Joseph Lim
Private, 1st Class
- Messages
- 31
IF ONLY I found out about FPA earlier. I have been a victim of UFX Markets where USD130k was emptied from the investment account within a week in Sept 2014.
I joined UFX on 15 Sept 2014 with an initial investment was USD10k to join the 'mini membership' and was later enticed to top-up the account to USD50k to join the 'vip membership' to receive personalised coaching and lower broker fees.
Tom Marks was the senior account manager assigned to me and he started calling me everyday and sometimes a few times a day. He shared market information on gold, whether its up or down trend, to buy or to sell. Being new, I was reliant on his advice and information. Initially there was small profits which when I wanted to withdraw from the account, he did not agree and said to keep the money for further investment. After persistently saying that I need to verify that I can make withdrawal, he finally relented and allow small amount of withdrawal.
Then on 23 Sept, the big fall came – Kiss of Death as some call it. He has advised to trade on gold as it was falling. But the market went against me and I started making loses. He called several times that evening requesting to top up the account to keep the account afloat with positive equity balance as he believe that the trend will turn to my advantage. Nothing was done to cut loss and my account was wiped out almost entirely. I believe he fabricated the information with the intention to gain benefits from the loss. When I was anxious about the fluctuation, he told me it is normal and did nothing about it. At the end of the day I lost over USD100k that single day. (Details to the sequence of calls below)
Through my dealing with him, he is manipulative and used pressuring techniques to pressure me into trades and to invest more money for a larger account to have a bigger trading margin. I found it hard to understand that the withdrawal of funds of my account is very tedious and have to go through Tom Marks approval. The trading account was destined to lose since I can't take profit when I want to and have to bottomless pit.
When my account went burst, he again advised the Dow Jones is going to crash. A chance in many decades. I could recoup my lost if I deposit another USD50k. Naturally I rejected as I have lost confidence. When all my deals were going bad, Tom wasn't anxious to rectify or provide advice or cut loss except to top up and invest more to recoup and my account wasn't protected at any time.
I am believe the company's operation is dubious as Tom informed that they are based in UK but a check with the FCA revealed otherwise. This further fuelled my suspicion. Response from FCA’s representative “I can confirm that neither Tom Marks nor UFX Markets appear on our Financial Services Register. As such the firm is not authorised within the UK.”
After my inquiry with FCA and posts on FPA’s website, I contacted Alex Reynolds on 1 Oct with an attempt to resolve the issue without 3rd party involvement. With the above scenario and the following resolutions:
1. Return the account to before the trade out on 23 Sept at 11.01am at USD115,075.81 (ID: 10066542) with my additional deposit of USD10,000 (ID: 10068934) made on 23 Sept and process the total refund of USD125,075.81 to my credit cards
2. Refund entire USD131k based on P&L and process the full refund to my credit cards
On 2 Oct, I received a call from John Andrews asking if I would like to resolve this privately or 3rd party involvement. I replied that I would be happy if we could resolve amicably between us. Subsequent emails and calls from John basically was trying shove all responsibilities to me and that I made independent decisions and all defense against Tom. He cited some tele-conversations that were recorded. BUT obviously either he didn’t review all the conversations or the critical ones were not recorded! He only highlighted the call to Tom’s defence, ignoring the earlier call that took place which misled me to the trade.
Specifically on 23 Sept, Tom called and confidently advised to sell gold without saying the price but mentioned that I can take profit at $1,210 which I decided on my part to take profit at $1,209 instead. I took the position immediately to sell after we hang up at $1,213. Then he called again around 2-3 hours after the initial call when the price started to go badly against my trade and told me that most traders 'like to sell at $1,230 because this is the high'. I can’t help but feel that the first call was made deliberately to mislead me into the trade and the second call as a reminder that he is doing his job to warn me but too late.
After I pointed out the sequence of the calls, John replied to say ‘no one can control a trader’s decision once he decides to take action’. John then offered a ‘project to recover’ plan where I put in some more investment to recoup my losses through a structured trader training programme. I rejected his offer since it is irrelevant in my case as I wanted my scammed funds back. He also got agitated and aggressive when I asked him about FCA's comments. He asked aggressively if I wanted to go the legal way.
I did not hear from him since our last email on 7 Oct after rejecting his ‘project to recover’ plan and I reiterated on my stand for the refund. On 8 Oct, I sent him another email to provide resolution by today 9 Oct, again no response.
I would report to authorities such ActionFraud, Cysec, IFSC, Cyprus Police etc about this case.
Dear FPA and members, appreciate if you can let me know what else I can do.
