BitOpps – The supposed investment service provider BitOpps presents itself as a crypto broker on its website https://www.bitopps.com/.
If you have invested with BitOpps and there are problems with the distribution, the lawyers of the Herfurtner law firm are available to help you in word and deed.
BitOpps – Experiences
Currently, there is an extremely high number of providers such as BitOpps. Thus, it has never been as easy but also risky as now to invest in the unpredictable financial markets. Especially because there are so many options, choosing a broker can be time-consuming and challenging. Especially if you want them to meet your investment needs.
Have you already invested with BitOpps? In this case, the following aspects are important for you as an investor.
- An optimal address for investors who want to inform themselves about securities, futures, binary options and cryptocurrencies is a homepage like this one.
- In the area of online trading, one can use a large number of order types.
- Authority-regulated brokers on the internet, reputable platforms, costs and commissions, offer options and customer reviews are just selected factors to consider when making your final decision.
The following tips are general tips for investors – regardless of the platform in which you invest capital.
Is BitOpps safe? Recognising reputable trading websites
The following considerations should be taken into account when looking for ways to invest your assets online:
- Quality seals are often used by fake shops to suggest that they are reputable. To find out if there is a hyperlink to the seal of approval website and if the shop is listed there, click on the image of the seal. It is quite possible that the owner of the online presence has simply copied the quality seal from another website and transferred it to his own website without the appropriate certification.
- Financial service providers such as BitOpps must be licensed in Germany by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). The BaFin’s company database contains information on authorised service providers.
- In Germany, the imprint must contain a postal address, the contact details of an authorised representative of BitOpps and a telephone number.
- It can be very useful to find out what other customers are saying about a potential provider, even if it is only on the net.
- Look for an imprint on the provider’s website. If this is not the case, the word is: Hands off! However, you should also bear in mind that an imprint can be faked.
BitOpps – accounts located abroad? As a matter of principle, act carefully when transferring money
Is it to your advantage to transfer money abroad? Look carefully at what you are doing. Quite a few investors have already lost funds in the process. You may lose track of where your money is going and how it is invested. When money has been made available to a provider, it has often happened that the provider does not invest the amount received as agreed or not at all.
There have also been cases where the company simply did not exist, although it presented itself in a similar way to BitOpps. Continuing the trend of the former “Nigeria Connection”, countless emails from Africa (in English, so-called “scams”) continue to circulate. These target institutions and private investors. In the same way, dubious messages are reported from many other African countries.
In the past, the criminals only traded from questionable locations. Currently, they are active from completely different locations such as the United Kingdom (including London), the Netherlands, Canada, the Kingdom of Spain, Dubai and many others. It is laborious for many people to recognise tricky methods.
Institution often receive email orders with very large order volumes that are disproportionate to the common purchase amounts. To lure the German company, they proceed with huge promises of profits. However, the substantial order volume only acts as a means of pressure in talks with the manufacturer to demand correspondingly excessive approval and registration costs.
It is not always clear whether the recipient of this payment is also the client of the goods. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that companies operating abroad will not have to pay regional taxes on deliveries to other countries for the time being. This usually also applies to investments in BitOpps.
Beware of pump and dump
The term pump and dump is used to describe a procedure in which the value of a share is artificially inflated by insiders. The same share is then sold again at a loss to the remaining investors. This is therefore a fraud. A manipulation that profits from the naivety of small investors and stock market novices.
For this reason, this strategy is illegal on a controlled securities market and for providers such as BitOpps. The crypto market, on the other hand, is still by and large “Wild West” as far as such tactics are concerned. For this reason, extra vigilance is essential! Pump-and-dump scams are often found there in the context of the commonly referred to altcoins.
The pump-and-dump scam is used by fraudsters to inflate the market price of an unknown currency or even a currency they have created themselves. They achieve this by propagating disinformation on the World Wide Web or social media, or by recruiting co-investors with unreasonable profit expectations. Make sure that the BitOpps provider provides you with all the necessary information on this topic, if requested.
Warning signs of investment fraud
You want to invest with BitOpps? Then you should find out all the relevant information about the company. Investment fraud is a special form of fraud. The criminal guarantees or pretends a profitable investment on the capital market to a larger circle of people. Capital investment fraud is sanctioned according to § 264a StGB with a prison sentence of up to three years or with a fine.
