Guide
If you have already paid
What is worth doing first, who can actually act, and what nobody can do for you.
Warning: “recovery” offers
Anyone who contacts you offering to recover your money for a fee is running the second half of the same scam. No regulator, bank, or lawyer charges an advance fee to release funds, and no one can promise a recovery. Treat every such offer, letter, and phone call as an attack.
What to do now
Stop making payments today
A request for one more payment to release your balance — a tax, a fee, a verification deposit — is not a condition of withdrawal. It is the next step of the loss.
Write it down while it's fresh
Dates, amounts, the account you paid into, the names people used, the site address. This is what every complaint form will ask for, and what nobody can reconstruct for you later.
Tell the bank or card issuer that took the payment
They decide on refunds and chargebacks, not us and not the broker. Time limits are set by the card scheme and run from the payment, so this is the step that rewards speed above all others.
Complain to the regulator that issued the licence
If the broker has a licence, the issuing authority is the one that can act. Its name and number are on our card for that firm; send the complaint to that authority, not the one in your country.
Report it locally as well
A local report rarely returns money, but it is what places a firm on a warning list — which is how the next person finds out before paying.
Getting money back
Your bank or card issuer
The only route that can move money back. Ask for the dispute or chargeback procedure in writing.
The broker's licensing regulator
It oversees the licence, can open a case and publish a warning. It cannot guarantee a refund.
Keep these
- every email and chat log with the firm, exported, not screenshotted
- the payment receipts, with the card, account or wallet used
- screenshots of the account page showing the balance and any blocked withdrawal
- the licence number the site displayed when you signed up
Sourceswww.cysec.gov.cyregisters.esma.europa.euregisters.esma.europa.eubappebti.go.idregisters.esma.europa.euafsa.aifc.kzwww.gov.kzwww.pmex.com.pkwww.psx.com.pkwww.secp.gov.pkregisters.esma.europa.euwww.knf.gov.plregisters.esma.europa.eufsaseychelles.scwww.vfsc.vuwww.fsca.co.za
If you have already paid
What is worth doing first, who can actually act, and what nobody can do for you.
Paste the link you were sent, or type the company name.
The register holds the legal company, the site advertises the brand. We match on both, so a trading name finds the company that actually holds the licence.
16 registers4,001 records0 not read yetData read 2026-10-28