Mag Markets

Mag Markets Review: 4XC securities fraud clone scheme

Sep.20, 2021 in MLM Reviews

Mag Markets provides no information on their website about who owns or runs the company.

Mag Markets’ website domain (“magmarkets.com”) was privately registered in December 2020.

Mag Markets’ domain was registered through a German registrar. The company’s website also has native German language elements:

 

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Mag Markets claims its “regulated by the FSC”.

The company follows the regulated laws highlighted by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

MAGMarkets is operating under the legal umbrella of Geomatrix Ltd, which is audited by BDO and under the €20000 Financial Commission’s Compensation Fund.

Geomatrix Ltd is a shell company incorporated in the Cook Islands. Mag Markets appears to have obtained a financial license in the Cook Islands through Geomatrix.

For the purpose of MLM due-diligence, this is meaningless. Mag Markets has no business operations in the Cook Islands.

The Cook Islands is one of those tiny South Pacific nations scammers love to incorporate in, primarily because there’s little to no active MLM regulation.

MLM companies incorporating shell companies to launder money through is a due-diligence red flag.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.

Mag Markets’ Products

Mag Markets has no retailable products or services.

Affiliates are only able to market Mag Markets affiliate membership itself.

Mag Markets’ Compensation Plan

Mag Markets charges a fee to access their passive trading bots.

Classic – $100 (“classic account for new traders”)
mBTC/mETH – $100 (“the crypto accounts”)
Raw Account – $1000 (“the raw account for more experienced traders”)
VIP – $5000 (“for high-net-worth individuals”)
Specific differences between the accounts, with respect to trading, are not provided.

Referral Commissions

Mag Markets pays referral commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Mag Markets limits referral commissions down five unilevel team levels.

For every client who signs up through your unique Affiliate link, you – the ‘Master Affiliate – will earn a commission based on traded Lots by each referral.

If one of your referred traders refers another trader to the platform, the Master Affiliate will continue to earn a further commission per lot traded.

Referral commissions are paid on funds invested and fees charged. Specific commission rates are not provided.

Joining Mag Markets

Mag Markets affiliate membership costs between $100 to $5000 (see compensation intro above).

Conclusion

Mag Markets is your typical passive trading bot securities fraud scheme.

The company admits as much by blocking US residents from accessing their website.

This is an attempt at pseudo-compliance, owing to the US’ SEC being the world’s most active securities regulator.

In Mag Markets’ pseudo-compliance message, the company inadvertently discloses a tie to “4XC”.

4XC stands for “4XCube”, another passive investment trading bot securities fraud scheme.

Mag Markets is a clone of 4XC’s business opportunity. 4XC has the same Cook Islands Geomatrix shell company setup.

Both Mag Markets and 4XC companies are likely run by the same scammers.

What 4XC has that Mag Markets doesn’t have is a YouTube channel, on which we find 4XC CEO Joao Monteiro.

Monteiro (right) is a Portuguese citizen living in Cyprus. Like the Cook Islands, Cyprus is another scam-friendly jurisdiction with no active regulation of MLM fraud.

Monteiro’s LinkedIn profile details his involvement in several trading companies, dating back to 2008.

Absent is 8topuz, yet another forex “ai trading” scheme.

8topuz offers an easy to access AI-based automated investment system to effectively help you grow your wealth regardless of your knowledge in trading.

Current 8topuz clients are obtaining an average 2 to 4% monthly return on investment using our AI algorithms.

Investing into 8topuz will set you back $500, $10,000 or $100,000+.

Like 4XC and Mag Markets, 8topuz is a tangled mess of shell companies:

8topuz Wealth Fintech LLC is registered in Saint Vincent and Grenadines under Company Number 717LLC2020

8topuz Wealth Fintech Ltd is registered in Cyprus under Company Number HE396701 and an official trading partner of FX Capital. FX Capital MA Ltd is not independently regulated by the FCA.

FX Capital MA Ltd is a signal provider to Pelican Trading.

Pelican Trading is a trading name of London & Eastern LLP, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, ref 534484.

Registered address: 85 Great Portland Street, First Floor, London, W1 W7LT.

8topuz is an Investment Advisor for Coeus Capital BV, a private limited liability company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands, with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce Register under the number 81976763.

