Black and Gray PR of Brokers on the Internet

Hello, fellow forex traders! Many of us are no longer surprised by the relentlessly growing number of all kinds of "dynamically developing brokers" offering tempting and invariably the very best terms of cooperation, luring in beginner and still inexperienced traders. But let us note that these sky-high advantages offered by newly opened brokers are very often only half the trouble caused by their marketing campaigns.

And even more shameless are the even more "black" promotion methods, which we will also discuss in this article.

After a beginner trader absorbs all the theoretical prerequisites needed to start real trading in the financial markets, they begin looking for a worthy broker or dealing center that matches their goals.

And, as a rule, not knowing all the subtleties and nuances that distinguish truly reliable and liquid intermediaries, newcomers are seduced by above-market trading conditions, minimal deposits, and speed of service. And if large brokers have long since leveled out in optimal market conditions for serving clients and compete in smaller areas, small and newly opened ones keep throwing around unrealistic promises in the hope of luring inexperienced traders. But, as already mentioned, that is only half the trouble, and black PR and anti-PR strategies aimed at other brokers that have already managed to establish themselves provoke much more justified outrage.

Better forget about it. No broker will help you get everything at once. Most often, the intermediaries that resort to the measures described above are those with a small budget, insufficient for long-term honest advertising and promotion. Such firms count on the maximum inflow of clients, which in turn will ensure growth in their capitalization and may even eventually allow them to whitewash their early shamelessness. Guided by such considerations, they spend their relatively small budget on advertising sky-high services and, most unpleasantly, on blackening the reputation of competitors by staging scandals, intrigues, and vivid showdowns that internet audiences love so much.

Something like this: "85% for every successful... well, actually no - just for every trade!"

Large brokerage companies that prefer mature competition certainly value their honestly earned reputation. For a dishonest broker, in turn, that means nothing. They take risks, because in the worst case they can reopen under another name, with different terms and a fresh success story. So how do such brokers promote themselves? Of course, at the expense of those that are already better known, larger, and more reliable. Just remember the recent "scandals" around Alpari, one of the oldest brokers on the market. Since the beginning of October, many clients of this broker could observe abnormal activity - and here is the key point - among new users: in reviews of the company on Forex.ua, one can see lengthy comments from freshly registered participants accusing Alpari of fraud, prospects of imminent bankruptcy, outright scamming, possible threats of shutting down worldwide, and even violations of international financial laws. You can see a typical example of such hostility below:

Reviews of Alpari on Forex.ua

That Alpari really does scam beginners! They simply have to make money somehow after going through bankruptcy proceedings and even paying a pile of fines over suspicions of financial terrorism! And all of this is highly questionable under English law, what did you expect?

But even more interesting is the fact that brokers like Alpari scam only people who know each other, because how else can one explain that they registered at the same time, wrote angry reviews, and then in solidarity returned to wherever they came from. Probably it is some kind of secret mystical campaign like "scam two friends, and the third will scam himself", or what? Take a look:

All this strongly resembles last year's campaign under the banner "Alpari does not withdraw money", remember it? The site owners, of course, were pleased with such close attention to their resource and the influx of new visitors, comments, and reviews.

I highly recommend reading this to everyone interested in the mechanics of such promotion. It is practically a guide to action on how to take down a competitor on a forum: http://brokers.opentraders.ru/19556.html.

As we can see, the symptoms and mechanics are the same, and even the messages are sometimes the same, just a year old. Compare 2 Alpari reviews:

This one is from last year

And this one is still fresh

It is laughable, and sad too, of course, for such people. But anyway, it is far more interesting to look at the "smear and pitch" tactic, what did you expect? It is not enough to tarnish a competitor's reputation, you have to sell yourself too!

Smear-and-pitch, remember? Smear-and-pitch! Let's get to work

Ordering negative and positive reviews is easy, you only have to spend a little, but not nearly as much as on honest long-term promotion. The first Google links for the query "order negative reviews" will offer you a whole range of competing companies proposing to quickly and efficiently whip up dozens and hundreds of accounts and the corresponding number of flattering or defamatory comments. Although, you do not have to waste time on freelancers at all, you can simply launch a black PR campaign.

