Financial Commission red flags Monstrade over forged membership

The self-regulatory body noted that Monstrade used a misleadingly similar logo while promoting its services to fraudulently convince investors that it is a member of FinancialCommission.org. Similarly, the entity listed false membership details.

Besides clarifying that the firm in question lacks the proper authorisation, FinaCom also said that it strongly advises investors to only deal with financial firms that are authorised, and to check its register to ensure that they are.

It added that in cases when complaints are filed against a member firm, the Financial Commission uses a proven method to process complaints and a decision is delivered by the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC). The commission cannot process complaints against non-members and no further action will be taken.

The Monstrade’s website attempts to mislead investors into thinking that it is offering a legal product through indirect hints regarding its regulatory status.

“Upon reviewing the submitted information from potential customers of this broker, the Financial Commission has determined that the indicated company and associated website may be used to scam and defraud traders and investors. As such, the Commission does not recommend doing business with this entity, either individuals purporting to represent this broker on social media and in private messages on popular messaging apps. Given this information, Monstrade (Monstrade Dooel Skopje) will be placed on the Financial Commission’s Warning List,” the statement reads.

Finally, FinaCom noted that brokers operating without licenses or in jurisdictions where there are no formal rules exist pose a significant risk to consumers as there is no recourse or oversight in cases of trade disputes. With such firms there is no transparency regarding ethical standards of best-execution, and nothing making them honor customer withdrawal requests.

The warning comes amid increasing incidences of ‎brokers submitting fake certificates to their traders and even through their representatives and on their websites, which ‎leads to legal and operational complications.‎

Of note, the Financial Commission uses a security layer for its certificates, which now includes a quick response code that can be used to instantly verify whether the certificate is authentic or not. Under the system, all certificates issued for its approved members have a QR code that has an embedded URL, which leads to the webpage ‎where the certificate is hosted on the commission’s official website: https://financialcommission.org.