "Client Agreement" (https://static.fortfs.com/download/docs/en/01_client_agreement.pdf ) we must terminate our collaboration and kindly ask you to close all your open positions before 03.03.2020 date.
All you current withdrawal requests will be cancelled.
After all your positions are closed we will proceed to refund your funds according to Refund Policy (https://static.fortfs.com/download/docs/en/08_refund_policy.pdf).

Thank you for understanding!

Sincerely yours,
FortFS


18.02.20 my response
Dear FortFS support,

firstly, I can state that I am not involved in any case of money laundering and also not financing terrorism. However, I guess, this won't change your decision.
Therefore I think we both are interested to solve this issue in a fast and fair way.

To make sure I get everything correct I would like to have my further steps confirmed before doing so.

1. I am allowed to trade until 03.03.2020, then I must have closed all my positions. I am going to do so.

2. Once everything is closed the refund process can start. Since I am unable to trade anymore it just makes sence to withdraw everything as fast as possible.
In the Refund Policy I read that you may decide to charge the money back to the source of origin, which is fine for me.
I explicitly distance myself from any kind of money laundery and since almost all the money was originally deposited by me and my own accounts, there should be no risk for noone.
So will the company refund automatically or do I need to request a withdrawal?

Due to the withdrawal limits, shall I request 17 withdrawals at once to cover the whole balance? Or will you set higher limits? Or will you manage the withdrawal manually?

I will let you know once all positions are closed.

Kind regards,

XXX XXXXX


19.02.20 FortFS email:
Dear XXXX,

Thank you for your e-mail!

The compliance procedure for your profile will be accomplished on 21 February 2020.

Yes, you must close all your positions before 03.03.2020. As soon as you close all your positions, we will give you instructions and ask you to make withdrawal requests.

Yes, we will do our best to process refund procedure ASAP and keep you informed.

Sincerely yours,
FortFS

24.02.20
Closed all my positions to more or less weak prices.
Waited for instructions. No reaction.

04.03.20
wrote an email:
„I meanwhile closed all my positions and I am now waiting for further instructions.“

FortFS Response:

Dear Client,

Regarding your request, kindly note the following:

We kindly ask you to create a new withdrawal request tomorrow in the total amount of 900 EUR in accordance with the Refund Policy (https://static.fortfs.com/download/docs/en/08_refund_policy.pdf).

Sincerely yours,
FortFS

05.03.20
requested a withdrawal of 900€ to skrill.
wrote an email:
„done. When will the withdrawal be processed?“


05.03.20 FortFS email
Dear Client,

Kindly pay your attention that according to the Client Agreement withdrawal requests operating may take up to 5 working days.

Funds are credited on your wallet/account:
- instantly after the withdrawal request is approved by financial department manager if the withdrawal is requested to Neteller, Skrill, Perfect Money, Webmoney, Qiwi and FasaPay;
- within 3-7 banking days after the withdrawal request is approved by financial department manager if the withdrawal is requested to a bank card or via bank transfer;
- within 48 hours after the withdrawal request is approved by financial department manager if the withdrawal is requested to local bank (Malaysia / Thailand)

Kindly note, that the financial department working hours: 10:00 am - 7:00 pm GMT+3 (Friday - Monday).

Sincerely yours,
FortFS

12.03.20
5 working days passed by. We will see if the withdrawal was processed.
 
Why did you deposit your funds with a broker who is not regulated? And you do not have a prior relationship with the staff?

Anyway,
Next steps:

--> Can you login to the trading platform from desktop and submit the full account history statement? Use this tutorial: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/comm...ccount-trade-history-statements-part-1.63543/

Also get all screenshots / video evidence of your account that you can (bandicam / thundersoft screen recorders).

This would possibly include any relevant live chat/email conversation. Or your broker account backoffice (cabinet/client account management panel).

--> If you have any credit cards on file with the alleged scammer (or any payment method that may be compromised), you may consider at least placing a temporary block on the card (or changing the payment pin/ID. This may prevent any further losses.

--> Have you written a review of the company? https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-reviews/8430/www.fortfs.com?per-page=50

--> familiarize yourself with FPA's Traders court rules: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/community/threads/new-traders-court.58022/

--> after 96 hours, you may formally invite the company here: https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/comm...how-to-invite-a-company-to-your-thread.58438/

--> Do NOT abandon this thread. Every week, check back to report any updates from the company and/or respond to any unanswered inquiries.

------

Please complete these steps as soon as possible.
.
 
Screenshots of account and trading history added.
 

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Important update: Today I received the withdrawal of 900€!

That at least washes away the fear of getting no money at all and additinally it was in a time span I can live with.
When the withdrawals are going on at this rate, I am going to take back my accusation of scam.

However, I am going to keep this thread updated until all is paid off.
 
Important update: Today I received the withdrawal of 900€!

That at least washes away the fear of getting no money at all and additinally it was in a time span I can live with.
When the withdrawals are going on at this rate, I am going to take back my accusation of scam.

However, I am going to keep this thread updated until all is paid off.

So you are willing to wait 3.5 years for your 26,000EUR to be returned. You must have the patience of a Saint!!!!
 
Important update: Today I received the withdrawal of 900€!

That at least washes away the fear of getting no money at all and additinally it was in a time span I can live with.
When the withdrawals are going on at this rate, I am going to take back my accusation of scam.

However, I am going to keep this thread updated until all is paid off.
Can you please invite them to this thread?
 
09.03.20
requested a new withdrawal.
It was cancelled: "please make another withdrawal tomorrow."

10.03.20
requested a new withdrawa of 900€

12.03.20
received the withdrawal.

13.03.20
going to request a new withdrawal.


Well, as long as things are rolling, I see no necessity to invite them here.
However, I am surely not as experienced in this matter as you are.

So if you say an invitation still makes sense, I can do so.
 
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