How the Binary Options Trading Scam Works
We’ve all been subject to the online clickbait adverts promoting get rich quick schemes, and we’re all familiar with the “Nigerian Prince” who just needs someone like you with an international bank account to deposit his millions. The model may change, but the medium rarely does. The sophistication and complexity of the ploy only increases. After all, the key here is deception, and it’s hard to fool someone twice with the same trick.
When I think retrospectively, it’s inevitable that fraud such as the binary options trading scam penetrated the financial market. What continues to shock me however, is the sheer size and scale that this fraudulent industry has managed to achieve while still being relatively unknown.
There are many people who, to this day, believe that the money they invested in binary options is sitting in their account, able to be withdrawn whenever they so desire – Stephen Young was one of these people, until he was exposed to the truth and began working on recovering his stolen money.
STEPHEN’S STORY
The following story is as true as it harrowing, considering that many of these unethical practices still continue at the time of writing this article, and binary options fraud is attracting new victims every day.
Stephen Young is a professional racecar driver from England who is currently competing in the NASCAR XFINITY racing series, hoping to not only further his career, but also help victims of binary options fraud.
What happened to Stephen has and can happen to many unknowing victims; Stephen saw an online advert with an appealing tagline, one allegedly promising an opportunity to make large amounts of money quickly. This is usually the first step of the binary options scam – apparently the entire industry is supported by a large network of affiliates and marketers who make their money either per depositor, or more sinister, they receive a percentage of however much you lose. Despite his years of experience advising him on the contrary, Stephen registered his details to receive additional information. What’s the worst that could happen?
Less than 24 hours after he filled in his contact details, he was supposedly called by his first account manager with the alleged alias of Sebastian West from Magnum Options. He was apparently convinced that Magnum Options and their employees were legitimate and professional entities. The supposed “financial expert” who claimed to have over 10 years of brokering experience, allegedly told Stephen confidently and persuasively that he needed to invest $500 only, and he will see profit in no time. Purportedly boasting that their intelligent algorithm can beat the market, Stephen stumped up the initial amount and he was excited to see a high return on his investment. One thing he knew for sure was that his money sitting in his bank in England was not going to bring him the interest or profit close to what his account manager had allegedly promised. Stephen made his initial investment and the apparent binary options scam begun to take place.
Stephen now had access to the trading platform, seemingly allowing him to bet on whether the price of a commodity will rise or fall over a given timeframe. If Stephen won, he would earn multiples of his stake, but if he lost, he would lose multiples of his stake. Pretty straight forward binary options trading so far, but here is where the apparent scam really starts to take shape.
Stephen won his initial bets (as is typical), he had made what he considered a good profit within a short time-frame. Now, the binary options traders allegedly called again, and kept calling. The psychology behind the apparent scam is a key reason to its success. Seemingly, Stephen was being pressured to invest more money as to not miss out on the ‘opportunity’ to increase his profits.
After all, Stephen saw that when he logged into the platform, his account balance was healthy – who wouldn’t want to invest more on what seems like guaranteed success? However, the balance in your account may appear to be a large multiple of your initial investment, but in fact, you are supposedly just being shown digital numbers on a screen. In the real-world Stephen’s money was allegedly gone, and he was being passed around between a new litany of advisors and experts, presumably trying to convince him that the surest way to withdraw money was to invest more…
This continued for approximately seven months, Stephen continued investing and thought he was increasing his account balance. Everything was going great, until Stephen tried to withdraw his money and was denied. At this point Stephen had invested a total of $63,000 with two binary options trading companies, Magnum Options and Boss Capital. Another of his suspected account managers, who went by the so-called name of Hannah Willis apparently informed Stephen that her husband was terminally ill so she was leaving the company to look after him at home. Another presumed lie to discourage Stephen from withdrawing his funds.
Starting to realize that something suspicious was going on, Stephen went online to see if there was any more information out there. He came across investigative agency Wealth Recovery International who specialize in gathering intelligence to fight binary options fraud. Young reached out to Wealth Recovery who helped him understand just how elaborate binary options scams can be.
