Easytrade deals are easy money – for a scammer
Ms M.W. writes: I foolishly agreed to invest with Easytrade.biz. I have asked for my account to be closed and the money returned to my M&S credit card, but have been ignored. Mastercard told me that other people were also trying to reclaim money.
EASYTRADE.BIZ is a scam. But don’t just take my word for it. It is run by a limited company called Grau International, registered in Tallinn, Estonia. And the authorities in Estonia have warned that it is trading illegally, with no investment licence.
The picture gets darker. Grau International is registered to a Dutch citizen named Floris Waals, who is the director of another Estonian firm called TRSystem. And in October last year our own Financial Conduct Authority issued a public warning against TRSystem.
According to its website, Easytrade.biz offers dealing in more than a thousand assets, including currencies, stocks and commodities. You invested £1,149 and, according to your account statements, this grew to over £2,200. But Easytrade. biz ignored all requests for withdrawals.
The company promised ‘vast resources’, ‘practical expertise’ and ‘ an unforgettable trading experience’. Well, the last one was true.
As for everything else, it could not legally deliver what it offered. You were sucked in when its advert popped up on Facebook and an Easytrade. biz salesman said he would make investment decisions for you.
Attempting to recover your cash has been complex and has taken months. Easytrade. biz failed to comment and M&S Bank told me your £1,149 had been collected by two Cypriot companies you had never heard of, called Finmarket and Fxplace.
M&S Bank said no reclaim was possible, as you had transferred cash and had not purchased any goods or services.
I argued that you had never authorised payments to the Cypriot firms. In any event, you had bought services from Easytrade. biz that had not been delivered.
I asked M& S Bank to say whether merchants were allowed to ‘front’ for firms acting illegally – in effect laundering money for them.
I did some further digging and found that Fxplace also collects cash for a firm called Trade Capital Investments, which has been condemned as unlawful by Swiss watchdogs. And it takes in funds for the equally unauthorised and illegal Instafx24 – which the FCA warns against. M&S Bank told me that if I wanted to argue this point, I would have to contact the Cypriot firms’ bank.
Who was this? It could not or would not say.
But M&S Bank has reconsidered its position. I am glad to report that while it does not accept you have a claim, as a gesture of goodwill the bank will credit your account with the £ 1,149 you transferred. You told me you were in tears when M& S rang to tell you this. A spokesman for the bank said: ‘Before entering into any investment or trading opportunities, it is important to carry out thorough due diligence on the provider.’
Quite right. I would add only that it is a shame all the massed resources of governments, law enforcement and regulation seem totally unable to take action to protect the public.
A warning notice on a website is just not good enough.