By the way, regarding Amarkets: having learned that for brazen PR we can close a company's thread on the forum for a year (indeed, there is such an unspoken rule), some competitor keeps creating fake accounts and posting extremely obvious reviews so that we would think they are Amarkets employees. But since there is personal contact with the Amarkets managers, the cunning scheme did not work)

Brokers also often hire freelancers solely to promote their companies. They are identified in the same way as the "critics" and the "disgruntled", that is, as fresh accounts of delighted clients. We, for example, delete such reviews immediately; in extreme cases we ask them to publicly clarify the employee's position :D

And an even more sophisticated form of PR looks like promotion through paid publications or other resources. The mechanism is roughly this: a dynamically developing broker pays a resource where potential clients hang out, smears competitors and, of course, advertises itself. Take a look:

By the way, both of these pyramids are dead at the moment. Good riddance.

At one time, as soon as we warned traders through the mailing list about the impending closure of the scam outfit, our site was hit by a heavy DDOS the very next day (a cyberattack to make the site stop working). Coincidence? I do not think so)

And similar things happen in relation to many proven brokers. Some young brokers find their calling in "debunking" competitors on educational portals recognized as the "Best FOREX Education Project of Europe and Russia 2009-2013", as they call themselves, while advertising themselves along the way. Here, for example, is the Masterforex-v academy, which has "made more than 100 discoveries in the field of technical and wave analyses of financial markets," against Roboforex:

These comments are cited by Masterforex-v in one of its "exposing" articles

After digging around on the "academy" website, you can fully marvel at how pretentiously they take on the role of a jury for other brokers, describing the advantages and disadvantages of everyone and everything. Inventors of an objective broker rating system are no joke.

Yet brokers tested by an objective method turn out to be so generous that they give clients money simply for registering!

And they teach you to trade against the trend...

Forex is a struggle against the market. Now that's what I call proper motivation!

Only, knowing that PrivateFx is the direct heir of Forex Trend (and they do not hide that in the slightest), the "happy investors" will have to struggle not with the market...

To learn how to make money, you need to learn how to think and analyze information.

Well-known cold calls deserve a separate topic: databases are bought and sold, and one day a famous Swiss broker will definitely call your office to peddle a buckwheat futures contract in broken Ukrainian —  do not fall for it. Hard to believe this even happens? Watch (listen to) the video:

So, it is an ordinary boring Tuesday, you are minding your own business, and then the phone rings. The number may be from Moscow or, for example, London - many companies do this "for prestige."

"Hello! We are the financial company BoborFx! Are you interested in earning additional income?" Of course, you can talk to cold-calling managers for a long time, but since they have an excuse for almost any objection, to avoid wasting your time, do something simpler - "Thank you." And hang up. That's all.

If you simply hang up, the manager may think the call was disconnected and dial again. Therefore, be sure to say "Thank you." And immediately, without waiting for objections, hang up.

Ah, it is laughable, really.  And this kind of work is carried out against many large and reliable brokers by small and nasty competitors. Here is the surest way to spot that same freelancer-worm: he usually has no more than 1-2 messages on the forum, and if there are more (though often still no more than the same 10-20), they are written either as a smokescreen or to remove the publishing limit. Well, you have probably already figured that out yourself. In other words, do not fall for the comments of black PR operators and do not trust overhyped exotic shady shops, as has already become common among our compatriots.

In conclusion, we can summarize our article with the hypothesis that the smaller the company, the greater the risk of scams, brazen calls, and dishonest competition, although there are undoubtedly exceptions. However, such exceptions usually earn their reputation honestly and slowly, and this is easy to notice. May cold and calculating vigilance be with you, friends! See you soon!

P.S. And a little humor at the end:

Best regards, Alexey Vergunov
TradeLikeaPro.ru