Forex and crypto scams usually start with a simple promise: fixed profits, a special account, or an advisor who has an opening "today only". Teagle's investment risk alert page is where you can see the warning signs of a broker, exchange or prop firm in one place before you deposit any money: Teagle's own alerts, the latest entries on the FCA warning list, news of scams and hacks, experiences of dissatisfied users, and the option to receive email alerts. If you want to know what regulation is and how regulators are graded, read the article Broker Regulation and How It Is Graded ; this guide focuses on the practical use of this page and on spotting a scam broker.

Guide to the sections of the risk alert page

Teagle alerts

These cards are alerts the Teagle team has published about a company; only the latest alert for each company is shown. If an alert is linked to a news item on Teagle, tap the card to read the full text. The label next to the company name is the risk level that Teagle Eye has calculated for that company.

Regulatory alert: the FCA warning list

The UK's financial regulator (FCA) keeps a public list of firms that provide financial services to the public without authorisation or that pose as another firm. Teagle automatically reads the latest entries on this list every three hours and shows them with the firm's name, website domains and the date of the warning. Each card links to that warning's page on the FCA website so you can see the original text yourself. On mobile, you can filter the list to "Unauthorised" or "Clone".

Scam, hack and theft news

This section shows Teagle news items whose headlines are about scams, theft, hacks, money laundering or frozen assets. If a story has been repeated across several news items, only the latest one is kept, and you can see older items with "More news". For historical background, also look through the biggest crypto hacks .

What users are warning about

The latest verified one- and two-star reviews of brokers, exchanges and prop firms are gathered here. These reviews are personal experiences; for the full picture, read all of a company's reviews on the user reviews page and on the company's own page.

Spotting a scam broker: weigh the signs together

The "8 warning signs" list on this page shows the most common patterns. The key point is that no single sign is conclusive on its own, but when several signs appear together, the likelihood of risk rises sharply. Guaranteed profits combined with pressure to deposit and a licence that can't be found almost always mean you should hold back. Many of these schemes are actually a form of Ponzi scheme : earlier investors' profits are paid out of newcomers' money until the day withdrawals stop. In the crypto market, tricks such as fake tokens and websites that imitate well-known exchanges are also common; these are explained in the article Identifying Crypto Scams and Fraud .

What is a reputable broker, and how do you check a broker's licence?

A reputable broker is a company that holds an active licence from a recognised regulator, whose name matches the name registered on the regulator's website, and whose licensed entity is the one that actually opens your account. Registering a company on an offshore island does not mean financial oversight; see the difference between the two in the article What Are Offshore and Onshore Brokers . To check a broker's licence:

1. Take the company's legal name and licence number from the footer of its website or from the client agreement.
2. Search for it on the regulator's own website, not through a link the company has sent you. Links to the official registers of the FCA, ASIC, CySEC and FSCA, and to the IOSCO warning list, are provided on this page.
3. Also search the warning lists to make sure no one is operating under the name of a licensed company.

Each company's page in Teagle's broker list shows its licences, and the Teagle rankings help you compare companies side by side.

Email alerts and asking Teagle Eye

If you currently have an account with a broker, exchange or prop firm, enter its name and your email in the yellow box at the bottom of the page. After you open the confirmation link, you will get an email whenever Teagle publishes an alert about that company, and you can unsubscribe with one click inside that same email. Your email is used only for this alert. Before signing up with a new company, you can also ask Teagle Eye about it to see the risk index calculated from Teagle's data; this index is not investment advice either.

An alert is not a final verdict

This page is meant for caution, not for definitive judgement. "Clone" on the FCA list means someone has posed as a licensed firm, and the real firm is not at fault. Negative user reviews may also stem from a single specific experience. Conversely, a company's absence from the alerts does not mean it is safe; many scams are short-lived and disappear before being added to any list.

A few simple checks also help: a broker's website not opening from inside Iran is not always a sign of a scam and may be down to filtering; check its accessibility in website access status . Before depositing Tether (USDT) to an address the company has given you, check that address in wallet check . And if you think you have fallen victim to a scam, stop depositing, keep your records, and report it following the steps on this page.