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Earlier this month, SkyFx/Trademarker got 2 Traders Court guilty vote. Capital Option also had a guilty vote and is also under Trademarker. Since this came to 3 guilty votes for companies under the same group, it resulted in the FPA labeling the company as a Scam.
This might have been avoided. SkyFx's new representative says he didn't respond to the Traders Court invitations because he was on vacation. Considering the wave of complaints SkyFx has been getting for the last few months, I wonder why their new representative would take a vacation without having someone check his mail or at least put an autoresponder to let people know there would be a delay. He did finally add responses in the Case threads on Monday, but hasn't returned to address the questions or comments these triggered.
Instead, later on Monday he sent a combination of a legal threat and bribery attempt. Here's the message...
"Dear Mr. Bill K,
We have published a response to each one of the two cases opened against SKYFX, following your forum “Standard Procedure” for which the detailed course of action seem to be not clearly displayed in your forum or webpage.
We have been acting “bonna fide” with the openers of each case allowing them time to expose the realities of their cases. Our replies and invitations expose those good faiths.
We feel harmed and injured by the damage you have caused SKYFX by defaming our regulated SKYFX firm. Labeling us as a SCAM is a slanderous and libelous act from your part, since we operate with a MiFID compliant license and all the more you don’t have the judicial power either in the European Union or the U.S. to abide and decide what type of operation does a firm run. Certainly the biased contributors or participants of your forums who vote, don’t have that appropriate capacity from the law either.
We would be grateful of a public apology and recognition of the damages you and your website have caused to SKYFX’s name. A communal clarification is required stating that the labeling of the company’s operation as a Scam does not fit the events treated in the last two months by your forum and neither you have the authority over our regulator to categorize the firm’s operation.
The company’s directors have decided to appoint a lawyer in the U.S who will send you a warning letter related to this unpleasant experience.
As the issue with Forex Peace Army has become of attention to all the company’s employees, the vast majority has recalled that once a contribution was sent to a non-governmental organization working in the field of animal rights to which you or your website has a relationship with. The employees would like to contribute to this cause, and they would be happy to donate. Our employees would appreciate instructions on how they can send funds to it.
Best Regards,
SKYFX"
I replied and told him that the FPA does not discuss or negotiate while under legal threat. For FPA members, I will publicly address his points.
1. Yes, SkyFx got around to posting something in public well after the votes in the Traders Court cases were closed. It is possible for a vote to be overturned, but this is done on the basis of evidence provided and questions answered, not a single posting claiming that a company isn't guilty. Instead of responding in the threads to further clarify the situation, SkyFx has shown "good faith" by making a legal threat and offering a bribe.
2. SkyFx operates under MFid rules because of a Cysec license. I'm happy SkyFx went to the trouble to register with a regulator. This doesn't make the company immune to complaints by clients. Will SkyFx argue for lifting the Scam label from Banc de Binary, IronFx and others for similar reasons?
3. The FPA does not have the force of law. If we did, I'd have fined many companies and sentenced many company owners and employees to long prison terms. At it's core, the FPA is a consumer advocacy organization, dedicated to trying to resolve complaints. The FPA's power lies with people leaving reviews and posting in the forums. When a company won't respond adequately to a complaint, the FPA provides a structured way to escalate the complaint to the point of a warning against a company.
There were so many complaints against SkyFx. The FPA worked very hard with SkyFx's prior representative and got many major issues resolved.
4. Lift the Scam label based on a single posting in each of 2 threads and apologize or SkyFx brings in a lawyer. What's next? Remove every 1 Star review that's not backed up by a Cyprus Financial Ombudsman ruling?
SkyFx had been making progress recovering its reputation under the previous representative. The new one ignored the situation until it was too late, then tried to force the FPA to back down using a legal threat. If it was that easy to make bad info go away, every company would have nothing but 5 star reviews. Then people could sue the FPA for knowingly assisting scammers.
5. The bribe attempt. Lift the Scam label and SkyFx employees will contribute to an animal shelter organization the FPA allegedly has a relationship with.
The FPA has no relationship with any animal shelter organization. After I personally spent large amounts of time helping SkyFx's previous representative get client issues resolved, that rep offered to send me some small gift as thanks. Accepting a gift from a broker employee could create the false impression that the FPA takes bribes. Instead, I decided to ask the rep to send a small donation to a worthy cause. To keep my personal details from being found out by a broker, I recommended a cat shelter in Italy. Many years ago, I visited it once, petted the cats, and made a modest donation. I looked it up online and found it was still in operation, so suggested it. SkyFx's former representative did arrange a donation.
If SkyFx wanted to impress me with the generous charitable desires of their current employees, I wonder why they seem to need the FPA to do anything before donating to their local animal shelters or other worthy causes. Where they holding back money in reserve for the day when they needed to offer to donate as part of a bribery plan to get a Scam label lifted? Personally, I find this bribe attempt more offensive than the legal threat.
Since FPA policy is not to discuss or negotiate while under threat, I sent this...
"Hello Benjamin,
The FPA does not discuss or negotiate while under legal threat. That's too bad, since I was going to give you some advice on getting the Scam label lifted.
I can give you until the close of business on Thursday to permanently and irrevocably lift your legal threat against the FPA. Otherwise, I will take action as outlined in the FPA's policy here...
https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/community/threads/how-the-fpa-handles-legal-threats.25458/
Regards,
Bill"
More emails were exchanged, but the threat was not lifted. The deadline has passed.
