FIU BANK Swindled My Deposit with A Group of Shills

Summary: Investor shares her experience of being defrauded in a so-called Forex discussion group.

In March, Ms. Wang joined an investor discussion group upon a strangers invitation, hoping to learn something. By mid-April, the “signal provider” coaxed Ms. Wang into opening account and making large deposits at Forex broker FIU BANK by faking profit through manipulated trading process. But Ms. Wang was soon unable to withdraw and banned from trading, suffering heavy loss as the broker' s manipulation left her account in negative balance. When she tried to contact FIU BANK, the customer service became unavailable, suggesting that the “Forex discussion group” was simply a trap set up for her.

I was swindled $18,000, equivalence of ¥122,560.2, by the illegal Forex broker FIU BANK. After I joined a “copy-trading group” consist of shills that eventually led me to deposit to FIU, my withdrawal requests were either ignored or appeared to be approved without me receiving the money, leaving me at great loss.

In March, a stranger invited me to join a “trading discussion group”. I accepted, thinking that it may be a good opportunity to learn. At first it seemed pretty informative. Investors shared their trading results everyday while the signal provider also offered some useful advice. By April, the signal provider recommended us to invest in HSI futures on FIU BANK as he expect the stock market to plunge soon. Having joined the group for a while, I didnt doubt his words and joined the other group he recommended.

Ms. Wang' s conversation with the signal provider

Once in the group, his deceptive words about high profit targeting my mindset tricked me into making two deposits that amounted to $18,000, equivalence of ¥122,560.2, which was transferred to different personal accounts respectively.

On May 7th, I applied for a $10,000 withdrawal which was approved and shown deducted from my account, but I didn' t receive the money and later found it returned to my account on FIU BANK, while the customer service told me it was “normal” when I sought an explanation.

Trading record from Ms. Wang' s account

Ms. Wang' s conversation with the customer service

I believed her when she said it was due to my participation of the bonus campaign earlier. Several days later I filed a few more withdrawal applications, but these were either left in process or approved without actually sending me the money. In short, I couldn' t successfully withdraw.

Ms. Wang' s withdrawal record

I became worried about the withdrawal failure and again contacted the customer service, but she suddenly stopped being friendly and supportive as she had been so far and ignored all my messages, from nice inquiries to angry accusations.

I began to feel that I was cheated, but not wanting to give up the faintest hope, I logged in the account and made a desperate attempt to withdraw all my balance, only to find that my account had been banned from trading.

When I tried to seek help in the investment discussion group, I realized that the group once busy with discussions had suddenly become so quite that I was practically the only one talking in this group with 17 members.

Ms. Wang' s conversation in the discussion group

When I logged in again a few days later, my account had been cleared out and balance turned negative. The unscrupulous broker is a total fraud! Hopefully that through WikiFX' s exposure, I can get my money back from FIU BANK.

Ms. Wang' s account balance

Ms. Wang' s experience is similar to the many “trading group” scams WikiFX has exposed before, so we remind investors again not to blindly trust others and watch out for invitations from strangers to join any so-called discussion group. Ms. Wang also provided her ID card and bank statement as evidence for her complaint.

Ms. Wang' s ID card

Ms. Wang' s bank statement

Upon receiving Ms. Wangs complaint, we checked FIU BANK on WikiFX App and found that both the VFSC(Vanuatu)' s license for retail Forex brokerage and NFA(US)' s license for generic financial services which FIU BANK claims to hold are suspected to be cloned, suggesting the broker currently has no valid regulation and bears substantial risk.

FIU BANK' s regulatory information from WikiFX App

MT4/5 software verification from WikiFX App shows the broker uses white-label MT4 software, and white-label brokers usually have considerable risk as they are low in cost.

FIU BANK' s MT4/5 verification from WikiFX App

In addition, WikiFX checked FIU BANK' s network diagram and found the broker is related to 3 companies AORIEX, HX and Midas, as well as two white-label brokers maikewei and Puhui Group. Investors need to watch out for these companies to avoid potential risks.

FIU BANK' s network diagram

Our investigation shows that FIU BANK, with WikiFX rating 1.12, holds suspected-cloned licenses and has 5 risk warnings. The broker defrauded investor through “investment discussion group” and rejected investors withdrawal, banning investor' s account and later manipulated the account resulting in negative balance. Investors should stay away from it.

FIU BANK' s interface from WikiFX App

Conclusion

Investors need to keep alert to over-friendly strangers and avoid blindly trusting other people' s recommendation and advice. Always remember to check a broker' s compliance before investment to avoid potential risks.