I want to start this post by thanking all of the readers out there who helped unravel the Adrian Shiroma Forex scam.

When I checked on the site back in January of this year, I discovered that we did enough damage that the scammers finally took the blog down and stopped operating under the name Adrian Shiroma.

Your help has saved many people from losing a lot of money.  Here is an example of the comments that I have received:

“hello. thanks for the info i was about to let this guy to manage an forex account but luckily i google it firs .” – Eric

Now that this Forex scam has gone the way of the dinosaur, lets dissect it and see what you can look for in the future to do your due diligence before investing your money.

Obviously Faked Videos

 The first post that I wrote about Adrian Shiroma wasn't as serious as maybe it should have been.  At the time, it was so obviously a scam that I didn't see how anyone could fall for it.  I didn't think that they would be around for long either.

Boy was I wrong.

This is the only video that they used in their marketing and after watching this video, that was the point where I decided that this was a scam.  The deception is mainly built around the fact that Adrian Shiroma is supposedly Japanese and they are primarily marketing to Spanish speakers.

They thought that they could pull a “lost in translation” on potential clients.

There could be a legitimate Trader that does this, but if you do run into this situation, it is pretty easy to spot the scam.  I do not speak Japanese, but when I watch the subtitles, they do not come close to matching what the woman is saying.  For example, when “Shiroma” comes up the the subtitles, you should hear her say Shiroma within a sentence or two.

Never happens in the video.

In addition, this video was posted EVERYWHERE.  I found this video posted on the usual sites (like YouTube below), but it also came up on video sites in other countries like Russia.  Total video spamming and a big tip off.

Here is what I mean:

The bottom line is: review their marketing material carefully.  Everyone makes a mistake and there are bound to be typos, but when you see such blatant discrepancies like in the video above, that is a huge red flag.

Broker Shenanigans

As I wrote about in my post about Mitsui FX, take a careful look at the broker(s) that a Trader is using.  What the Adrian Shiroma guys did was put all these reputable brokers on their page, then they sneaked in their fake brokerage, Mitsui FX.

Here is a screen shot:

This makes things look legit, but when it came down to depositing money, you didn't have a chance to deposit with anyone else except MitsuiFX.

When I Googled: “MitsuiFX broker review” I got nothing.  Not even a bad review.

That is the first sign that a broker is a fake.  Even the best brokers will have bad reviews, there will always be disgruntled Traders who want to blame their own shortcomings on their broker.

But when there are no reviews, then you will need to do more digging.  If no one on the forums has heard of that broker, then you should stay away.  Yes, there is a chance that it is a totally new legit broker, but wait until they have built up some credibility before doing any business with them.

Things to look for on a website

A bad website design, a scam does not necessarily make.  The Financial Education industry is notorious for being behind the curve when it comes to pretty website designs.  Some of the best educators out there have sites straight out of the '90's…spinning dollar signs and all.

But there are certain elements of a website that could tip you off.  In the case of Adrian Shiroma, he was using a free Blogger blog.

Really?!!

Do you really want to be giving thousands of dollars to a person who cannot afford the $75 a year to host a site?

What using a free blog also does is provide anonymity.  They do not have to register a domain under their own name.   Again, there are some quality, legit blogs out there that do use free blogging platforms, but the ones I have seen do not ask for thousands of dollars.

Another thing to look for is small weird things in the design.  In the case of Adrian Shiroma, their broker's website had an unusual gap in the menu where they used to say that they were NFA regulated (and had to take it out).

Here is the screenshot:

Not something that you should jump to conclusions with by itself, but when added to the overall picture, it can be a clue.  Also look for weird things like converting your money to a weird currency before you get to trade it.

The Adrian Shiroma scam made you convert to Bulgarian Lev (BGN).  Totally suspicious.

Incomplete signup process

I never tried the sign up process myself, but a couple people emailed me and they said that it lead to a dead end.  They were also not able to download Metatrader or the broker's proprietary platform, which should be a major tip off.   Especially when it obviously says “MT4 Trading Platform” on the website.

A broker should be falling over themselves to give you a trading platform and get you started with a demo or live account.

I'm not sure how they got any customers with an incomplete sign up process, but they probably did some filtering on the back end before contacting their potential investors.

Unverified Trading Results

It is not always possible to verify a Trader's performance, for a variety of reasons.  But if someone is posting their performance to a site like MyFxBook and you do not see the two green checks at the top of the screen that it is a verified account, then you know something is up.

Getting an account verified is not that hard.  Here is what Adrian Shiroma's account report page looked like:

Notice the two red X's at the top.  This simply means that they could have taken any ol' Metatrader report and uploaded it to MyFxBook.

