How big are trading and investment scams?
They lead every loss table. The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report records $8,648,617,756 lost to investment fraud from 72,984 complaints, with cryptocurrency investment fraud alone at $7.2 billion. The FTC reported $7.9 billion lost to investment scams in 2025, more than any other category, in its March 2026 testimony. The BBB ranked investment and cryptocurrency scams the riskiest type in its 2025 Risk Report, with a median loss of $5,000.
Forex trading: is it a scam?
No: currency trading is a real, regulated activity, and most retail traders use licensed brokers. The scam is the unlicensed platform that imitates a broker. Its signs are consistent:
- No authorisation you can verify. The site says “regulated” but the firm is not in the register of the regulator it names, or it names a regulator from a country where it does not operate.
- Guaranteed or steady returns: a fixed percentage per day or per month.
- An account manager who calls you, pushes larger deposits and discourages withdrawals.
- Withdrawal conditions that appear only when you ask: a “tax”, a fee or a minimum volume to unlock your money.
- Deposits by crypto or bank transfer only, to accounts in another company’s name.
- A clone: the name and registration number of an authorised firm, with a different website or phone number.
Is AI trading a scam?
AI is used by real trading firms, but “AI trading bots” sold to retail investors with promised returns are a fraud pattern regulators have warned about. The CFTC’s advisory “AI Won’t Turn Trading Bots into Money Machines”, published in January 2024, states that AI technology cannot predict the future or sudden market changes. The same month, the SEC, NASAA and FINRA issued a joint investor alert on AI and investment fraud.
Scam platforms also use deepfake videos of public figures to advertise. A promotional video can go through the deepfake video detector, but a celebrity endorsement is never a reason to trust a platform: authorisation is.
Regulator warning lists: the FCA, the AMF and others
Regulators publish the names and websites of firms that operate without authorisation. The UK FCA has a Warning List of unauthorised firms next to its Financial Services Register of authorised ones. France’s AMF publishes blacklists for forex, binary options, crypto-assets, miscellaneous goods and impersonation, and says they cannot be exhaustive.
That last point applies everywhere: a firm missing from a warning list is not therefore authorised. Check both sides: not warned against, and present in the register of your own country’s regulator.
What the Business Check does for a trading platform
When a site offers investment, trading, crypto or payments, the Business Check runs two regulation checks on top of the usual ones (registry, people, domain age, Safe Browsing, reputation, AI review of promises such as guaranteed returns or crypto-only payment):
- A search of regulator warning pages (FCA, AMF, CySEC, ASIC, CONSOB, CNMV, BaFin, FINMA, FSMA, IOSCO, SEC, CFTC) for the site’s domain and name. A warning page naming the domain costs 35 points and caps the score at 44. A warning that names only a similar company name is shown as a possible clone to read yourself.
- A lookup in the UK FCA register when the site mentions FCA regulation. Claims about other regulators, such as “regulated by CySEC”, are reported as not verifiable in this version: open that regulator’s register to confirm.
Business Check · Free preview
Check a trading or crypto platform: regulator warning lists, FCA register, company registry, domain age and the promises on the site.
Any free account can run a Business Check (3 credits, out of 10 free credits a month) and see how many checks ran and how many warning signs came up. The full report, with the score, the company, the people and every source, is on the Business plan ($49 a month), with a manual review by our team within 48 hours when the AI cannot confirm everything.
For investment platforms, always check the regulator of your own country before sending money. The company check explains how registry matches are confirmed, and the scam website checker lists every check.
Frequently asked questions
Is forex trading a scam?
No. Forex trading is a regulated activity offered by licensed brokers. The scams are unlicensed platforms that promise steady returns, push deposits and block withdrawals. Check that the broker is authorised by your country’s regulator and absent from its warning list.
Is AI trading a scam?
AI trading as such is not, but bots sold with promised returns are a known fraud pattern. The CFTC warned in January 2024 that AI technology cannot predict the future or sudden market changes. Treat any guaranteed return as a warning sign.
How do I check if a broker is on the FCA Warning List?
Search the firm’s name and website on the FCA Warning List page, then look it up in the FCA Financial Services Register. Our Business Check searches regulator warning pages, the FCA’s among them, for the site’s domain and name.
The platform won’t let me withdraw unless I pay a fee. What should I do?
Do not pay. Withdrawal fees and taxes demanded before release are a common pattern of fraudulent platforms. Report the platform to your regulator and, in the US, to the FBI at ic3.gov, and keep every message and transaction record.