HighTrade – The supposed financial service provider HighTrade presents itself on its website https://www.hightrade.eu/de/home-de/ as an online broker.

You encounter problems with the payout of your investment? Our lawyers can help you with claims against HighTrade.

HighTrade – Broker Overview

Currently there is an extremely high number of investment service providers such as HighTrade. As a result, investing in the volatile financial markets has never been as easy but also risky as it is today.

Precisely because there are countless options, choosing an online broker can be time-consuming and intimidating. Especially if you want it to meet your investment requirements.

Have you already invested with HighTrade? In this case, the following aspects are important for you as an investor.

  • State-licensed brokers on the internet, trustworthy providers, costs and bonuses, offer options and key data are only exemplary features that you should consider when making your final decision.
  • When trading on the internet, you can choose from numerous order types.
  • A very good place to start for capital investors who want to find out about share certificates, futures, options and cryptocurrencies is an online presence like this one.
  • Entering cross-border stock markets becomes more convenient and lucrative for investors through online investing.

The following is general advice for investors – regardless of the platform you invest money in.

Is HighTrade credible? Identifying trustworthy online trading platforms

The following considerations should be taken into account when looking for opportunities to invest your capital online:

  1. Financial service providers such as HighTrade must be licensed in Germany by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). BaFin’s company database contains information on authorised service providers.
  2. It can be very helpful to ask what other consumers say about a potential provider, even if it is only on the net.
  3. In The Federal Republic of Germany, the imprint must contain an address, the contact details of an authorised representative of HighTrade and a telephone number.
  4. Quality seals are often used by fake shops to pretend that they are reputable. To find out whether a link leads to the Internet presence of the seal of approval and whether the shop is also listed there, click on the image of the seal. It is quite possible that the provider of the WWW page has merely copied the quality seal from another website and transferred it to his own website without the correct certification.

HighTrade – Does the broker contact you via e-mail or fax?

Have you ever received stock proposals by e-mail from a provider like HighTrade that you do not know? Do you receive faxes from the stock exchange that you have by no means requested? Or have you received an apparent “insider tip”?

Money investors should beware of such suggestions, because they are usually spread by criminal groups as well as companies that want to make a profit by selling securities from a fictitious success story.

Cases have also come to light in which consumers and investors are consulted by an apparent stock exchange supervisory authority.

It is falsely said that the persons written to have become victims of a fraud and that the relevant data have been passed on to the stock exchange supervisory authority by the alleged Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe. The persons contacted are asked to fill out a web form.

This is a clear attempt at fraud. We advise you in any case not to interact with this person or to provide personal information such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers or additional identifying information such as your account data at HighTrade.

Unauthorised orders? Reputable providers never trade on their own

Placing orders for securities transactions without the account holder’s consent can sometimes cause the price of certain stocks to jump.

This applies in particular to open market transactions in illiquid foreign shares (over-the-counter trading). Therefore, remain vigilant if you are instructed to disclose sensitive data about the investment with HighTrade entirely without your permission, citing apparently profitable transactions or profit announcements.

Under no circumstances should you transmit your IBAN, BIC and other bank codes to anyone you do not know. Likewise, you should not disclose your bank account or custody account numbers and passwords.

Do not hand over any custody account documents or securities statements from HighTrade to a third party who is unknown to you. Callers posing as financial advisors, brokers or employees of a financial authority are also dangerous.

Recognising investment fraud in principle

You want to invest with HighTrade? In this case, you should find out all the necessary facts about the company.

Investment fraud is a special form of fraud. The criminal promises or deceives a large circle of people about a profitable capital investment on the capital market.

Capital investment fraud is punishable by a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine, in accordance with § 264a StGB.

Subsequent products and tactics may sometimes come into question as capital investment fraud:

  • Participations in companies
  • Boiler room scam, a cold-calling scheme in which investors are sought by telephone call
  • Participations in securities, funds and certificates
  • Fraudsters use the brand name of the service provider HighTrade and clone the company

Anyone who has fallen for investment fraudsters has usually invested a lot of money. What can you do in case of investment fraud?

  1. Involve the criminal police and the supervisory authority through a lawyer: There are police collection procedures against special fraudulent companies in the FRG and also abroad. The police are authorised to block the criminals’ bank accounts and to keep the money safe. On top of that, the public prosecutor’s office becomes active.
  2. Revoke or contest contracts: Affected persons who have concluded a contract can revoke or contest it in the case of investment fraud.
  3. Recover assets: If payments have been made via credit card, these can be recovered in various cases by appointing a law firm. In the case of bank transfers from the current account, this can often be recovered by bank order.
  4. Claim damages: People who have been misinformed can claim damages from the investment advisor.

Understanding the Recovery Scam: The rip-off after investment scam – protect yourself

Anyone who has ever lost funds to a fraudulent investment platform knows how devastating it can be. That alone is bad enough. But on top of that, the rip-off artists behind the bogus model contact you by email or phone in a manageable amount of time.

This time, however, they do not pretend to be investment advisors from HighTrade. Instead, they promise to help you recover your lost assets for a fee. Many rip-off artists even appear to have been hired or instructed by trusted entities such as a financial regulator.

After stealing your personal information, the perpetrators usually pose as good Samaritans. They assure to assist you in recovering the stolen money. Even if you have invested money with a service provider like HighTrade, your data may be stolen.

Those who have lost a considerable amount of money are usually desperate. The criminals take advantage of people’s desperation by calling themselves “recovery” companies. They offer their services under the guise of helping them recover their capital. That is, they make dubious assurances that they will recover the lost capital.

Get your investment back from HighTrade? Contact our lawyers

In case you have already made investments with HighTrade and now want to reclaim them, there are several methods.

  1. Often, a solution to the problem can be worked out with the provider itself. We always manage to reach out-of-court settlements with the service providers. Our clients then receive their full investment sum or part of it back.
  2. If payments have been made to foreign accounts, the financial supervisory authorities and financial institutions based abroad can also be notified. As a result, they usually initiate their own investigations. This is also intended to secure sums of money in the accounts and then transfer them back to our clients.
  3. In the event that no solution can be found with the service provider, a complaint should be filed with the competent financial supervisory authority. The latter will check the facts and may order the financial service provider to pay a refund. The client then receives this amount back from the provider. Addresses for complaints can be, for example, financial supervisory authorities or financial ombudsmen.
  4. If there is a suspicion that the bank accounts into which our clients have deposited funds are part of a money laundering scheme, it is possible to have these accounts blocked. Payments to these bank accounts can then be reclaimed from the receiving bank.
  5. If an evaluation by our lawyers would strengthen the suspicion that the provider may have acted unfairly, we file a complaint with the competent authorities on behalf of our client. The Herfurtner law firm is in constant dialogue with public prosecutors’ offices that conduct investigations throughout Germany. Often there are many hundreds or even thousands of injured parties in these criminal proceedings. The investigations regularly extend to other countries as well. In the past years, the public prosecutor’s offices have repeatedly achieved significant successes in their investigations.