Another thing to watch out for is reporting systems that seem to be like MyFxBook that say an account is verified, but it is really not.  Their definition of “verified” may be different.

Here is what the MyFxBook blog has to say about account verification.  Other sites may not be as strict.  I have my doubts about sites like FXStat, but I know MT4i is another good reporting site.

So if they are posting their trading results, be sure to check for these things.

The Biggest Lesson I Learned From this Scam

Besides the above, I learned a few things myself.

Fighting these scammers is a pain in the ass.  They started using my picture as the face of the scam and I was able to take most of them down from the major US websites, but there are still a few sites that I cannot get my picture removed from.

I started a site called AdrianShiroma.org to try and document the scam and keep it off this blog and that probably helped, but it was time taken out of my busy schedule to set that up.

This group of scammers is plugged into a few websites that have a very high ranking, in spite of being total spam factories.   As a result, they are able to get some fake articles and pictures about me ranked highly in Google.

They have made several fake images of me and posted them on these sites.

By looking at these pictures, both you and I know that these are totally fake because the pictures they used are just stolen from my public social media profiles and the pages they are on have nothing written on them.

The articles are equally ridiculous.

On the bright side, I firmly believe that there is not such thing as bad publicity.  So anyone with even the slightest bit of curiosity will follow the trail and end up with the full story on this blog.

Free publicity.

But other people jump to conclusions easily, including potential business partners, potential girlfriends and the like, might not understand what is going on and take it at face value.  I could live with that if I was getting a bounty for each scam that I took down.

Unfortunately, I'm not.

Conclusion

So going forward I'm not going to be blogging about these scams.  I have thought long and hard about this and it really pains me to say it, but it is better for both you and I.  On one hand, exposing these scams helps a lot of people save their hard earned money.

On the other hand, exposing these scams takes a lot out of me, both physically and emotionally. That energy could be better used towards creating useful content and products for this blog and towards my trading.  I am only one person and I need to conserve my time and energy.

It's not worth the headache.

However, I hope you learned a few things from this post that will allow you to spot a scam in the future. I think that in spite of the hassle to me, this is valuable information.

I know for a fact that this scam has popped up under another name and will probably continue to do so as long as those guys are alive.  They have also tried to attack me with viruses via email and Twitter.

It will be a never ending cycle. 

I'm not going to get caught up in the negative mentality, let's focus on the positive.

The best thing that I can do with my time and energy is create the best Forex content on the internet and help you become a successful Trader.

This will have a greater impact on the world by empowering you (and others around the world) to become more self sufficient and I believe that in turn will attract more people away from these scams.

The post 5 Simple Ways to Spot a Forex Scam appeared first on Trading Heroes.

If you haven't been following the Adrian Shiroma story, read the other installments on this page.  It started pretty ordinarily…they spammed this blog…I wrote about my findings.  Our friend Dragonportis helped out with a few big tips on what they were doing.

But now it is personal…threats against me and I have proof that Adrian Shiroma is not a real person and is a Forex scam.

The Proof

Apparently, we have been screwing up their “business” in a major way because now they are making direct threats against me.  Here is the email that I got from them on Sunday.

Nice, to the point and they give exact numbers.  Well, at least they are giving me 48 hours to comply.  How considerate of them.  They even gave me my own email address: KimuraDead@yahoo.com.

But seriously, check out the second to last line in the email…

“…we do not exist.”

Yeah, kinda figured that already.

And what is the ultimate threat besides “Kimura Dead”?  That they will start using my name as the name of the scammer.

I wonder what they have in mind…oh wait, let me guess…

“Adrian Shiroma” writes crappy articles and puts my picture into it

So they started another free Forex blog on WordPress and started using my picture as the picture of Adrian Shiroma. Here is a printout:

Writing slander against me

They also started writing all kinds of bullshit about me.  This is just an excerpt of the full article that shows up when you search for my name.  Gotta love the misspellings and the totally made up information.  Of course, I was not arrested for this and having a wife and kids is news to me.   If nothing else, this has taught me that I need to tighten up the search engine results for my name.

I especially like how Cyr Circle is not a street anywhere in Hawaii.  Good one guys.

What I'm doing about it

I filed a DMCA with Google, but I was largely ignored.  It seems like they will not get involved if there is questionable legality.  I also filed with WordPress, but they still allowing pictures of me to be posted in that blog.  It is tough to combat these bastards because they are from another country.

What prompted the email in the beginning of this post however, was my posting this on the Forex Peace Army forum.  They are the biggest Forex scam reporting website on the internet.  According to one of the Moderators, FPA had a similar issue before and many other scammers have done the same since.

