Has Forex Broker MAX Really Quit Chinese Market?

WikiFX recently got an investor' s complaint against MAX who suddenly made an announcement to quit Chinese market and left investors unable to withdraw. As the investigation unfolded, we made more discoveries.

Ms. Yang had been trading Forex on MAX since she opened an account and started to deposit to the broker last year upon recommendation of her friend, and she had made several deposits through WeChat.

Part of Ms. Yang' s transaction record

Ms. Yang told us that she had kept on losing money before the investment finally began to profit eventually this May. But just as she planned to double down on her investment, something unexpected happened.

On May 10th, Ms. Yang submitted 2 withdrawals of $1,000 and $3,000 respectively at 4am, and got the brokers email by mid-day.

Ms. Yang' s trading record on MAX

Ms. Yang expected it to be a notice about her withdrawal, but what she got instead was MAX' s announcement about quitting Chinese market due to policies of Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). Declaring that investors must close positions before May 11th, it also noted that all withdrawal requests of investors will be handled together after October 31st , 2019.

Email announcement from MAX

The news left Ms. Yang at lost. Having successfully withdrawn from her account on May 8th, she couldn' t understand that MAX should leave China abruptly and force investors to close positions overnight, with no further explanation of procedures concerning withdrawal other than saying all requests will be processed from October 31st.

The next day, Ms. Yang found her account inaccessible when she tried to log in.

Ms. Yang' s account on MAX

Upon checking her balance alternatively through email, Ms. Yang found the balance remained the same as on May 10th, the day before her last withdrawal, indicating that MAX denied her application and returned the withdrawn sum to her account before “leaving”. Due to account inaccessibility, Ms. Yang couldn' t show WikiFX that the $4,000 withdrawn had been returned, yet her bank statement proved that she still hasn' t received the money to date, the last transaction being the $10,110 withdrawn on May 8th.

Ms. Yang' s bank statement

The email from MAX shows that until May 11th when Ms. Yang' s account was blocked, she still had a balance of $10,091.8 yet to be withdrawn.

MAX' s email statement of Ms. Yang' s balance

Abruptly, MAX emailed investor and announced its leave from China without offering any concrete solution, leaving investor unable to either access account or withdraw the very next day. The broker' s rude manner toward investors is truly deplorable.

Not surprisingly, Ms. Yang found MAX' s website had also become unavailable after her account couldn' t log in. It seems that the broker had swiftly pulled away with no hesitation as it announced.

Per investigation, MAX with WikiFX rating 1.67 has been suspended.

MAX' s interface from WikiFX App

But the story didn' t end here.

When looking up MAX online, Ms. Yang accidentally came across a Forex broker named MAX MS which had not been recorded by any third-party compliance search platform.

MAX MS' s website

Clicking into MAX MS' website, Ms. Yang found the broker' s license number, 411136, at the bottom.

Meanwhile, she also found on WikiFX App the regulatory information of MAX, who claimed to have exited China.

MAX' s regulatory information from WikiFX App

The identical license numbers of the two brokers with dubiously similar names seemed to be more than just a coincidence.

WikiFX has labeled MAX as “suspending” to warn investors. The broker closed investor' s account on May 11th, a day after its exit announcement. Investors are advised to call the police if you still haven' t withdrawn your balance at MAX.

WikiFX also adds the regulatory information of MAX MS to its database:

MAX MS' regulatory information from WikiFX App

Investigation suggests MAX MS holds ASIC(Australia)' s license for investment consultation service(regulatory number 411136), which is suspected to be cloned and bears substantial risk.

MAX MS' MT4/5 software verification from WikiFX

Per investigation, MAX MS uses white-label MT4 software. White-label brokers have considerable risk as they are usually low in cost.

MAX MS' network diagram from WikiFX App

Furthermore, investors need to take alert as network diagram of MAX MS shows MAX to be its related white-label broker.

MAX MS' interface from WikiFX App

According to information from WikiFX App, its ASIC(Australia)' s license for investment consultation with regulatory number 411136 is suspected to be cloned, having tremendous risk.

While MAX has declared termination of business in Chinese market, its cloned ASIC license (regulatory number 411136) is still being used by another broker MAX MS to defraud investors, so please watch out for MAX MS as well.

Conclusion

As cloned-license brokers may escape at anytime, WikiFx reminds investors to beware of the risk and stay away from such brokers.