DUE DILIGENCE, THE SHORT COURSE
Check a broker before you deposit.
TrueBroker is a free broker safety checker, and this page is the manual version: how to verify any broker yourself, register by register, red flag by red flag. The fast version is the live legit check.
Is the broker on a regulator’s register?
Every legitimate broker holds a licence from a financial regulator, and every serious regulator publishes a searchable register. Search the register itself, never a link the broker sent you, and match three things: the firm name, the licence number and the website domain the register lists.
- FCA register for the United Kingdom
- CySEC entities register for Cyprus and much of the EU
- ASIC professional registers for Australia
- FSCA search for South Africa
Each register has its own traps, so there is a short guide per register: FCA, CySEC, ASIC, FSCA, and what a Seychelles or BVI licence actually proves.
A broker that names no regulator at all is answering the question for you. Unregulated means no complaints scheme, no compensation fund and no rules on how your deposit is held.
Prop firms are a different check, because most of them are not brokers at all and hold no licence by design: how to check if a prop firm is legit before you pay.
Does the website match the licence?
The most dangerous scam is not the fake licence, it is the real one worn by the wrong website. Clone firms copy the name, the licence number and sometimes the whole site of an authorised broker, then bank your deposit. The register entry lists the domains the licence actually covers; if the site you are on is not one of them, leave. TrueBroker mirrors the FCA and CySEC warning lists daily, and between them they name well over seven hundred unauthorised or clone domains on the warning lists.
What are the red flags before a frozen withdrawal?
Frozen withdrawals rarely come out of nowhere. In the complaint histories behind our scam verdicts, the same sequence repeats:
- Guaranteed or fixed returns, which no regulated broker may promise
- Pressure to deposit more before you may withdraw anything
- Fees or taxes invented at the moment of cashout
- Verification loops that restart every time you submit documents
- Unsolicited contact: legitimate brokers do not cold call, message on WhatsApp or run account managers who trade for you
Any one of these is a reason to stop depositing. Two of them together are a reason to start withdrawing.
What does a trust score add?
The checks above take twenty minutes per broker. A TrueBroker Trust Score is those checks already done and kept current: 232 brokers scored out of 10 on regulation verified at the registers, fees, platform quality, support and verified trader reviews, recomputed daily. The method is published, no score is for sale, and the whole board is free on the site and in the app.
Fair questions
What is the fastest way to check a broker?
Search it on the TrueBroker board or in the app: the trust score, the verdict and any regulator warning list entries come back in seconds, free.
Can a broker be regulated and still be a scam?
Yes, when the licence is real but the website is not. Clone firms impersonate authorised brokers, so check that the domain you are on matches the one the register lists.
What if a broker is on no register at all?
Unregulated means no complaints scheme, no compensation fund and no rules on how your money is held. TrueBroker scores unregulated brokers accordingly.
Where do I report a suspected scam broker?
To the regulator that licenses it, and to TrueBroker through the scam report form. Scam reports jump the review queue and feed the red notice system.
THE SHORT VERSION
Match the firm name, licence number and domain on the regulator’s own register, walk at the first invented fee or pressure to top up, and let TrueBroker run all of it for you: 232 brokers checked, re-scored daily, free forever.