According to FinanceX’s self-disclosure, the company is a service provider from the financial sector. Accordingly, one can invest in cryptocurrency and other valuable assets at FinanceX. Profits can allegedly be made quickly via the associated trading platform.
The lawyers of the Herfurtner law firm have received reports that allow only one conclusion: FinanceX operates online trading fraud!
How does the fraud work?
The first contact is made by telephone.
After opening a trading account with the platform, the customer’s personal data is verified. Afterwards, the personal client advisor answers the phone. One of these is Mr Steven Ellis Brown.
The clients see very high profits on the trading accounts in a very short time. Everything is simulated. Real trading does not take place.
After some time, the clients are asked if they would like to participate in a Bitcoin project that is only available once a year. In this project, customers are supposed to receive a Bitcoin at half price.
The payments are made via Bitcoin to different destination addresses.
As soon as it comes to the topic of payout, the customers are confronted with supposed tax payments that they would have to make in advance.
Do not pay any more! There is no such tax!
Table of contents
- FinanceX crypto trading and trading platform
- FinanceX website
- Contact FinanceX
- FinanceX Licence
- Warnings from financial regulators about FinanceX
- Online trading guide
- What to do in case of losses?
The company claims to be experienced in online trading and in dealing with cryptocurrencies. Market analyses and online seminars are also said to be offered for the benefit of customers. But there is a lack of seriousness on the provider’s website, as any information about the people behind the offers is missing.
If you are thinking about investing with FinanceX or if you are already a customer of FinanceX and are trading online, the following questions are undoubtedly elementary:
- What can you possibly do as a customer of FinanceX in case of losses?
- Is the FinanceX financial provider to be classified as reputable?
- Is the FinanceX broker licensed by a European state financial supervisory authority?
These questions are answered in this article on the topic of FinanceX by the lawyers of the Herfurtner law firm.
Parallel to the question of whether FinanceX offers an adequate offer, it is relevant to deal with the basics for promising online trading. We will also answer how the provider FinanceX compares with other financial products.
In addition, we will stand by investors and support them with detailed questions and legal disputes in connection with FinanceX.
FinanceX crypto trading and trading platform
The supposed online broker FinanceX wants to create an area for its customers to easily manage investments on the financial markets via the associated trading platform. With the help of the broker, one can analyse and evaluate the market in order to minimise risk.
However, this would require money deposits with the company. These would then be deposited in secure, segregated accounts. There, the investment would be monitored and protected from negative balances. In addition, the website advertises alleged prices for the best trading conditions, for example.
However, all these claims and offers fall short of the missing data on the company. The site does not make it clear who is responsible for the transactions and also leaves customers in the dark as to how the company’s background is knitted.
FinanceX website
Information on the alleged online broker FinanceX can be found on the company’s German website at the URL https://financex.info/de/.
Legal notice
In the Federal Republic of Germany, according to §5 of the German Telemedia Act (TMG), there are basic obligations to provide information and mandatory details for the imprint. Accordingly, this obligation for “provider identification” applies to all commercially operated Internet presences.
This is because the data should inform the user of a website who he or she is dealing with. In addition, the address of the website owner plays a role in this context, in case legal claims are to be enforced against him or her.
In this context, it is also important to note that the obligation to maintain an imprint applies equally to service providers based abroad who conduct their business activities in this country. No imprint could be found on the FinanceX website in March 2022.
Operator and trademark
The name of the website or the platform or the offer is not necessarily congruent with the operating company. In the past, it was not uncommon for companies to operate simultaneously under different trademarks.
It is also common practice for certain operators to shut down the websites of compromised trademarks and then return to the market shortly afterwards with a new trademark. Therefore, when researching news and data about a service provider beyond the trademark, one is well advised to always look at the operating company.
The relevant information can be found either in the imprint or often also in the footer of a website. The footer of the website states that FinanceX is the trademark of Big Box Ltd.
CEO
According to §6 of the German Media State Treaty (MDStV), the name of the person responsible for the content of the website must be displayed in the imprint. In many cases, this is a member of the company’s management board.
Identifying the persons responsible by name is not only an obligation, but also a sign of transparency. As of March 2022, there is no information on the persons responsible for the content on the FinanceX website.
Domain information
Some providers use their many years of practical experience to convey credibility. However, the registration date of the domain often stands in the way of such declarations. Consequently, it is necessary to investigate who registered the domain and in which year the domain was registered.