Such are the hoops one must jump through to obtain banking channels to run your fraudulent business.

Anyway, a visit to 8topus’ official Facebook page reveals a “partnership” between 8topus and the notorious UAE Al Qasimi royal crime family.

BehindMLM is familiar with the Al Qasimis through their ties to the even more notorious OneCoin Ponzi scheme.

There’s probably more to the Joao Monteiro Al Qasimi rabbit-hole, but for the purpose of Mag Markets due-diligence, I’ll leave it there.

The “but we can’t touch your money!” securities fraud model ends in one of two ways;

either the admin rigs trades in their favor and exit-scams; or
the bot blows up.
Either way gullible investors lose their money. And best of luck trying to recover anything from Monteiro’s web of dodgy jurisdiction shell companies.

Mr Joao Paulo De Sousa Magalhaes Monteiro

Person with significant control

https://www.facebook.com/JoaoMonteiroFXTrading

[email protected]

[email protected]

Joao Monteiro, John Goddard, Joao Severino of 4xcube, Cyprus.

4xc – another company name change – scammers – fraudsters

4xcube and 8topuz and now rebranded to https://4xc.com and this is why:

Directors Joao Monteiro, John Goddard, Joao Severino of 4xcube, Cyprus.

https://4xcube.com

Directors Joao Monteiro, John Goddard, Joao Severino of 8topuz, Cyprus.

Fraudster Angelo Aristodimou, Managing Director, working together with 8topuz, Cyprus scammers working together.

McMillan Woods Cyprus has been assisting 8topuz Wealth Fintech since day one, mostly regarding Accounting and Auditing of our services.

We are extremely pleased with our collaboration and with their level of service.

Our software is the result of artificial intelligence, and our business is based on full transparency.

Abdulkader Aden MANAGING PARTNER, 8TOPUZ

All Cyprus scammers working together – deleting scam news together whilst we scam more people.

Cyprus Scammers working together

200 Archiepiskopou Makariou III Avenue, 1st Floor, Office 102, 2311 – Lakatamia, Nicosia, Cyprus

+357 22 276000

[email protected]

Many articles and videos posted online, here are a few

Paid articles Paid fake awards

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8M–bWvaebA

 

Exclusive: Offshore FX broker 4xCube rebrands as 4XC

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F0FecmOoDVU

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wPLblFQbwVU

 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xHL9aHXNcEM

 

 

 

https://medium.com/@4XC/4xcwho-is-joao-monteiro-of-4xc-online-trading-company-ecfde68089b5

Scammers

https://medium.com/@jmonteiro.speciale/the-benefits-of-artificial-intelligence-algorithmic-trading-in-todays-investing-70a2e39f31ec

 

Unfortunately, we can’t recommend 4xCube due to the lack of serious regulation, as long as safety measures always go first the regulated status is the only that can confirm the implemented security. Overall, we would better advise choosing among the Regulated brokers from the resected and reputable entities that prove their status with the constant check on of the operation by the industry authorities.

Warning!!! Scam ⚠️ Scammers ⚠️

John Goddard – Chief Financial Officer for 4xcube. Consults also for 3D Global, Cyprus. Refused to comment.

Joao Monteiro & Joao Severino

Previously these owners was of USI Tech (scammed a reported £80 million).

8topuz  provides an Intelligent, supervised, multi-layered, AI Trading Software system that learns and adapts according to its environment.

Warning!!! Scam ⚠️ Scammers ⚠️

Joao is lead developer and likes to use a Martingale strategy. This is pure gambling as the odds of the market is not what he advertises to his followers.

Joao advertises from multiple fake profiles using social media and email marketing.

Warning!!! Scam ⚠️ Scammers ⚠️ Warning ⚠️ this company has stolen millions from investors from over 70 countries.

https://4xcube.com

All awards shown on https://8topuz.com are paid for by review sites. Paid for… everyone because the real traders actually perform trades.

Audit accounts still show address:

[email protected]

+359 56916949

2 Vasil Aprilov, 2nd floor

8000

Burgas

Bulgaria

 

 

About 8topuz

8topuz was founded as a result of a deep understanding of the FX market and the director’s interest in automating trading using advanced technology and AI.