Here is his response to my post:

Thanks to the folks at FPA for their support. So prepare to see a hundreds of fake articles written about me…soon.

The bottom line is that this is more of a pain in the ass and a waste of time than anything else.  But do you know what?  The story has to be told and we have to stop these scammers!

And they are giving me something to write about.  So I guess there is a silver lining.

What can you do?

If you have a blog or are a journalist, write up a little something on Adrian Shiroma and this scam that is apparently coming out of Bulgaria.

Do you know of other Forex scams that are going down?  Tell us about it below…

Hope your week is going better.  Now back to trading.

Cheers,

– Hugh

###

Photo: *saxon* via Flickr Creative Commons

The post Death Threats, Slander And Proof That Adrian Shiroma Is A Forex Scam appeared first on Trading Heroes.

The scamster Adrian Shiroma apparently has a new broker.  I'm not too sure what happened to MitsuiFX.com, but that domain is now redirecting to Shatori.com.  This is just the latest development in the ongoing story of this “Spanish” scam.

The original report that I wrote on Adrian can be found here.  Then I found out from a Trading Heroes reader that Adrian is using a broker called MitsuiFX.  You can read the looong post with the evidence of why I think it's a total scam.

Then recently, Dragonportis alerted me that MitsuiFX has been changed to Shatori.  Just out of the blue, doesn't seem to be any explanation.

Let's see what they are up to now…

Here is what the old MitsuiFX website looked like:

Here is what the “new” Shatori website looks like:

Adrian didn't even bother to change the design.  There is even the big space next to “Regulated” where they had to take out the “NFA” part.  Why not, Adrian is still running his blog on a free Blogger blog.

I never noticed this before, but there is evidence that this is a scam out of Bulgaria.  Super sketchy that you have to convert your USD to BGN (Bulgarian Lev) every time you deposit and withdraw. But they do make it easy to “make a deposit” via credit card.  How convenient…for them.

Check it, this is on the “Live Accounts” page:

Our friend Dragonportis from the last post even went so far as to try to sign up for an account.  Here is what he found:

Interesting, what is the angle?  Identity theft?  Not too sure.

Finally, here is what Adrian's website looks like now.  He changed the terms a little, but the idea is the same.  Just for the record, that account that he is tracking with MyFxBook is up +117% as of today.  But it is still NOT verified.  This text has been Google Translated for us English speakers:

I'd like to think that they have had to make these changes because of what I am writing, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, that is the latest news…stay away!

I haven't heard from all the spammers from the first post in awhile.  Where are all you guys now?

UPDATE (10/12/2012): The scammers have now resorted to writing totally false articles about me online, saying that I have been convicted of unspeakable acts.  I'm working on getting them removed, but I have struck a nerve and these guys mean business!

###

The post Adrian Shiroma Is At It Again, This Time With Shatori appeared first on Trading Heroes.

Back in January of this year, I wrote a post about a trader calling himself “Adrian Shiroma.”

If you missed it, check out the post and why I believe that Adrian Shiroma does not exist and is a Forex scam.

I wrote that post a little tongue-in-cheek because I didn't expect much to come of it.

But I was very wrong…this scam keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Here is the latest…

About about a month ago, a Trading Heroes reader alerted me to the fact that Mr. Shiroma is now promoting a broker called MitsuiFX and believed that the broker is also fake.

Here is the actual comment:

Now, in all fairness, this comment is anonymous, so I dug a little deeper.

If you go to the GoDaddy whois webpage and look up mitsuifx.com, this is what you currently see:

Notice that they look like a legit Japanese company.

Also note that they created the domain name in 2010, but their website says that they have been in business since 1998.  Why so long to get a website?

There is also something interesting when you Google: “whois mitsuifx.com.”

This page shows that the website server is located in Australia.

Why would a Spanish-speaking, Japanese guy with a “Japan-based” company choose to host in Australia?

Here is a screenshot:

What I did next

I checked out the Adrian Shiroma blog and saw the Mitsui FX badge.

This is a current screenshot and as you can see, Mitsui FX is listed among some legitimate brokers.

I'm kicking myself for not getting a screenshot of the blog at that time because Mr. Shiroma had Mitsui FX slapped all over the place and there was a custom banner.

But that is not all, it gets much better.

After that, I naturally checked out the mitsuifx.com website and it was (and still is) ugly.

As you probably know, that is one of my criteria for spotting a forex scam.

But I could have been wrong, so I looked for more clues.

The thing that stuck out on the website was that they said that they were NFA regulated.

I mentioned that in my reply to dragonportis.

Here is what the website looked like with the NFA number.

