Potential Clone Alert: 'IC Markets Limited' Pretends to be Legitimate but Failed

Recently, a user told us that he had encountered an investment scam and provided us with his communication records with the scammer. Through these records, we found that the broker was named "IC Markets", which is suspected to be a clone of a legitimate company. BrokersView then reviewed the webpage of this potential clone entity and confirmed that it is a typical fake broker.

The scammer not only used "IC Markets" as its brand name but also stole the logo of a legitimate broker, which could easily mislead unsuspecting investors. In addition, whether intentionally or mistakenly, the broker's self-proclaimed company name is "IC Markets Limited," which differs from the trader's name by one letter "s."

One of the keys to determining the legitimacy of a broker is the financial license, so we started by collecting all the self-proclaimed regulatory information on its website. According to the broker, IC Markets Limited is regulated by the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Council (FinCEN) and the National Futures Commission (NFA), implying that it is a legitimate US-registered company.

However, FinCEN is not a financial regulator. Even if the company were registered with FinCEN, it would not be able to prove that it is authorized to conduct financial activities.

Moreover, there is no information about "IC Markets Limited" in the NFA, which proves that this broker is not authorized to conduct financial activities since a regulated forex broker in the country must be an NFA member.

Paradoxically, "IC Markets" claims to be headquartered in London while fabricating its identity as a "U.S.-registered broker". We searched the official website of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to verify the authenticity of this claim. Although we found a company named "IC MARKETS (EU) LTD" in the FCA search, after comparing the details, we believed that the company listed in the FCA has no connection with "IC Markets Limited." It is worth noting that the regulator has warned many other IC Markets clone entities.

In addition to this, "IC Markets Limited" claims to have branches in Vanuatu and Australia and to be under the supervision of local regulators. However, neither the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) nor the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has regulatory information on the broker shown on their registries.

From the above search results, we confirmed that all the regulatory information claimed by "IC Markets Limited" is not true, and this company is not regulated in the US, UK, Australia, or Vanuatu.

Moreover, in addition to the fake regulatory information, we found that the scammer leaves only an e-mail address on Contact. The investors may only give feedback to the company via email, putting them in a very passive position when the company doesn't respond to the email promptly or doesn't respond to the email at all.

This is not the only problem with customer support. Though only a blank page would be shown when clicking the live chat portal, the company still boasts about its 24/7 online customer support. In other words, the so-called online customer service doesn't exist, and investors can't get in touch with the company through the instant messaging channel.

BrokersView reminds you

As a financial services provider, "IC Markets Limited" is not authorized by any financial regulator, and its activities do not comply with the laws of any jurisdiction.

Moreover, the name and logo of this scammer are stolen from the legitimate broker IC Markets, which is extremely misleading to unsuspecting clients. Investors are likely to mistake it for a well-known legitimate broker, thus neglecting to check the website's regulatory information and due diligence and becoming victims of investment fraud.