Warning ⚠️ They have lost every account they have managed accept a few small amounts. They have only 1 year of historic accounts not 15 years. ⚠️

8topuz has only 1 year, not fifteen years of software development.

Its product was initially tailored to retail investors, but as they moved forward, they adapted to the market in two different scenarios, 8topuz understood that it could also be a very useful risk management tool for banks and investment funds and other institutional clients. With its ability to adapt to any market scenario, 8topuz now caters to institutional clients, hedge funds, retail investors and banks, so that it can be either B2B or B2C.

They have lied gain and again to get funding from Dubai. They will just use their brand as their current one is a reputation disaster.

Warning!!! Scam ⚠️ Scammers ⚠️

Warning!!! Scam ⚠️ Scammers ⚠️ Warning ⚠️ this company has stolen millions from investors from over 70 countries.

Paid Auditors Only, Cyprus

Warning!!! Scam ⚠️ Scammers ⚠️

A company called USI Tech?

Warning!!! Scam ⚠️ Scammers ⚠️ Warning ⚠️ this company has stolen millions from investors from over 70 countries.

What we do know is that Joao Severino, Joao Monteiro, John Goddard, Mike Kiefer,  Mark ghobril and Ralf Gold founded the project. Before starting USI Tech, Severino was banned from all financial activity in Portugal because of his involvement with another scam company called AMC Invest. Even worse, Ralph Gold had been involved in all sort of Ponzi scheme companies. These included AdsProfitReward, MX Fast Money, World Consumer Alliance, HourlyRevShare, AdsProfitWiz, APR Clicks, and Upper Game.

For the most part, USI-Tech investors appear to have come to terms with having lost their money in a Ponzi scheme.

December 2017: USI Tech receives a cease-and-desist order from the Texas State Securities Board.

Thank you for the individuals that have been held on a gagging order yet still brave enough to speak out and supply evidence against the true villains of this fake company run by scammers.

Thank you to all that was involved in getting this message correctly formatted.

https://karen-cherry.medium.com/8topuz-review-759869c06c2d

https://menafn.com/1101152648/8topuz-Continues-To-Disrupt-The-Fintech-Space

Head of Digital

Anthony Munns

+44 203 695 3583

[email protected]

Anthony James

Global Fintech News

+357 96 243309

email us here

8topuz AI Automated Investing

According to its website, “8topuz is Automated Artificial Intelligence software for trading in the Currency Market”. This was just what I needed; at last I had found an AI solution to boost my forex trading!

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some software that could place trades for me and learn from the results. If the AI worked, every winning trade could be replicated and every losing trade would teach the software what to avoid next time. The result: more winners, less losers.

I was ready to sign up immediately.

But then things started to get weird.

The 8topuz website has instructions that explain how to integrate the AI software. Screenshot captured by author from 8topuz.com, July 2020

Where’s the AI?

According to 8topuz.com, “8topuz provides an Intelligent, supervised, multi-layered, AI Trading Software system that learns and adapts according to its environment.”

Automated trading is usually achieved by installing trading ‘robot’ software that interacts with a trading platform on the trader’s own device. The most popular trading platform is MetaTrader4 (MT4), which supports automated trading.

8topuz has ‘partner brokers’ that use MetaTrader4, so they would be able to handle automated trading.

All good so far. But when I tried to buy the AI software, I couldn’t find a way to do it.

I contacted 8topuz to find out more.

In response, I received an email from an 8topuz ‘Fintech Specialist’, a man called Robert. In the email, Robert asked me how much I wanted to invest and described some investment ‘accounts’ I could open.

Investment accounts? What did that have to do with AI? I emailed Robert asking him to tell me more and sent him my phone number. He called within the hour; a call that originated in Cyprus. Which was odd because his email footer placed him in Dubai.

Robert didn’t seem to be familiar with MetaTrader software nor how other automated trading systems are used by forex traders. But he did help me to understand the 8topuz products on offer. There are two products and neither of them are AI software. It all sounded pretty weird.

At the end of the call I was directed back to the signup webpage, where I could create a forex trading account with one of 8topuz’ ‘partner brokers’. Then I had to deposit funds into the new account. This was the investment product that 8topuz was selling? And I had to sign a client agreement with 8topuz.