This might have been avoided. SkyFx's new representative says he didn't respond to the Traders Court invitations because he was on vacation. Considering the wave of complaints SkyFx has been getting for the last few months, I wonder why their new representative would take a vacation without having someone check his mail or at least put an autoresponder to let people know there would be a delay. He did finally add responses in the Case threads on Monday, but hasn't returned to address the questions or comments these triggered.
Instead, later on Monday he sent a combination of a legal threat and bribery attempt. Here's the message...
"Dear Mr. Bill K,
We have published a response to each one of the two cases opened against SKYFX, following your forum “Standard Procedure” for which the detailed course of action seem to be not clearly displayed in your forum or webpage.
We have been acting “bonna fide” with the openers of each case allowing them time to expose the realities of their cases. Our replies and invitations expose those good faiths.
We feel harmed and injured by the damage you have caused SKYFX by defaming our regulated SKYFX firm. Labeling us as a SCAM is a slanderous and libelous act from your part, since we operate with a MiFID compliant license and all the more you don’t have the judicial power either in the European Union or the U.S. to abide and decide what type of operation does a firm run. Certainly the biased contributors or participants of your forums who vote, don’t have that appropriate capacity from the law either.
We would be grateful of a public apology and recognition of the damages you and your website have caused to SKYFX’s name. A communal clarification is required stating that the labeling of the company’s operation as a Scam does not fit the events treated in the last two months by your forum and neither you have the authority over our regulator to categorize the firm’s operation.
The company’s directors have decided to appoint a lawyer in the U.S who will send you a warning letter related to this unpleasant experience.
As the issue with Forex Peace Army has become of attention to all the company’s employees, the vast majority has recalled that once a contribution was sent to a non-governmental organization working in the field of animal rights to which you or your website has a relationship with. The employees would like to contribute to this cause, and they would be happy to donate. Our employees would appreciate instructions on how they can send funds to it.
Best Regards,
SKYFX"
I replied and told him that the FPA does not discuss or negotiate while under legal threat. For FPA members, I will publicly address his points.
1. Yes, SkyFx got around to posting something in public well after the votes in the Traders Court cases were closed. It is possible for a vote to be overturned, but this is done on the basis of evidence provided and questions answered, not a single posting claiming that a company isn't guilty. Instead of responding in the threads to further clarify the situation, SkyFx has shown "good faith" by making a legal threat and offering a bribe.
2. SkyFx operates under MFid rules because of a Cysec license. I'm happy SkyFx went to the trouble to register with a regulator. This doesn't make the company immune to complaints by clients. Will SkyFx argue for lifting the Scam label from Banc de Binary, IronFx and others for similar reasons?
3. The FPA does not have the force of law. If we did, I'd have fined many companies and sentenced many company owners and employees to long prison terms. At it's core, the FPA is a consumer advocacy organization, dedicated to trying to resolve complaints. The FPA's power lies with people leaving reviews and posting in the forums. When a company won't respond adequately to a complaint, the FPA provides a structured way to escalate the complaint to the point of a warning against a company.
There were so many complaints against SkyFx. The FPA worked very hard with SkyFx's prior representative and got many major issues resolved.
4. Lift the Scam label based on a single posting in each of 2 threads and apologize or SkyFx brings in a lawyer. What's next? Remove every 1 Star review that's not backed up by a Cyprus Financial Ombudsman ruling?
SkyFx had been making progress recovering its reputation under the previous representative. The new one ignored the situation until it was too late, then tried to force the FPA to back down using a legal threat. If it was that easy to make bad info go away, every company would have nothing but 5 star reviews. Then people could sue the FPA for knowingly assisting scammers.
5. The bribe attempt. Lift the Scam label and SkyFx employees will contribute to an animal shelter organization the FPA allegedly has a relationship with.
The FPA has no relationship with any animal shelter organization. After I personally spent large amounts of time helping SkyFx's previous representative get client issues resolved, that rep offered to send me some small gift as thanks. Accepting a gift from a broker employee could create the false impression that the FPA takes bribes. Instead, I decided to ask the rep to send a small donation to a worthy cause. To keep my personal details from being found out by a broker, I recommended a cat shelter in Italy. Many years ago, I visited it once, petted the cats, and made a modest donation. I looked it up online and found it was still in operation, so suggested it. SkyFx's former representative did arrange a donation.
If SkyFx wanted to impress me with the generous charitable desires of their current employees, I wonder why they seem to need the FPA to do anything before donating to their local animal shelters or other worthy causes. Where they holding back money in reserve for the day when they needed to offer to donate as part of a bribery plan to get a Scam label lifted? Personally, I find this bribe attempt more offensive than the legal threat.
Since FPA policy is not to discuss or negotiate while under threat, I sent this...
"Hello Benjamin,
The FPA does not discuss or negotiate while under legal threat. That's too bad, since I was going to give you some advice on getting the Scam label lifted.
I can give you until the close of business on Thursday to permanently and irrevocably lift your legal threat against the FPA. Otherwise, I will take action as outlined in the FPA's policy here...
https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/community/threads/how-the-fpa-handles-legal-threats.25458/
Regards,
Bill"
More emails were exchanged, but the threat was not lifted. The deadline has passed.
