Beware of Online FOREX Trading Scams

by Tammy G
While hanging out on some random money making forum I ran across one user who suggested we all try out a certain FOREX website and bragged about how he had made one-hundred dollars in a month. While I knew trading against the FOREX, or Foreign Exchange Market, was hot at the moment I had
never actually ventured to any of the many websites. Always the cynic, I thought I would check this particular website out.

This particular FOREX site seemed like many other dodgy money making websites with generic stock photos, limited time reduced sign-up fees and promises to pay. Without knowing anything about the ins and outs of FOREX sites, it sounded like a good deal but since I had seen so many poorly-written FOREX ads around the Internet I decided to dive in a little further.

I went to a link on the homepage which said, "Withdraw" and I was prompted to open a MS Word document. Right then red lights started going off in my head. In order to collect your money you had to list your personal information, all of your bank account information and then fax it off to a number in the British Virgin Islands. Anyone who is Internet savvy would know not to send this information over an unsecured website, let alone to some random fax number.

This finding led me to do a little more research on this online FOREX phenomenon and the results were less than promising. Most FOREX trading websites I ran across seemed on the up and up on first look but many of them required personal bank account information to be mailed or faxed to a nondescript address or phone number.

I quickly noticed that most of these websites did not originate in the United States and all of the FOREX ads I've seen lurk around websites commonly visited by foreigners, especially Indians for some reason. These scam artists seem to be targeting those from other countries who try to use the Internet to make a quick buck. Online money making forums are stacked with foreigners who sincerely think they just struck gold in FOREX and try to get others to join in without doing the basic research to see if the operation is legit or not.