Our lawyers retrieved the information on the provider FinanceX on 11.03.2022 with this result:
- Domain Name: financex.info
- Registry Domain ID: a17ef5a1d7a94a7bb52b8dfcf8b06950-DONUTS
- Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.porkbun.com
- Registrar URL: http://porkbun.com
- Creation Date: 2022-02-23T10:07:04Z
- Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@porkbun.com
- Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.5038508351
FinanceX contact details
At the time of writing, the following information was available on the FinanceX website:
- Phone number of FinanceX: +447915638689
- Address of FinanceX: no details
- FinanceX email contact: support@financex.info
FinanceX Licence
The existence of a valid licence from a state-owned European financial supervisory authority can be an important characteristic of whether a company is a reputable service provider. This is because a company has to invest a lot of money in order to obtain a licence.
However, it does not necessarily have to be a case of investment fraud if an online broker refrains from making statements about its licence or its regulatory status. The financial regulators mentioned here are, among others, responsible for granting authorisations and supervising financial service providers such as FinanceX:
- CSSF, Luxembourg (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier)
- FCA, United Kingdom (Financial Conduct Authority)
- FI, Sweden (Finansinspektionen)
- FINMA, Switzerland (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority)
- BaFin, Germany (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority)
On FinanceX’s internet site, there was a St Vincent and the Grenadines registration number “26491 BC 2021” in March 2022. Interested private investors can discuss what this means in an exchange with a lawyer from our law firm.
Warnings from financial regulators about FinanceX
At the time of writing, there have been no warnings from official authorities about FinanceX.
Before you start trading with FinanceX and others – online trading tips
Trading via online platforms such as FinanceX is the extension of traditional trading in financial instruments to the internet. Here, as there, market participants act with the intention of making surpluses by buying and selling assets.
Trading has long since ceased to be limited to shares. De facto, investors can also choose from these options, for example:
- Platinum
- Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins and Altcoins, for example Binance Coin
- Time deposits
- Cash
- Funds
- Commodities
- Corporate bonds
- Real Estate
- ETFs
Online trading is carried out via interfaces such as online brokers (like FinanceX) or banks that provide their clients with professional trading software. In particular, rapid technological advances have made online trading time-saving and convenient these days, and consequently as recognised as it is popular.
Advantages of online trading
Digitalisation also has an extraordinary influence on the world of finance, especially with regard to trading such as at FinanceX. Because of the technical possibilities, trading has increased in speed especially massively.
Whereas investors and traders used to have to place their orders by phone call, fax or letter, nowadays they can do so with a click of the mouse and at a fraction of the cost. Factors such as the length and type of trade, pricing and quantities or the key account data no longer have to be defined personally between the provider FinanceX and its client.
Consequently, the opportunity for online trading has created a number of conveniences:
- The range of tradable assets is broader and deeper.
- Training opportunities for online trading, knowledge pools, analyses or trading courses are often provided as standard.
- Profits are achievable even with a small stake.
- Transaction fees have dropped rapidly because there is no need for personal assistance over the phone.
- The speed at which transactions can be processed has increased noticeably.
- The risk of losses due to gaps is reduced.
- Several tools can be used automatically and instantly.
- The trading platform executes the booked orders, all you need is an internet connection.
Incidentally, online trading not only brings advantages with regard to the uncomplicated use of the trading platform. In particular, due to the analysis options, indicators and the many different tools, the investor has significantly more comfort.
The times when you had to draw charts yourself or laboriously make your own calculations are over. Today, online traders find an extensive selection of order types in their system, which they can execute independently when day trading with the preferred online broker of their choice.
Modern assets: crypto trading with digital currencies
But it is not only trading itself that has been significantly influenced by digitalisation. For the unstoppable technologisation has provided online brokers with a new field of action: trading with digital assets. This also plays a role for alleged brokers, such as FinanceX. The best-known cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency ever, which is why all other digital currencies are called “alt-coins”, i.e. alternative coins. Today, there are droves of tradable crypto assets and the landscape is extremely volatile.
As a result, new coins are constantly entering the market and many disappear just as quickly as they were released. For investors, this presents opportunities as well as risks, which are, however, significantly amplified in comparison with traditional investments due to the conspicuous volatility.
For investors, freshly issued cryptocurrencies are basically like a game at the roulette table. With a little luck, the stakes can be multiplied significantly. However, the possibility of losing all the money is also extremely high.