Notice the “NFA Regulated” link at the top and the NFA number in the footer.

From there, I went to the NFA website.  They allow you to check on any regulated broker on their broker information page.

I entered the NFA number shown above and found that NFA number to belong to MITSUI BUSSAN COMMODITIES USA INC.

This confused me for a minute. Could this really be legit?

I did a name search for “Mitsui” on the broker information page and discovered that MITSUI BUSSAN is owned by MITSUI & CO. Ltd.

Interesting…so I surfed on over to the Mitsui & Co., Ltd. website.

As you can see, they are a huge legitimate multinational company based in Japan.

Maybe I was wrong about MitsuiFX.

But wait a minute…

MITSUI BUSSAN is not listed as an approved Forex broker.

Here is the screenshot from the NFA website.

They are listed in commodities and futures, which makes sense because they deal a lot in raw materials like iron and steel.

So what the hell are they doing operating an FX brokerage when the are not registered with the NFA?

It was not adding up.

“We don't have a FX division”

At that point, I was stuck.

This was probably a scam, but I couldn't tell where the snake oil was spewing from.  Was Mitsui & Co., Ltd not following the rules?  Or (the more likely scenario) was MitsuiFX illegally using a legitimate NFA number?

Then I saw a phone number.

Listed on the NFA website was an address (New York) and phone number for MITSUI BUSSAN COMMODITIES USA INC.

So I figured, what the hell?

I called the number and the conversation went a little something like this…

Mitsui guy: Hello, Mitsui

Hugh: Hi, can I speak to someone in your FX division?

Mitsui guy: We don't have a FX division

Hugh: Well, I'm on a website called mitsuifx.com that shows your NFA number.

Mitsui guy: What's the number?

Hugh: 0231324

Mitsui guy: Yup that's our number, but that isn't our website.  What's the domain again?

Hugh: mitsuifx.com

Mitsui guy: OK thanks, I'll get this checked out.

I'm just paraphrasing but you get the picture.

My hopes were sky high

I got off the phone that day thinking that Mitsui & Co. Ltd. would use their vast resources and legal eagles to squash and scamsters at mitsuifx.com.

When I checked the site a few days later imagine how disappointed I was when I saw this:

As you can see, all my phone call did was get the “NFA” removed from the menu and the NFA number taken out of the footer.

The only good thing that came out of this was that this was proof that mitsuifx.com was not a part of the legit Mitsui & Co. Ltd.

Any company that has to illegally use a NFA number is probably a scam.

As dragonportis also astutely pointed out, Mitsui FX also made their logo look like the Mitsui & Co. Ltd. logo.

But the scam must go on…

Unfortunately, Mr. Shiroma is not your average shyster.  He is a stubborn fucker. Here is how he gets around not being “NFA regulated” anymore.

He now offers two different accounts on his blog.

I have used Google Translate on the page so we can all understand.

The banner is a picture, so cannot be translated, but reading the text at the bottom will give you the information you need.

The first and more highly visible banner is for his “Dukascopy account.”

Obviously Dukascopy is a legit broker, so this makes Adrian look like the real deal.

But 30% commission for only a 10% return and a 50,000 EUR minimum?!

You will understand why when you see this…

Just below the Dukascopy banner is this banner.

Ahhh…there is good ol' MitsuiFX.

This account has a much lower minimum deposit, promises 25% per month and only charges 15% commission!

It's a no-brainer, right?

I have a feeling that if you try to get into the Dukascopy account, they will tell you it is full and will try to get you into the MitsuiFX account.

You are probably wondering what is up with LibertyReserve.

I haven't looked into that because this post is getting pretty long as it is, but I have a feeling that it equally shady as MitsuiFX.

If you have any information on LibertyReserve, let me know in the comments below.

But here's the kicker…

Adrian's “trading results” are supposedly posted on MyFxBook, a trade reporting system that I also use.

However, there is one difference.

When you click over to his trading report from his blog, this is what you see:

Notice in the upper right corner that the Track Record is not verified and neither are the Trading Privileges.

Why is this important?

Because false trading reports can easily be uploaded without these safeguards.

Here is the official statement from the MyFxBook blog.

Whew…that is all of the information I was able to dig up on Adrian Shiroma and MitsuiFX since my post in January.

I know that you will never fall for this, but I hope that by putting this information out on the internet, it will save some people from losing their hard earned money.

A special thanks goes out to dragonportis for the heads up and help with providing details!

What do you think?

Is this a scam or not?

Do you have any personal experience with Adrian Shiroma?

If you believe as strongly as I do that this is a scam, be sure to share this with as many people in the FX community as possible!

