A forex (or foreign exchange) scam is any trading scheme utilised to defraud traders by
convincing them that they can expect to gain a high profit by trading in the foreign
exchange marketplace. Currency trading “has become the fraud du jour” as of early 2008, according
to Michael Dunn of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But “the market has long
been plagued by swindlers preying on the gullible,” according to the New York Occasions. “The
average individual foreign-exchange-trading victim loses about $15,000, based on CFTC
records” according to The Wall Street Journal. The North American Securities Administrators
Association says that “off-exchange forex trading by retail investors is at finest incredibly
risky, and at worst, outright fraud.”
“In a typical case, investors might be promised tens of thousands of dollars in profits in
just a few weeks or months, with an initial investment of only $5,000. Usually, the investor??¥
s cash is never actually placed in the marketplace via a legitimate dealer, but simply
diverted ?§C stolen ?§C for the personal benefit of the con artists.”
In August, 2008 the CFTC set up a special task force to deal with growing foreign exchange
fraud. In January 2010, the CFTC proposed new rules limiting leverage to 10 to 1, based on “
several improper practices” inside the retail foreign exchange market, “among them
solicitation fraud, a lack of transparency within the pricing and execution of transactions,
unresponsiveness to client complaints, along with the targeting of unsophisticated, elderly, low
net worth along with other vulnerable people.”
The forex marketplace can be a zero-sum game, meaning that whatever one trader gains, an additional loses,
except that brokerage commissions as well as other transaction costs are subtracted from the
results of all traders, technically creating forex a “negative-sum” game.
These scams could contain churning of customer accounts for the purpose of generating
commissions, selling software which is supposed to guide the consumer to big profits,
improperly managed “managed accounts”,false advertising, Ponzi schemes and outright fraud.It
also refers to any retail forex broker who indicates that trading foreign exchange is really a low
risk, high profit investment.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which loosely regulates the foreign
exchange marketplace in the United States, has noted an improve in the amount of unscrupulous
activity in the non-bank foreign exchange industry.
An official of the National Futures Association was quoted as saying, “Retail forex trading
has increased dramatically over the past few years. Unfortunately, the amount of forex fraud
has also increased dramatically.” Between 2001 and 2006 the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading
Commission has prosecuted additional than 80 cases involving the defrauding of additional than 23,000
customers who lost $350 million. From 2001 to 2007, about 26,000 individuals lost $460 million in
forex frauds.CNN quoted Godfried De Vidts, President of the Monetary Markets Association, a
European body, as saying, “Banks have a duty to protect their customers and they must make
sure customers understand what they are doing. Now if individuals go on the web, on non-bank portals,
how is this control becoming completed?”