But wait, the so-called ‘investment’ funds would be in my own forex trading account. Huh?

Seemed like a weird type of investment.

So far I had found out that:

(1) 8topuz does not sell or license AI software and

(2) any funds that were used in 8topuz’s ‘investment’ products would be held in an account owned by me… essentially my funds, under my control. That didn’t sound like any investment I had ever heard of.

It was time to dig a little deeper.

The special broker

8topuz’s partner brokers all appear to be legitimate, properly-regulated forex trading brokers. Except for one. If you want to participate in the cheaper investment option — the Lifestyle Account — you have to sign up with a broker called 4xCube.

An internet search for 4xCube reviews turns up quite a lot of upset traders.

Not all the reviews were bad, though; I did find some positive reviews. The positive reviews mostly contained affiliate links, meaning the reviewers were receiving commission from 4xCube for sending customers to them.

The only positive review I found that didn’t contain an affiliate link was attributed to a writer with no surname and no photograph, who writes under the Medium handle @4xcube.

 

 

<img alt=”” class=”fj es eo jb w” src=”https://miro.medium.com/max/2200/1*HXSDABAjg59XumUzrZSf8w.png” width=”1100″ height=”915″ srcSet=”https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*HXSDABAjg59XumUzrZSf8w.png 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*HXSDABAjg59XumUzrZSf8w.png 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*HXSDABAjg59XumUzrZSf8w.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*HXSDABAjg59XumUzrZSf8w.png 700w” sizes=”700px” role=”presentation”/>

The only positive 4xCube review I could find that does not contain affiliate links was written by ‘Anthony’. Screenshot captured by author from https://medium.com/@4xcube, July 2020

4xCube tells its website visitors that it is licensed in The Cook Islands. There is certainly a listing on the Financial Supervisory Commission of the Cook Islands for the company that is said to own 4xCube, Geomatrix Ltd. That company has a license for money-changing businesses. Forex trading is not money changing, it is buying and selling of contracts for difference (CFDs).

I wasn’t sure about this. To me, it seemed that 4xCube might not be a good place to put my money. If I wanted to get involved with 8topuz I would need to use one of their other partner brokers.

The other brokers all seemed to be completely above-board. There was one problem though. To invest with 8topuz using one of those brokers, Robert told me I must deposit a minimum of $25K.

No demos

AIs are cheap to run.

Robert had already told me the 8topuz AI runs on the MT4 platform, although not on the trader’s own device. If it works on MT4, it should work on a demo trading account. But 8topuz doesn’t allow demo accounts.

I couldn’t think of any reason why a demo account would not be allowed. Unless the trading is done partially by human traders. Could that be it?

Mysterious investment pricing

But first, the pricing. To participate in the ‘investment’ product with a well-respected broker, rather than 4xCube, you must deposit at least $25K. Why?

Robert told me that having $25K in an account gives you “better ability to manage your risk” and control draw-down. Now, I’m not an expert trader by any means, but I know enough to know that’s rubbish. I have a very small trading account but have the same ability to manage risk as traders with large accounts. Plus, surely a good AI robot would manage risk and draw-down as part of the algorithm?

None of this was making sense. Even a novice trader wouldn’t let a trading robot operate without well-defined stop losses and proper risk management, no matter how small or large the account. There did not seem to be a good reason for 8topuz to insist on such a large investment for new customers.

However, the $25K limit makes more sense when you consider that 8topuz might be collecting commissions for new customers who sign up with their ‘partner brokers’. A larger deposit means a bigger commission. The broker links on 8topuz.com look like affiliate (referral) links. I took a closer look at the 8topuz client agreement. It is essentially an agreement that allows 8topuz Consulting LLC to introduce you to a broker. And it specifically states:

“The client has no right to ask the Agent for trading recommendations or other information… the Agent may provide trading recommendations at their discretion, but bears no responsibility….”

If you sign up with 8topuz you are signing up to receive nothing at all. But you are allowing them to receive commissions from brokers. Mystery solved. Almost.

What about 4xCube?

If 8topuz are collecting affiliate commissions from ‘partner brokers’ for large accounts, what happens when 8topuz clients sign up for small accounts with 4xcube?

