When people are looking for opportunities to make money, they use any means. One of the simplest and most attractive options seems to them to be trading on the stock exchange. But, unfortunately, there are many scammers in this area who are ready to do anything to lure money from their gullible victims (binary options scammers).
Employees of the brokerage company Yardoption (https://yardoption.com), according to clients, masterfully play on feelings, forcing them to invest all their savings in their trades (read reviews about the broker Yardoption on the website This is a scam™). Today we will consider this company in more detail.
Inconsistencies between the addresses of the Yardoption broker
The yardoption.com website has the following address: Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Centre, P.O. Box 1510, Beachmont Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines. At the same time, employees answer customers to calls from London and Moscow. And the broker received a license in the Republic of Vanuatu. The local financial regulator is referred to by Yardoption. There is no license on the site.
There is no analysis of “blue chips” on the yardoption.com website
Serious brokerage companies always publish on their websites reviews and forecasts for shares of the most reliable corporations, such as Alrosa, Surgutneftegaz, Polyus Gold, NLMK, Magnit (rating of binary options brokers). These are the so-called “blue chips” – the most liquid securities that significantly reduce the risk of losses for novice traders. They are the safest choice for the investor. But the Yardoption broker does not post such analytics on the site.
No QUIK terminal
Legal brokers give traders the opportunity to quickly and conveniently place orders through the QUIK terminal (via the application or web version). BCS Broker, Otkritie, Sberbank, VTB provide customers with this universally recognized tool. The QUIK terminal is not even mentioned on the yardoption.com website.
YardOption Regulatory Documents
“We have the right to collect your information directly from you or others, including fraud prevention agencies, banks and other institutions” – in this wording, the company informs its customers in clause 1.1., from whom they have the right to request information about them.
In the AML Policy, the broker says that it will require copies of utility bills from the client in order to clarify the actual address. Citizens of the United States, Israel and other countries with strict criminal law, if they were deceived by fraudsters, will be able to defend their rights and seek justice.
Clause 5.2 states that “the client must pay all amounts payable, including commissions and other costs set by the company.” The broker does not give examples of “other” expenses.
Brokers reserve the right to suspend the maintenance of a trading account without any reason or explanation.
The “Risk Disclosure” section states that the only source of information about quotes is the platform of the broker itself. But if “the main server is the only reliable source of information,” then how does the client know if the information is relevant to the state of affairs in the market?
And if the client is not satisfied with something, then he can apply to the Caribbean court, since “this agreement is governed by the laws and jurisdiction of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.” Does a simple client of the post-Soviet space really have money for such a trip?
Reputation yardoption.com on the Internet
If you type in the query “Yardoption reviews” in the Yandex line, then on the very first page we will be greeted by more than 80% of links with negative reviews about the “deceitful broker”, as users themselves call it (complaints about binary options brokers).
Customer Reviews
Along with the positive reviews that real customers consider bought, there are a lot of negative reviews about Yardoption online. The broker is called a “scammer”, and his activities are called “financial slavery” (a blacklist of binary options brokers).
How the Yardoption broker stole more than 5.5 million rubles: the story of the victims
This story began in March 2019, when the victim’s girlfriend received a call from a man. His name was David Ross, he was supposedly a successful businessman and lived in Cyprus. In the process of communication, it turned out that he earns on the stock exchange as additional income. Ross introduced the woman to Sergey Stern, who identified himself as an analyst at YardOption. At first, it looked like communication and a developing relationship between a man and a woman, Sergey did not offer to trade on the stock exchange.
A little later it turned out that the woman had recently bought an apartment and made repairs in it, but she was dissatisfied with the size of the apartment and wanted more housing. Stern, having chosen the right moment, advised the woman to sell the apartment, open an account with Yardoption and buy a luxury home in a few months. Initially, a $200 trading account was opened, which very quickly turned into $400. The victim realized that the system was working, and without hesitation sold the apartment. In addition, she took a loan from the bank for 2 million rubles, and deposited all the money into a trading account.
After that, the woman decided to share her successes with a friend and introduced her to Stern. He acted according to a proven scheme: he began with romantic courtship. He talked about big incomes. This was enough for the victim to take 2 million rubles from her father and open a trading account on the broker’s website yardoption.com. Stern “kindly helped” her to do this with the help of the AnyDesk remote access program – this is how access to information about personal data stored on the victim’s computer was obtained. Stern sent transfers to the cards of individuals. This led to the accrual of “bonuses” in the amount of $ 5000 to the new victim. The money was credited to the trading account, and Stern asked to sign an application for crediting bonuses retroactively.
The victim, under the guidance of a scammer, opened positions in forex and binary options. When she “earned” several thousand dollars in a relatively short period of time, she wanted to withdraw money. Sergei Stern begged not to do this, but did not clearly explain why.
Soon closed auctions were announced. To participate in them, the victim contributed 1 million rubles, but after that she could not log into her account, because the password was changed. After a while, access was returned, but, as it turned out, during this time someone entered the site and opened positions without the knowledge of the woman.
To distract the victim from manipulation, Stern actively played love, trying to quarrel a woman with a friend. When he suddenly went on vacation, she was contacted by a girl. The interlocutor introduced herself as Polina Sokolova, a senior analyst at a brokerage company. She began to explain what the retroactive bonuses meant, and that no one could enter the site without her knowledge. Subsequently, this happened again. When Sergey and Polina began to disappear more and more often, the women realized that everything was not so simple. The total amount of losses amounted to 5,556,259 rubles (is it possible to return money from the broker?).
Don’t believe these people
Sergey Stern, who introduced herself as an analyst at Yardoption, and Polina Sokolova, who called herself a senior analyst at the broker, participated in the work with gullible women. In numerous reviews of the broker’s victims on the Internet, the name of another employee is also called: Philip Kerimov. Beware of any contact with these people.
Conclusion
Alas, the desire to make quick money does not always lead to the desired result. Trading on the stock exchange is a high-risk activity, and without proper knowledge in this area can cause irreparable damage to your personal budget. Especially if you entrust your savings to unscrupulous brokers who did not bother to purchase a license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. And so it was with the broker Yardoption.
