Resolved - Zurich Prime - Scam?

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So the pain point here is that I lost $59,250 in less than a month. I started trading on March 27th and lost the first $56k by April 10th. I then lost the balance $3k by April 24th.

Is this a scam? I leave that for you to decide from the below story.

I registered with Zurich Prime only because I was looking for a second source of income because of the poor job market in Dubai. I did some reading on their website, and for a nominal investment of $250 I thought we could see where this goes. I then got a call from my trader Emilio, asking me to initiate a trade. My first trade generated a profit of ~$40, and Emilio mentioned that if I increased my investment then I could multiple these profits.

Let me take a step back. When Emilio first called me, he mentioned that he was the number 2 trader in his company with a 92% success rate, only after his manager Richy. He asked me about my goals and I told him that ‘my wife and I have just had a baby, and with the employment market in Dubai not doing as well, it would be nice to have a second source of income’. Emilio’s comments in not the exact words were, ‘Karan after you trade under my guidance you will be generating $100k per month and will not need to work again’. I obviously knew that was a gross exaggeration, but I was curious to see where this goes.

So continuing on, I first put in an additional $1,000 and then put in $10,000 as I saw that this was actually working. In the first few days itself, I had spoken to Richy, Emilio’s manager, and he convinced me to put in some more money which will help me multiply my profits. I don’t know what got into me, but I did it anyway. They spoke about how the DAX would rise to 15,000 (by end April) and the Euro to 1.1 (by end March) and how this was a sure shot. They were right about the ZAR getting weaker though. They tempted me with a dividend of $7,000 which I could withdraw immediately and a credit bonus which you can add to your equity but not withdraw (don’t ever use the bonus). During this time, I had also told Richy that I had exhausted all my funds. He was even suggesting, that as an employee of a bank I could borrow funds at a lower rate and put it in Zurich. Basically, in the first few days, everytime I spoke to Richy, the conversation revolved around depositing more money. I feel so stupid that I didn’t see through it then.

In summary, by 6th of April, I was in for $44,250 and had generated a profit of ~$65k, but I had an open P&L with a loss of ~$40k. The only reason, I was in the game was because of the credit bonus, and thus my margins were running very low. I basically got roped in with the profits and there were enough losses from which there was no escaping. With every passing day, I would book profits and have more and more open loss making positions. Basically, these loss making positions got so big that it negated all the profits I had booked. Anyway, moving on.

Things changed dramatically on the 7th of April. Emilio called me in for a live session, which is where he asks you to open and close deals in real time. This is an extremely volatile time, which obviously I didn’t know of. I would not recommend anyone to do this. It was the NFP, which is when US markets are supposed to go up and down dramatically. The session was extremely frantic and Emilio told me that the markets would turn in a few minutes, and that if I wanted to see results I should put in more money. I saw my losses increasing and was not left with a choice but to put in an additional $15k into my account and saw things go from bad to worse. By the end of the session, I had booked an additional profit of $24k, but my open P&L was lingering around $100k in losses leaving only ~$10k in equity. Margin percentages were very low. Emilio then told me that he was sick and would call me later. He never did. I messaged and called Richy, and didn’t get a reply. I didn’t sleep that whole weekend, thinking, if the markets don’t turn, I am ****ed. I had exhausted my savings and my credit card. On the morning of April 10th, the markets opened lower than I was hoping (which is a bad thing) and I had to I close my biggest losses and then spoke with Emilio and Richy. They both basically refused to help increase my equity through the credit bonus, unless I deposited more money. I saw my account disappearing in front of my eyes and decided to close my P&L, leaving ~$3k in my account.

I told myself, ‘I got to get out of this. I have lost $56k, what is another $3k if I keep doing this slowly. I wont be greedy. I will make $500 per day and slowly pay my debts off’. I started very well and built my account to $6k, till Emilio got involved again. I had made a sell trade on the Euro just before the French elections using my own judgment. I was anticipating a drop in the Euro. However, I realized quite quickly that the Euro would probably rise if Macron got more votes than Le Pen and was hoping to open a trade with double the buy. However, Emilio told me that markets would drop for sure, and to hedge my sell trade with half the buy trade. I did that and sure enough on the morning of April 24th, the euro rose from ~1.06 to ~1.09 and that was that.