Therefore, it might be a good choice for cautious traders to focus on the strongest crypto stocks by market value, which have been traded for some time and have a relatively large market capitalisation.
Next Generation Crypto: Alternatives to Bitcoin and Ethereum gain in attractiveness
In addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum, the Binance Coin, Solana, Cardano or Ripple should be mentioned in this context. Cardano and Solana in particular can be classified as more modern and future-oriented compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
While the former are criticised for their energy-intensive “proof of work” mechanism, the latter rely on the less energy-intensive “proof of stake” mechanism. In addition, the blockchain-based projects Cardano and Solana allow the use of so-called smart contracts.
Furthermore, additional projects are emerging in the respective ecosystems, such as Solanart, a marketplace for so-called “non-fungible tokens”, or NFT for short. These can be used in decentralised finance (“DeFi”), for example.
There, they help to implement security mechanisms that ensure the uniqueness of transactions and the correctness of each submitted order. The bottom line is that cryptocurrency investors have an immensely wide choice of cryptocurrencies to invest in.
However, crypto trading is mainly recommended for investors who do not shy away from greater risks. In addition, the following also applies to crypto trading: be vigilant when choosing a service provider.
Unfortunately, there are many documented cases of fraud and cybercrime in which crypto exchanges, i.e. stock exchanges for cryptocurrencies, have played a significant role.
The risks of online trading
Not all that glitters is gold, this statement also applies to online trading. Consequently, apart from the advantages, there are also a number of disadvantages that interested investors should consider:
- In case of wrong decisions, one has to expect high losses.
- Investors should keep a constant eye on the price trends.
- Investors should already be versed in trading and pursue resilient strategies.
- The existence of fraudulent trading providers has led to enormous risks of loss.
- Compared to conventional trading, things are rather hectic.
Speculative day trading in particular is not suitable for private investors who are getting to grips with the subject of trading for the first time. This is because the danger of incorrectly predicting the development of prices is considerable, and due to the time pressure it is difficult to make adjustments.
Consequently, this form of trading tends to be recommended for very knowledgeable investors or those with a marked affinity for risk. If you belong to this group of people, day trading is an option for achieving results quickly. In addition, one benefits, for example, from the elimination of fees for overnight positions.
Finally, such costs should also be included in the holistic examination of an investment. Likewise, one literally saves oneself a rude awakening in the morning, in case there were immediate and violent price changes. Such “gaps” develop quickly due to bad reports about a company.
On the other hand, you quickly see success as soon as you can report a surplus at the end of a trading day. Otherwise, it is important for day traders to compare the trading fees of the different brokers. At this point it can pay off to opt for a flat rate in the form of a fixed rate.
This is especially worthwhile if you trade at a higher frequency and individual order fees would noticeably reduce your profit.
Identify risks
In order not to increase the risks of online trading unnecessarily, it is recommended to check what kind of service provider one wants to use to become active on the trading venues. From the experience of our law firm, some questions have emerged that can be used to identify possible risks.
With reference to the example of FinanceX, these would be as follows:
- Do you find regulatory warnings about FinanceX?
- Does FinanceX promise unusually high surpluses or a guaranteed return and hide or downplay the dangers?
- Did the exchange with FinanceX come about as a result of an unsolicited telephone call?
- Are there any warnings from lawyers or law firms representing clients who have suffered losses in connection with FinanceX?
- What experiences have other investors already had with FinanceX, what opinions are expressed in forums?
- Is there an imprint on FinanceX’s website and can credible information be found on the provider’s place of business?
- Is FinanceX controlled by a European financial supervisory authority and is the provider subject to state supervision?
Behaviour in the event of losses
If you suspect that you have been defrauded in online trading, it is advisable to stop additional payments immediately. This applies in particular in the event that the provider demands additional payments to compensate for losses. In addition, one should try to recover the lost capital.
In this context, affected investors can seek investor protection and contact the lawyers of our law firm. We examine civil law as well as criminal law options and possible claims for damages against the financial provider and against involved payment service providers such as financial institutions.
“It is no longer possible to speak of an individual case if a private investor loses money in online trading. Many investors are deceived by the professional appearance of the providers and only realise too late that they are not responsible for their loss.”
Our advice is therefore not to resign, but to act promptly and with commitment. Because the prospect of recovering the lost money is often greater than the aggrieved investors realise. Would you like to talk to one of our lawyers about FinanceX? Then you can go straight to our contact area here.