Before you fund an account anywhere — including with a broker on our own verified list — run these checks yourself. They take a few minutes and rely only on regulators' own public records, not on marketing claims.
Never rely on a "regulated by..." badge or license number shown on the broker's own website — an image or a number is trivial to fake or copy from a real firm. Go to the regulator directly and search by the company's exact legal name.
ASIC Connect's professional register (for Australian-licensed firms), the FCA Financial Services Register (for UK-licensed firms), and CySEC's register (for Cyprus-licensed firms) are the most common for forex/CFD brokers. Most other regulators — FSCA, DFSA, FSA Seychelles, and so on — publish an equivalent public register.
The license status is active (not revoked, suspended, or expired), the license number matches what the broker states, the permitted activities actually cover forex/CFD trading, and the registered company name matches exactly — not just a similar-sounding name.
A license belongs to a specific legal entity — not to a brand name or a website. Clone firms exploit this gap by using a real, regulated broker's name and license number while operating a completely different, unregulated website.
They should match. A UK FCA-licensed entity operating from an address with no connection to the license record is a warning sign.
If it does, confirm it's the exact domain you're being asked to sign up on — not a lookalike domain with an extra letter or different extension.
Regulators publish these specifically to flag firms impersonating licensed brokers or operating without any license at all.
Clone and unlicensed firms tend to share the same handful of tactics. None of these alone is definitive proof, but more than one together is a strong reason to stop.
You were contacted out of the blue — by phone, social media DM, or messaging app — by someone claiming to represent a broker or offering to manage a trading account for you.
Any promise of guaranteed profits, "risk-free" trading, or consistently high returns is inconsistent with how markets actually work.
Repeated pressure to deposit additional funds to "unlock" a withdrawal, cover a made-up tax or fee, or reach a bonus threshold.
Deposits are fast and easy; withdrawal requests are delayed, partially fulfilled, or met with new conditions that weren't disclosed upfront.
No legitimate broker needs to remotely control your computer or trading terminal to "help" you trade.
After losing money to a scam, being contacted by someone who offers — for an upfront fee — to recover the funds. This is almost always a second scam targeting the same victim.
Our 5 verified brokers have already been through these same checks, re-confirmed against the regulator's register. That doesn't replace doing your own check on any broker you're considering — regulation status can change.
Forex and CFD trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. "Verified" on this site means a broker's regulatory license and company details checked out against the relevant regulator's public register at the time of our review - it is not a guarantee of future performance or an endorsement by any regulator. Fake Forex Brokers may receive compensation from the brokers listed here when you sign up through our links, at no additional cost to you. This does not affect which brokers pass our verification checks.