ICG Professional – The Disturbing Facts about the Broker
These disturbing facts that you learn about ICG Professional all prove one thing; the broker is dangerous and an outright scam, which means it should be avoided.
ICG Professional
Looking for an online broker? With the cryptocurrency market enjoying a huge bout of popularity, millions of people all over the world are jumping onto this bandwagon. Like other financial instruments that are traded, you will need the services of a broker to get access to the crypto market as well. Considering the heavy traffic in this market, thousands of brokerages have been established to provide people with crypto trading opportunities. But, this ICG Professional review shows that not all these entities can be trusted.
The crypto market is still relatively new and not many people have knowledge about how it works. This is the one thing that has benefitted criminals and fraudsters because they use this lack of knowledge and awareness to con people out of their hard-earned money. The crypto space is filled to the brim with stories of people losing their money to one crypto fraud, or the other. Do you want to be just another number? Unless you don’t mind handing your money over to criminals, you should be careful about which broker you decide to use for jumping into the market.
Sure, it is natural to be confused because of the sheer number of options that you will find and as people are eager to begin, they may not look very closely at the company. Doing so can result in disaster because the brokerage may not be telling you the whole story. This is the case with ICG Professional that does its best to pass itself off as a properly licensed and legitimate platform that has its offices in the United Kingdom and Russia.
The offers at ICG Professional seem to be very lucrative and many people would find it difficult to resist, but if you take the time to take a close look, you will uncover some disturbing facts about it. What are they? Let’s take a look.
False regulation claims
If there is one fact that will be disturbing about any broker, it will be their lack of regulation. Bear in mind that no authentic and genuine company would ever choose to not get a proper license to operate in a country before they decide to provide their services. In most jurisdictions, doing so would be illegal and if a broker is willing to break one law, it can break another and con you. Therefore, would you want to risk using such a brokerage?
Doing so leaves you vulnerable, so it is best to opt for a brokerage that is properly regulated and licensed. Unfortunately, you will be disturbed when you check out ICG Professional because even though it does claim about being regulated, it is lying outright. The brokerage claims that it is regulated in the United Kingdom and has even posted a local certificate of incorporation. However, this certificate is worthless if the brokerage is not listed in the online register of the UK’s regulatory body.
This is known as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and ICG Professional has claimed that it is even audited and the FCA can hold it accountable. But, all of this is just a big lie because when you do run the broker’s name in the online register, you will turn up empty. In fact, you will find that the FCA has actually blacklisted ICG Professional and this is all the confirmation you need about the company not being trustworthy or legitimate.
No decent brokerage would ever use Gmail as a way of corporate communication, yet ICG Professional does so and is another indicator that you are dealing with a sham.
No professional trading platform
Things will only continue to get disturbing as you look into ICG Professional because it is clearly not what it pretends to be. The trading platform of a brokerage is one of its most important features, as it gives you access to the market and allows you to open and close trades. In addition, the platform is usually equipped with the tools used for doing the actual trading, so it is extremely important.
The problem with ICG Professional is that the trading platform they provide is nothing to write home about. It is a web platform that you will find available at many brokers that have been proven to be scams and it is extremely basic and oversimplified. A professional broker, on the other hand, would usually offer you the MT4, or the MT5 trading platforms that are renowned for their advanced technology and tools.
Excessive leverage ratio
Leverage is one of the important trading conditions you need to know about because it shows what kind of flexibility you can expect during the trading process. You will find that ICG Professional is offering leverage ratios as high as 1:500. While some people may find it impressive, you should actually be disturbed by this offering for two reasons.
First off, such high leverage ratios are downright dangerous because they can lead to heavy losses. Secondly, ICG Professional claims to be regulated by the FCA in the UK and yet it is offering such high leverage and this should also disturb you. It is because the FCA has imposed a cap on the leverage that can be offered to retail traders and it is not more than 1:30. Yet, it seems that ICG Professional is breaking the rules, which further proves that it is not regulated at all.
Lying about payment methods
Another disturbing fact about ICG Professional is that it outright lies about its payment methods as well. It claims to offer VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, ApplePay, GPay, Skrill and Neteller, most of which give you the option of chargeback. Thus, you will be reassured that you can get your money back in case of a problem.
But, this is a lie because the actual payment methods that ICG Professional supports are bank wire transfers and QIWI Wallet, none of which give you the option of chargeback.
Conclusion
These disturbing facts that you learn about ICG Professional all prove one thing; the broker is dangerous and an outright scam, which means it should be avoided.