I really urge all traders to beware of such scheming companies that fleece money overnight from traders.
I joined UFX on 15 Sept 2014 with an initial investment was USD10k to join the 'mini membership' and was later enticed to top-up the account to USD50k to join the 'vip membership' to receive personalised coaching and lower broker fees.
Tom Marks was the senior account manager assigned to me and he started calling me everyday and sometimes a few times a day. He shared market information on gold, whether its up or down trend, to buy or to sell. Being new, I was reliant on his advice and information. Initially there was small profits which when I wanted to withdraw from the account, he did not agree and said to keep the money for further investment. After persistently saying that I need to verify that I can make withdrawal, he finally relented and allow small amount of withdrawal.
Then on 23 Sept, the big fall came – Kiss of Death as some call it. He has advised to trade on gold as it was falling. But the market went against me and I started making loses. He called several times that evening requesting to top up the account to keep the account afloat with positive equity balance as he believe that the trend will turn to my advantage. Nothing was done to cut loss and my account was wiped out almost entirely. I believe he fabricated the information with the intention to gain benefits from the loss. When I was anxious about the fluctuation, he told me it is normal and did nothing about it. At the end of the day I lost over USD100k that single day. (Details to the sequence of calls below)
Through my dealing with him, he is manipulative and used pressuring techniques to pressure me into trades and to invest more money for a larger account to have a bigger trading margin. I found it hard to understand that the withdrawal of funds of my account is very tedious and have to go through Tom Marks approval. The trading account was destined to lose since I can't take profit when I want to and have to bottomless pit.
When my account went burst, he again advised the Dow Jones is going to crash. A chance in many decades. I could recoup my lost if I deposit another USD50k. Naturally I rejected as I have lost confidence. When all my deals were going bad, Tom wasn't anxious to rectify or provide advice or cut loss except to top up and invest more to recoup and my account wasn't protected at any time.
I am believe the company's operation is dubious as Tom informed that they are based in UK but a check with the FCA revealed otherwise. This further fuelled my suspicion. Response from FCA’s representative “I can confirm that neither Tom Marks nor UFX Markets appear on our Financial Services Register. As such the firm is not authorised within the UK.”
After my inquiry with FCA and posts on FPA’s website, I contacted Alex Reynolds on 1 Oct with an attempt to resolve the issue without 3rd party involvement. With the above scenario and the following resolutions:
1. Return the account to before the trade out on 23 Sept at 11.01am at USD115,075.81 (ID: 10066542) with my additional deposit of USD10,000 (ID: 10068934) made on 23 Sept and process the total refund of USD125,075.81 to my credit cards
2. Refund entire USD131k based on P&L and process the full refund to my credit cards
On 2 Oct, I received a call from John Andrews asking if I would like to resolve this privately or 3rd party involvement. I replied that I would be happy if we could resolve amicably between us. Subsequent emails and calls from John basically was trying shove all responsibilities to me and that I made independent decisions and all defense against Tom. He cited some tele-conversations that were recorded. BUT obviously either he didn’t review all the conversations or the critical ones were not recorded! He only highlighted the call to Tom’s defence, ignoring the earlier call that took place which misled me to the trade.
Specifically on 23 Sept, Tom called and confidently advised to sell gold without saying the price but mentioned that I can take profit at $1,210 which I decided on my part to take profit at $1,209 instead. I took the position immediately to sell after we hang up at $1,213. Then he called again around 2-3 hours after the initial call when the price started to go badly against my trade and told me that most traders 'like to sell at $1,230 because this is the high'. I can’t help but feel that the first call was made deliberately to mislead me into the trade and the second call as a reminder that he is doing his job to warn me but too late.
After I pointed out the sequence of the calls, John replied to say ‘no one can control a trader’s decision once he decides to take action’. John then offered a ‘project to recover’ plan where I put in some more investment to recoup my losses through a structured trader training programme. I rejected his offer since it is irrelevant in my case as I wanted my scammed funds back. He also got agitated and aggressive when I asked him about FCA's comments. He asked aggressively if I wanted to go the legal way.
I did not hear from him since our last email on 7 Oct after rejecting his ‘project to recover’ plan and I reiterated on my stand for the refund. On 8 Oct, I sent him another email to provide resolution by today 9 Oct, again no response.
I would report to authorities such ActionFraud, Cysec, IFSC, Cyprus Police etc about this case.
Dear FPA and members, appreciate if you can let me know what else I can do.
I really urge all traders to beware of such scheming companies that fleece money overnight from traders.