The following services and strategies may be considered as capital investment fraud:
- Unintentional telephone advertising calls, so-called cold calling
- Criminals use the brand name of the service provider BitOpps and clone the company
- Investments in shares, funds and certificates
- Boiler Room Scam, a cold call in which financial backers are sought by telephone call
Anyone who has fallen for investment fraudsters has often invested a lot of financial resources. What can you do in case of investment fraud?
- Involve the police and financial authorities through legal counsel: Police collective proceedings exist against certain fraudulent companies in the Federal Republic of Germany and also in other countries. The criminal investigation department is entitled to have the accounts of the fraudsters blocked and the assets held in safe custody. In addition, the public prosecutor’s office is called in.
- Claim damages: People who were misinformed can assert claims for damages against the investment advisor.
- Retrieve money: If payments have been realised via the credit card, this can be retrieved in various cases by instructing a law firm. In the case of transfers from a current account, this can usually be recovered by bank order.
- Withdraw or contest contracts: Affected persons who have concluded a contract can withdraw or contest it in the case of investment fraud.
Reputable service providers show exit options
Clarify at what time and how much money you will be paid out. It is best to avoid long-term contracts that cannot be terminated early or where you would incur significant monetary losses. Only conclude longer-term contracts without the possibility of early termination with investment service providers such as BitOpps, whose reliability you have no doubts about.
Even if you have the option to waive or cancel a contract at any time over an agreed period, you should be sceptical. Even when these points are in place, you are still vulnerable to financial loss. Make sure you know exactly how much money you will get back if the investment goes wrong. The following rule applies to share transactions:
Before the end of the term, find out what options are available to you to get rid of share certificates. It is often crucial to know whether there is a liquid market for products such as those provided by BitOpps. It is possible to sell share certificates via an online broker or a financial institution. All three methods are acceptable for placing a sell order.
The actual selling process is then executed via a securities exchange (e.g. Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Tradegate or Xetra) (e.g. for penny stocks). With order supplements, the execution of the order can be guided from the beginning. The shares are sold at a time and place determined by you.
Profit distribution from BitOpps does not work? Consult a law firm immediately
In order to be able to weigh up whether you have a repayment claim against the service provider BitOpps, it is necessary without exception to examine your case in detail. The lawyers of the Herfurtner law firm will do this for you within the framework of a free initial consultation. The basis of this review is always the facts of your case.
In addition, very often similarities can be drawn to comparable cases. You therefore benefit from the extensive experience of our lawyers. After the entire evaluation of all documents and the legal classification, the action is initially oriented against the service provider BitOpps itself, should certain breaches of duty be verifiable.
In order to be able to prove such breaches of duty, the contract papers, the email correspondence and, if necessary, supplementary documents must be evaluated. Furthermore, licensed online trading service providers are equally obliged to make and store telephone records of conversations with investors. The request to hand over this documentation and the subsequent examination is also a sensible and necessary step in the enforcement of your claims.
By means of this evidence, investors’ claims can be enforced both in extrajudicial and in judicial proceedings.
The financial institutions and crypto exchanges that are on the receiving end should also be focused on in this context. Since considerable sums of money are often involved, the question arises again and again as to whether the companies have fulfilled their duties to provide information and their obligations under the Money Laundering Act.
It is not possible to make a general statement here; rather, the individual case must be scrutinised. The same applies to the beneficiary on the recipient side, who is usually not equivalent to the financial service provider itself. Under certain circumstances, the financial service provider must also be held liable if breaches of duty can be proven.
After all civil law options have been exhausted, there is still the option of proceeding under criminal law if the initial suspicion of a criminal offence is substantiated. This requires contacting law enforcement agencies at home and abroad and coordinating additional steps.
For the time being, many federal states have set up special units for the subject areas of fraud offences in connection with online and crypto trading. The lawyers of the Herfurtner law firm are in regular contact with these units. It should not be forgotten that web hosts also offer useful information on domain holders.
However, contacting the web hosts, which are often located outside the EU, is extremely complicated for someone inexperienced. Financial authorities at home and abroad are also useful contact points for aggrieved investors. In addition to the complaint against the online trading provider in question, which should protect even more potential investors from investments, additional information can possibly be obtained from the financial supervisory authorities as a source of information.
These details often make it possible to link investigative proceedings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.