Is Serex Investments a Scam?

Absolutely. Serex Investments is most certainly a scam. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued an official warning against Serex. In the official statement, FCA pointed out that Serex Investments is a serious scam attaching itself to an authorized EEA company. Read about that here.

What is Serex Investments? 

The Serex Investments scam is a forex brokerage platform that offers trading services (web and mobile) and projects itself as confirmed FCA (UK) regulated. Serex Investments also trades the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4), SVS web trader and CFDs. This broker offers a high leverage of about 1.400 (ESMA’s restrictions on hold are fully applicable), claims operations and ownership of SRX Investment Limited. SRX Investment Limited is assumed to be under the authorization of FCA with the registration number of 466868. This firm displays telephone: +44 (0) 800 802 1741, and Address: 17 Cavendish Square, Bessborough House, London, W1G 0PH as their details.

So far, so good. A seemingly registered company and reported registration number with a legitimate-looking address and contact information. 

So, what could be wrong with Serex Investments?  

Interestingly, this registration number (written above), in fact, belongs to EEA, an authorized french company and has nothing in common with Serex Investments!   

What does this tell us about the legitimacy of Serex Investments?

If you guessed THEY ARE A SCAM you are correct. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued an official warning against Serex. In the official statement, FCA pointed out that Serex Investments is a serious scam attaching itself to an authorized EEA company. This, of course, has misled a lot of people out there, defrauding them of their hard-earned money. Many of the platforms that are involved in anything having to do with financial products are authorized under FCA, UK. It was found out that Serex is a cloned firm. Cloned firms will usually give cold calls and seem legitimate by providing genuine and accurate details of their clients. 

For false and unlicensed platforms or websites, FCA can enforce proceedings against such companies. Once such a suspicious firm is discovered, just like the clone Serex Investments, a criminal investigation followed. These investigations revealed that  Serex was indeed a scam.

With regard to their contact details, clearly their genuine-looking address and contact details are mere tactics and tricks to lure people. In fact, just as the company is a scam, their details may be false too! So, be aware that the scammers may give out other false details or mix false details with some actual details of a registered firm.

Even without the FCA warning, there are clues suggesting that Serex Investments is a scam. 

  • Currently, Serex does not have an online presence (website:http://serexinvestments.com, social media); you cannot get a reply from their email (Info@serexinvestments.com).
  • Duly registered and regulated brokers are proud to be online and sharing their details on a prominent place on their websites. Once a company is hoarding information, not interacting on the social web, it is an immediate red flag.
  • Serex Investments’ website does not clearly state clearly the conditions of the leverage levels provided. When the site was accessible, some commission per deal was not outlined, and you would find missing essential information on reference spreads.

The emergence of financial fraud brokers continues to expand with the Forex industry, and this is gaining international attention. 

How do forex brokers scam their clients?

Brokers can scam clients pretty quickly and unfortunately pretty easily. They control the platform software, and they can play all kinds of games with your account. They can freeze the account during essential news events so you can’t trade if the brokers’ risk level is too high, they can freeze your mind when you have a significant loss or big profit so you can’t close the trade, but can close your business anytime they wish. The broker can add pips onto your deal by manipulating the software so you get stopped out quickly and your profit targets don’t get hit, and your winning trade doesn’t close out when it should and turns around and starts to move against you.

The truth is that most Forex traders lose consistently, so the broker doesn’t have to interfere too much. Some of the brokers help you lose more, so they become wealthier. You need to have a professional platform and a licensed broker who is interested in making fees off of your trading, not scamming you until you go broke.

Once clients realize they have been scammed…

Many try to find out if they can trace the owners of the company and see if there is someone who can be held accountable. Often this leads to the discovery of multiple inter-connected limited liability companies; usually some are registered in different countries, with some dormant and some active. The complexity of the situation nearly always fails to discover a single person who can be challenged and held accountable. 

The individual is unsurprisingly confused and alarmed by the dawning realization that the situation is far from easy to resolve and the prospect of navigating through the convoluted structures that have been deliberately set up to confuse. At MoneyBackHero, we are familiar with the fraudsters’ strategies and we may be able to help you get your hard-earned cash back.  

Like many things in life, prevention is the best medicine. 

So, here are some signs that you may be in a scam trap: 

1. Look out for their calling patterns.

Do you receive mostly calls of low quality and cheap lines?  When they call you, you’ll often be addressed with your first name in an overconfident tone. These fraud firms will probably ask you how your investment is performing.

2. Scam Brokers are Skilled Salesmen

They will remind you how salesmen commission earning is not all that spectacular (a mere 1%) and this will immediately be followed with lots of offers that look reliable and realistic. Unfortunately this means you need to be weary of anyone who calls you and just has all of the answers.

3. Look for their website and if you find it, look for their registrar. If they’re offering financial services, they must have registration information.

When you go online, you probably won’t see any essential information that will give clear directions on how to navigate their platform. You will also notice that Serex Investments, has a near-zero online presence. This is an alarm bell.  

4. Their scheme is very fluid.

They will ask you if you understood what trading is and if you have participated in anyone before. If you responded “yes”, because you don’t want to claim ignorance, they will likely go on to explain why their offers are better than the ones you know about. 

5. Don’t do anything quickly, check their “facts”

Do your research, check them on an accredited body. Don’t be carried away by their many offers and simplicity. Funnily, many of them will have an authentic and good-looking website. You can put the firm into Google Street View. Check the names of people involved in the business on linkedin.com and facebook; most professionals are there.

6. Reference your local government website (or the one where they claim to be accredited.

You can use the site: companieshouse.gov.uk to check authenticity and accreditation with the credentials of many UK companies. You may be required to pay to know more about a company. That’s a small price to pay when we’re talking about protecting your life savings! 

7. Watch for generic marketing tactics that are out of place for financial institutions.

While this is really a marketing ploy that even legitimate companies use fraudulent brokers are notorious for using rush text or/and placeholder text in the terms and conditions section. Serex Investment Limited did this and you can find it on the Avatrade website and EuropeFx. Once you notice anything like this on “investment” company web pages, it can be an indication of poor quality, and you cannot imagine a company not putting precise information online if they mean business.

8. Look for brand name dropping. (and sponsors as well!)

Fraudulent websites most likely will use brand names, for instance, Serex using EEF together with words like accessible, cheap, free, discounted, and other words that sound too good to believe. MANY scam companies have found ways to partner with local sports teams to gain legitimacy. Be informed that just because a company sponsors a local sports team and puts them on their homepage doesn’t mean that they’re not scam.

If you HAVE been scammed by Serex Investments or any other forex scam, we can help you! Visit MoneyBackHero for your free consultation today.