How to verify a forex broker before depositing (2026)

Verifying a forex broker before you deposit takes about 15 minutes, and it can save your entire capital. Most victims of fake or fraudulent brokers skip this step because they trust an advert or a referral. Below is a 6-step checklist you can run yourself, with no expertise needed.

One example shows why you have to trace things back to the source: with DBG, the ASIC licence is real, but most of the domains carrying the broker’s name are either for sale or dead. See our DBG cross-check.

Summary: 6 steps, how long each takes, when to stop

Steps 1–4 can be done in about 15 minutes on your phone. Step 5 is the decisive one and takes a few days, but those are days worth spending before you hand money to a stranger.

Step 1: Look up the licence DIRECTLY on the regulator’s website

Do not trust the licence number a broker shows off on its own site. Go straight to the regulator’s website and look that number up: FCA (register.fca.org.uk), ASIC (asic.gov.au), CySEC (cysec.gov.cy).

If it cannot be found, or the company name does not match, or there is only a “certificate” from a self-regulatory association (not a state body), that is a warning sign.

Found it? Then what do you read? This is the part most people skip: a result appears and they relax. Four things to check in the record:

• Status, which must be active/authorised. If it says expired, revoked or restricted, treat it as no licence at all.
• Legal entity name, which must match exactly the company name on your contract, not merely share the brand name.
• Scope of authorisation: some firms are only licensed for ancillary services, not brokerage. If the scope does not include trading, that licence means nothing to you.
• Registered address & website: the regulator lists the official website. If the domain you are looking at is different from the domain in the record, you are very likely on a fake site.

Three sophisticated tricks that get past a careless check

If you only “trust it because there is a licence number”, you can still walk into the trap. These are the three most common tactics:

1. Clone firm. The fraudster takes the real name and licence number of a licensed company, then builds their own website with their own contact details. You look up the licence number, and it is real. But the money goes to the impostor. How to counter it: check the website and contact details in the registration record, not just the licence number. Regulators such as the FCA themselves regularly publish warnings about clone firms.
2. Swapping the regulator. The broker displays a “licence” from an organisation that sounds impressive but is really just a self-regulatory association or an ordinary business registry, with no power to supervise financial services. A business registration certificate is not a brokerage licence.
3. Real licence, different entity. The group holds a real FCA licence, but the account you open belongs to a subsidiary somewhere else entirely. Not illegal, but the level of protection is very different from what the advertising suggests. This is exactly why Step 2 exists.

Step 2: Identify the LEGAL ENTITY you are actually opening an account with

A broker can hold an FCA licence and still place Vietnamese clients with an offshore legal entity (the specific company named on your contract, registered in an island jurisdiction where supervision is much lighter) in Belize, Seychelles, SVG and the like, with much lower protection.

Read the client terms or agreement carefully to see which entity you are signing with. A Tier-1 licence (FCA/ASIC/CySEC) only protects you if your account belongs to that very entity.

Step 3: Check the domain & website

Fake brokers often imitate the name or domain extension of large brokers. So: type the official address yourself (do not click links from unknown messages). Check that the site uses HTTPS; be suspicious if the domain is brand new, full of spelling mistakes, or offers contact only through a personal Zalo/Telegram account instead of official channels.

Step 4: Read independent reviews & complaints (including the negative ones)

Search the broker’s name together with words like “scam”, “cannot withdraw” or “exposed” on forums (TraderViet, VOZ), WikiFX and Forex Peace Army. But put them in their proper place: these are private sites and forums, not regulators.

They are useful for spotting recurring complaint patterns: stuck withdrawals, frozen accounts. But they must never be used as the sole basis for a legal claim.

Labels such as “Suspicious Clone” or a score of 8.5/10 on those sites are their own assessments, not the conclusion of any authority. When the two disagree, the register in Step 1 (the regulator’s public register) wins.

Do not read only the 5-star PR pieces. Read the complaints too, to learn which problems keep coming up. In our review section, every broker has a “Real experience” section setting out both strengths and weaknesses, with sources.

The 6 steps applied to 10 brokers: what the registers show

For 10 brokers being advertised in Vietnam, the regulators’ registers contradict information widely circulating in Vietnamese-language articles in five places.

Three lessons you can apply right away to the broker you are looking at

1. Licence numbers copied from elsewhere are often wrong. For RoboForex alone, aggregator sites give four different numbers for the same entity: 000138/210, 000138/32, 000138/7, 000138/437.

The broker’s own site gives 9759600 under the Securities Industry Act 2021. None of those four numbers match it. This is why Step 1 requires opening the register, not reading a review.

2. The register also records the DOMAIN, and almost nobody checks that field. The JustMarkets case shows why it matters: a real licence, a real number, a real regulator.

But the domain you are on falls outside the scope of that licence. When you check, compare three things: the entity name, the licence number, and the domain.

For 5 of the 6 brokers below that hold CySEC licences, the domain Vietnamese clients use is NOT on the approved list:

The table does not say the 5 brokers with mismatched domains are scams; all of them hold real licences that are currently valid. It says something more specific and less widely known: the European licence displayed in the advertising is tied to a domain you do not use.

In a dispute, the authority you can complain to is the one that licenses your legal entity, usually in Seychelles, Belize or Vanuatu, where there is no compensation fund. A compensation fund is a fund that pays clients when a licensed company goes bankrupt.

And the XM case shows why you still have to check the next step: the domain matches. But clients outside the EU usually still sign with XM Global Limited (FSC Belize), not the Cyprus entity.

The right domain is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. Step 2, reading the company name on your confirmation email, is the step that settles it.

3. “Not found” does not mean “clean”. For Neotech, FSP licence 54192 cannot be confirmed in the FSP search tool of South Africa’s FSCA, which the FSCA itself labels this group of tools “legacy system and are currently being updated”.

The enforcement archive is accessible and does not list Neotech, but it only covers recent decisions. In a case like this, the right conclusion is “not yet verified”, not “no problem”.

All 10 profiles, with links to the registers, are in the lookup table of brokers showing signs of fraud or risk: 73 sources from 38 domains.

Step 5: Test a small deposit and withdrawal first

Before trusting a broker with a large deposit, deposit a small amount, place a few trades, then try withdrawing.

This is the cheapest and most reliable test: if a broker makes withdrawal hard, or keeps changing the conditions, even on a small amount, do not deposit any more under any circumstances. Complete KYC verification from the start so the withdrawal does not get stuck.

Step 6: Recognise the red flags that mean STOP

• Commitments or guarantees of profit, “can’t lose”, “losses covered”.
• Someone offering to “trade your account for you”, asking for your password, or inviting you to pool capital or hand over funds to be managed.
• Pressure to deposit more to “unlock a withdrawal” or to claim a bonus.
• A licence that cannot be verified; only an opaque offshore entity.
• Time pressure (“limited-time offer”) so you do not get the chance to check.

If even one of these signs appears, stop. See also how fake brokers impersonate reputable ones and the list of brokers to be wary of. Remember: no forex broker is licensed in Vietnam, so the verifying is entirely up to you.

Spotted something inaccurate? Tell us and we will check it and publish a correction.