Trade with Caution! Victim Recounts Experience with GCMAsia Busted by Malaysian Police

On August 7, 2023, the Malaysian police conducted a raid against scam broker GCMAsia and arrested 101 suspects. GCMAsia was established in 2013, targeting a large number of Malaysian people over the course of the decade, guess the victims are glad to hear that it was busted by the police. A victim recently submitted a complaint to BrokersView, sharing his experience of being scammed by GCMAsia.

The user initially engaged in trading with GCMAsia in August 2022. According to the user, GCMAsia's employees used fake names to hide their false identities and deceive clients who did not know much about trading, promising excellent customer service and unrealistic returns. The user chose to trade with a minimum deposit of $100, but when he tried to withdraw his funds, he wasn’t allowed to do so and was ignored by the broker's staff.

At that time, Mr. Nazri (false identity), the account manager of GCMAsia, called him to urge him to deposit another large sum of money to increase the trading lots. The user was a little skeptical of GCMAsia at the moment, he did not believe that they had specific trading terms.

As of September 2022, the user decided to quit GCMAsia because he did not have a job or savings to afford the funds. When the user realized that GCMAsia was a scam, he was going to ignore the scam group, even though GCMAsia called him twice a few months ago.

Since the user's account was active for 180 days, his account had stopped trading. In June this year, Mr. Nazri made two more calls to him, but he ignored them. In July, the user received a spam email regarding payment of account dormancy fees. He was hesitant to reactivate his forex trading account, but then he thought that if he was not interested in trading with GCMAsia he should ignore it since he was not working.

The user blocked Mr. Nazri before deleting the MT4 app. He said that even though his trading account was not activated, he now felt relaxed. There were still spam emails in his inbox about account dormancy fees, but he didn't think he could or needed to activate his account anymore.

GCMAsia was able to operate for ten years before being seized by the police, it was already a very powerful fraud group. It relied on false regulatory claims and stealing regulatory information from legitimate companies to hoodwink investors and attempt to circumvent the law.

What can you do to avoid being scammed? 

The forex trading realm is rife with potential scams, with promises of quick riches and hidden fees lurking in the shadows, vigilance is your shield against falling victim to fraudulent forex brokers. 

When choosing a broker, you have to double-check that the broker's regulatory status is genuine and pay particular attention to whether it has stolen information from licensed companies.

Fraudsters are particularly good at misleading the public. Make sure that it is the broker itself not its supposed partner that is licensed. Or if it shares a license with a legitimate company it's also suspicious because it's likely unregulated per se.

Promises of high returns, ultra-low spreads, and large bonuses are usually an omen of scams, which fraudsters mainly use to lure investors into deposits. Don't easily believe in brokers' too-good-to-be-true promises.

If a broker calls you or sends you spam emails from time to time, block it immediately. The teams of compliant brokers will never harass their clients.

Scammers who trick users into depositing funds often continue to entice them to invest more money without allowing withdrawals. Be sure to realize that it is a scam and you should stop dealing with the broker immediately.