It will be tough to get any US agency to do anything because they are operating outside of the US, but if this information makes its way to the right people, it could bring down Adrian Shiroma and MitsuiFX.

UPDATE (10/12/2012): The scammers have now resorted to writing totally false articles about me online, saying that I have been convicted of unspeakable acts.  I'm working on getting them removed, but I have struck a nerve and these guys mean business!

The post Is MitsuiFX a Huge Scam? You be the Judge appeared first on Trading Heroes.

My biggest pet peeve is all of the Forex trading scams out there.

Forex is one of the best markets to trade and these slimeballs take people's money before they ever have a chance at becoming successful.

The reason that there are so many scams in this market is because Forex was unregulated for a long time. Until about 2010, you could manage other people's money in the Forex market without a license.

Think about those possibilities.

Anyway, there is a certain individual that came up on my radar recently that is a perfect example of how Forex scams are set up. Hopefully this post will help beginners avoid such unscrupulous individuals.

For people who take things literally, I'm not actually telling you to do this.

I hate people like this!

The following is my way of making fun of how badly some of these scams are set up.

Step 1: Create a Fake Name and Back Story

The first thing that you have to do is create a believable name and compelling life story.

In this case, I came across a “person” named Adrian Shiroma. Luckily for Adrian, he is Japanese/Spanish, so most English speakers cannot understand his website enough to realize that it is BS.

I'm not even going to give the website the gratification of a direct link, so you can Google the name if you want to check it out.

Step 2: Setup a Free Blog

Yes, if you want to scam people out of millions of dollars, there is no need to spend $100 and get a real domain name and website hosting.

Just setup a free blog on Blogger or WordPress. Nobody will know the difference.

If you Googled the name, you will see the blog that I am talking about. He even uses a free Hotmail email account.

In all fairness, there was a very small chance that he is a real person, so I sent him an email. After all, I have been known to be wrong in the past.

So this is what I said…

No surprise, but I didn't get a reply.  Probably because he speaks Spanish…yeah right!

There is a “track record” on his homepage going back to November 2009. But if you actually go back through his blog posts, they only show records going back to March 2011. That is half-assing at it's best.

The actual currency pair and prices are mysteriously blocked out and somehow the account always starts with $30,000 in it.

Hmmm….

In addition, there are is no account name or number on the statements that are posted.

It looks like a random report from Metatrader that could have been done in a demo account.

Step 3: Create buzz

Now go out and spam as many Forex blogs as possible. Here are the comments that were left on my blog:

I left out the email address and IP addresses because I actually give a shit about privacy. However, they were all from the same email and IP address.

But they were clever and used different names. Important point there, be sure you are taking notes.

When looking around for proof that he won the Traders Marathon, I couldn't find it.

No surprise there either.

Great idea though.

In addition, if you Google Adrian Shiroma, there are a bunch of “interviews” on different websites like Baby Pips and Forex Banks. Well, actually it is the same interview, posted in different places.  Another key point, get the maximum mileage from your crappy broken-English interviews.

One funny thing is that if you look on his blog, he spams his own blog! There are multiple comments that are exactly the same.

Apparently he had some videos too, but most have been taken down. That is one area that you can improve on. Be sure to make quality videos.

However, I did find one on YouTube and it is pretty funny. I don't know Japanese (in spite of my name and 6 years of Japanese School) or Spanish, but I'm pretty sure that she never says Shiroma at any time in the “broadcast.”

Look carefully at the subtitles…you will see Adrian Shiroma come up a couple of times in the text, but she says “Yamanaka.”

The final thing to look for in the video is at about 0:53. The name Adrian Shiroma comes up with the Japanese characters under it, but they are wrong.

If you do a quick search for the Kanji, this is what Shiroma should look like.

Hmm….

Step 4: Take the money

Now, this is the easy part. Just get them to send you money.

I'm not exactly sure how he does it because I never got that far, but I'm sure it is pretty easy.

There you have it!

That is all it takes.

Pretty sad huh?

Why I posted this

Ordinarily, I would just ignore the spam comments on my blog. But in this case, the scammers did put in a little effort into this, so I want this to show up in Google alongside the name.

Actually, I want this post to outrank him for his own name!

Of course, experienced traders will recognize this as a scam right off the bat.

But beginners may fall for it, so…

Avoid Adrian Shiroma!

UPDATE (10/13/2012): There have been two more updates in this story with even more incriminating evidence, read them here and here.  Also I just found out today that they are writing false articles about me on the internet, saying that I have been convicted of unspeakable acts.

This, of course, is NOT true and is a weak attempt to get back at me for this article.

The post The Anatomy of a Half-Assed Forex Scam appeared first on Trading Heroes.