4xCube is a bit different to the other partner brokers. They have a model called PAMM (percentage allocation management module). Under a PAMM model, a ‘money manager’ can trade money deposited by their clients.

Robert told me that when an 8topuz investor signs up for a PAMM account with 4xCube, 8topuz will trade their money for them. The investor can see the results of trades in their account but does not have any control over them.

The 4xCube PAMM option with 8topuz does not make use of the MT4 platform. This means that investors do not get a visual representation of currency prices or movements as they relate to the trades.

Unhappy traders

An internet search of 4xCube reveals that some of the money managers who have used 4xCube in the past may not have done a great job with their client’s money. But hey, that’s hardly 4xCube’s fault, is it?

On the other hand, no legitimate forex broker would want to be involved with money managers who have been accused of running scams and pyramid schemes.

Among the public comments about 4xCube there is one that alleges common ownership between 8topuz and 4xCube. It is alleged that the owners of both organisations include Joao Monteiro and John Goddard, who are said to live in Cyprus. It was Joao Monteiro who wrote the Medium article that first introduced me to 8topuz.

Footers on both the 8topuz and 4xCube websites disclose ownership of the organisations (sort of). Business names are listed but details such as registration numbers and countries of registration are omitted. This makes it impossible to find out about the people involved.

Coincidentally, websites for both businesses have the same theme, home page layout, chat bot plugin and translation plugins.

 

 

<img alt=”” class=”fj es eo jb w” src=”https://miro.medium.com/max/3740/1*qJLnzI6fQ8jtxpSDlVxhCA.png” width=”1870″ height=”988″ srcSet=”https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*qJLnzI6fQ8jtxpSDlVxhCA.png 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1006/1*qJLnzI6fQ8jtxpSDlVxhCA.png 503w” sizes=”503px” role=”presentation”/>

 

 

<img alt=”” class=”fj es eo jb w” src=”https://miro.medium.com/max/3726/1*SQemRVIO2nqDBNI8hMyiZw.png” width=”1863″ height=”993″ srcSet=”https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*SQemRVIO2nqDBNI8hMyiZw.png 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/996/1*SQemRVIO2nqDBNI8hMyiZw.png 498w” sizes=”498px” role=”presentation”/>

The websites for 8topuz (left) and 4xCube (right) have identical themes, chat plugins and translation plugins. Screenshots captured by author, July 2020

Magic trading systems

So far, I had found that some of 8topuz’ revenue appeared to be derived from broker commissions. And that there may be a financial link between 8topuz and the broker that provides their cheaper ‘investment’ account, 4xCube.

But the 8topuz website promises great returns for ‘investors’ month after month. And they claim that this comes from AI trading.

In the 4xCube (PAMM) accounts, it appears that investors’ money is controlled by 8topuz, who makes trades using the investors’ funds. Whether or not the trades are executed by AI software, or simply by a person using information from AI software is unclear.

The PAMM trading model is not compatible with the ‘partner broker’ accounts that 8topuz recommends for investors with more than $25K to spend.

Robert confirmed that for the non-PAMM accounts, investors’ funds are held in a forex trading account in the investor’s name with a partner broker of their choice. Investors can see trades being executed in their account on MT4 WebTrader. However, he told me that if I invested in this way I would not be able to participate in any trades in any way whatsoever. Even though the trades would be executed using my money inside my account.

How can this be?

Because, I was told, if I want to participate, I would have to sign a power of attorney that gives 8topuz the right to act on my behalf.

A power of attorney. What the actual fuck.

The search continues

I don’t plan to provide 8topuz with a power of attorney so that they can do whatever they like with my money. Nor do I intend to send my money to a broker that is licensed (sort of) in The Cook Islands.

But if you have some spare funds that you aren’t too fond of, you should take a look at what 8topuz has to offer.

Let me know how it goes for you.

P.S. I haven’t quite given up my search for an AI forex trading system. But it ain’t looking good.

Update: 8topuz has responded to this piece. Their reasons for not offering demo accounts include the fact that demo accounts would allow their competitors to scrutinize their systems and would allow people to copy their trades. That seems fair to me. 8topuz has also stated that they do not necessarily receive commissions from all their partner brokers. Regarding 4xCube, 8topuz explained that the PAMM model is actually giving some of their best returns. For the full response, check out the comments.