CWG Markets suspected scam; evades regulation, freezes withdrawals!

CWG Markets

CWG Markets is an established broker and a global provider of online financial products trading. Surprisingly, despite its longevity, there have been numerous unexpected complaints about the inability to withdraw funds.

After reviewing the complaints, it was found that many of them highlighted CWG Markets' use of various reasons to prevent withdrawals, ignoring regulatory authorities, and arbitrarily freezing investor accounts. This is especially true for complaints about not allowing withdrawals after profits are made. As an established broker, CWG Markets should build its long-term operations on the trust of its investors. How could such issues arise?

Variety of Official Websites with Different Information

During the investigation, it was discovered that CWG Markets has been mentioned across various platforms and media with multiple official website links. There are also reports from investors about fake brokers masquerading as CWG Markets. Therefore, starting from the official websites provided by CWG Markets, let's see what's really going on.

Official Website A: https://www.icwgmarkets.com/

Official Website B: https://www.cwgcn.com/

Both Official Website A and B display consistent page content and information, including five navigation buttons and five different account types. The declarations state that CWG MARKETS LTD holds a license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK and CWG Markets Ltd (VU) is regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC).

Official Website C: https://cwgmarkets.co.uk/

Compared to the others, the content on Official Website C is vastly different. It does not mention any promotions, does not support instant or Islamic accounts, and states that the website is operated by CWG MARKETS LTD, which is also a company regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Clearly, CWG MARKETS differentiates its audience in the process of brand operations, with inconsistent online promotions and some demographics not mentioned, leading to the question of who these "promotion activities", prohibited by the UK's regulatory body FSA, are actually open to?

Regulatory Status

In the Yao Dong Hui APP, one can easily find the regulatory information of CWG Markets, which is consistent with the declarations on Websites A and B.

However, upon checking the UK (FCA) official website for the license, it was discovered that CWG Markets' UK entity, CWG Markets Ltd, has been mimicked by numerous counterfeit companies. Investors should be cautious, as there's a chance of being defrauded by these impersonators during trading with CWG.

As for CWG Markets' licensed entity in Vanuatu, also named CWG Markets Ltd, this license is an offshore regulatory license issued by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC). Offshore regulation implies that the regulatory body oversees only a part of the broker's operations. This regulatory landscape is relatively lenient and largely unaffected by global regulatory policies, hence the regulatory value is not particularly high.

In the search for mainstream trading platforms MT4/MT5, the fundamental problem of investors being scammed was uncovered.

In MT4, the only two entities of CWG Markets that conduct real transactions are named 【CWG Markets Ltd..】. Unlike the license-holding company names researched earlier which don’t have two dots at the end, these represent two different entities, with 【CWG Markets Ltd..】 being unlicensed and unregulated. Many novice investors mistake the ending ".." as an ellipsis, leading them to be deceived.

The real transaction entities on the MT5 trading platform include 【CWG Markets Limited】 and 【CWG Markets Ltd.】

The license we found earlier is from Vanuatu's VFSC, not Saint Vincent's svgfsa. If they held a svgfsa license, why wouldn’t it be displayed in their online declarations? Therefore, we further investigate the Saint Vincent entity conducting real trades on MT5, 【CWG Markets Ltd.】, to see if it indeed holds a Saint Vincent regulatory svgfsa license.

On the official website of Saint Vincent’s svgfsa, a regulated CWG Markets entity named 【CWG Markets Ltd】 was found. However, MT5's trading entity is named 【CWG Markets Ltd.】.

Hence, the real trading entity of MT5, 【CWG Markets Ltd.】, is not regulated by the Saint Vincent regulatory body, svgfsa.

Although MT5 shows another entity under UK FCA regulation, 【CWG Markets Limited】, considering CWG Markets’ indirect methods and evasion of regulation, you might wonder if your account would trade with the strictly regulated 【CWG Markets Limited】 or with the other two completely unregulated entities.

The above information is a result of document-based research by YouTube to prevent unlawful brokers from using proprietary trading platforms to create an absolute control trading environment. This research is for reference purposes only. Please exercise caution and conduct your own verification before trading!