Emilio then called me on 24th morning and sheepishly asked me if I wanted to deposit any more money to continue trading. I told him no and he then asked if he should ‘zero out’ my account. I told him please go ahead. He asked if I needed anything else and I told him that since he himself is making over $100k every month, he could clear my debts. He laughed, told me he will talk to me later and hung up.

I have now requested for an investigation with my credit and debit card companies. I am quite convinced that I was trading against Emilio. I agree a lot of it has to do with my stupidity and naivety, but there is something wrong in the system. As a consultant / trader Zurich’s basic responsibility should be to limit your losses and not open more and more positions in the opposite direction. At the time of writing (April 30th), the Euro is at 1.089. And not falling to the 1.04-1.05 levels Emilio had thought it would drop to. I know we all make mistakes and that is fine. But in my opinion this is gross negligence if nothing more. I cant see this being anything else but deliberate. From having 12 loss making positions ($13,459) on April 3rd to, 16 on April 4th ($34,403) to 22 positions on April 7th (-$76,881) which then turned to over $100k in losses, seems ridiculous. I mean after doing more research, I realized this company is not even a licensed broker. Why I didn’t do this earlier, only the powers above could explain.

If somebody else has had a similar experience, please share so more people can know about this before opening an account with Zurich or any company like it.

p.s. as I was writing this with the numbers and figures, I realized how stupid I was. Hindsight, as they say, is a beauty that arrives after the party is over
 
So the pain point here is that I lost $59,250 in less than a month. I started trading on March 27th and lost the first $56k by April 10th. I then lost the balance $3k by April 24th.

Is this a scam? I leave that for you to decide from the below story.

I registered with Zurich Prime only because I was looking for a second source of income because of the poor job market in Dubai. I did some reading on their website, and for a nominal investment of $250 I thought we could see where this goes. I then got a call from my trader Emilio, asking me to initiate a trade. My first trade generated a profit of ~$40, and Emilio mentioned that if I increased my investment then I could multiple these profits.

Let me take a step back. When Emilio first called me, he mentioned that he was the number 2 trader in his company with a 92% success rate, only after his manager Richy. He asked me about my goals and I told him that ‘my wife and I have just had a baby, and with the employment market in Dubai not doing as well, it would be nice to have a second source of income’. Emilio’s comments in not the exact words were, ‘Karan after you trade under my guidance you will be generating $100k per month and will not need to work again’. I obviously knew that was a gross exaggeration, but I was curious to see where this goes.

So continuing on, I first put in an additional $1,000 and then put in $10,000 as I saw that this was actually working. In the first few days itself, I had spoken to Richy, Emilio’s manager, and he convinced me to put in some more money which will help me multiply my profits. I don’t know what got into me, but I did it anyway. They spoke about how the DAX would rise to 15,000 (by end April) and the Euro to 1.1 (by end March) and how this was a sure shot. They were right about the ZAR getting weaker though. They tempted me with a dividend of $7,000 which I could withdraw immediately and a credit bonus which you can add to your equity but not withdraw (don’t ever use the bonus). During this time, I had also told Richy that I had exhausted all my funds. He was even suggesting, that as an employee of a bank I could borrow funds at a lower rate and put it in Zurich. Basically, in the first few days, everytime I spoke to Richy, the conversation revolved around depositing more money. I feel so stupid that I didn’t see through it then.

In summary, by 6th of April, I was in for $44,250 and had generated a profit of ~$65k, but I had an open P&L with a loss of ~$40k. The only reason, I was in the game was because of the credit bonus, and thus my margins were running very low. I basically got roped in with the profits and there were enough losses from which there was no escaping. With every passing day, I would book profits and have more and more open loss making positions. Basically, these loss making positions got so big that it negated all the profits I had booked. Anyway, moving on.

Things changed dramatically on the 7th of April. Emilio called me in for a live session, which is where he asks you to open and close deals in real time. This is an extremely volatile time, which obviously I didn’t know of. I would not recommend anyone to do this. It was the NFP, which is when US markets are supposed to go up and down dramatically. The session was extremely frantic and Emilio told me that the markets would turn in a few minutes, and that if I wanted to see results I should put in more money. I saw my losses increasing and was not left with a choice but to put in an additional $15k into my account and saw things go from bad to worse. By the end of the session, I had booked an additional profit of $24k, but my open P&L was lingering around $100k in losses leaving only ~$10k in equity. Margin percentages were very low. Emilio then told me that he was sick and would call me later. He never did. I messaged and called Richy, and didn’t get a reply. I didn’t sleep that whole weekend, thinking, if the markets don’t turn, I am ****ed. I had exhausted my savings and my credit card. On the morning of April 10th, the markets opened lower than I was hoping (which is a bad thing) and I had to I close my biggest losses and then spoke with Emilio and Richy. They both basically refused to help increase my equity through the credit bonus, unless I deposited more money. I saw my account disappearing in front of my eyes and decided to close my P&L, leaving ~$3k in my account.

I told myself, ‘I got to get out of this. I have lost $56k, what is another $3k if I keep doing this slowly. I wont be greedy. I will make $500 per day and slowly pay my debts off’. I started very well and built my account to $6k, till Emilio got involved again. I had made a sell trade on the Euro just before the French elections using my own judgment. I was anticipating a drop in the Euro. However, I realized quite quickly that the Euro would probably rise if Macron got more votes than Le Pen and was hoping to open a trade with double the buy. However, Emilio told me that markets would drop for sure, and to hedge my sell trade with half the buy trade. I did that and sure enough on the morning of April 24th, the euro rose from ~1.06 to ~1.09 and that was that.

Emilio then called me on 24th morning and sheepishly asked me if I wanted to deposit any more money to continue trading. I told him no and he then asked if he should ‘zero out’ my account. I told him please go ahead. He asked if I needed anything else and I told him that since he himself is making over $100k every month, he could clear my debts. He laughed, told me he will talk to me later and hung up.

I have now requested for an investigation with my credit and debit card companies. I am quite convinced that I was trading against Emilio. I agree a lot of it has to do with my stupidity and naivety, but there is something wrong in the system. As a consultant / trader Zurich’s basic responsibility should be to limit your losses and not open more and more positions in the opposite direction. At the time of writing (April 30th), the Euro is at 1.089. And not falling to the 1.04-1.05 levels Emilio had thought it would drop to. I know we all make mistakes and that is fine. But in my opinion this is gross negligence if nothing more. I cant see this being anything else but deliberate. From having 12 loss making positions ($13,459) on April 3rd to, 16 on April 4th ($34,403) to 22 positions on April 7th (-$76,881) which then turned to over $100k in losses, seems ridiculous. I mean after doing more research, I realized this company is not even a licensed broker. Why I didn’t do this earlier, only the powers above could explain.

If somebody else has had a similar experience, please share so more people can know about this before opening an account with Zurich or any company like it.

p.s. as I was writing this with the numbers and figures, I realized how stupid I was. Hindsight, as they say, is a beauty that arrives after the party is over
Here is the link if Zurich Prime Rep https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/community/members/zurichprimesupport.150140/go ahead and invite him to reply here.
 
Hi FxMaster, I clicked on your link, but how am I supposed to invite them to the thread?
Click on link then go to Information section (Last one) and click on start conversation. By this, you can share a link to this thread and ask him/her to reply here on your issue. Let me know if you need further help. Thanks :)
 
I just got a call from my broker and we had a debate on how we went about this entire experience. His response was that I am the first client he has lost in the last 19 months and that had I put in another $20k things would have been different. My point to him was that irrespective of what he is saying, I feel misled and I am glad I didn't put in another $20k because that would have been lost in other trades. Not to mention I don't have an additional $20k to put in.
 
No reply from them yet. These guys are really pathetic. Showing their true level of customer service and what their intentions are towards their clients
 
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