Is IFMRRC Certification a Scam or Legit?

The International Financial Market Relations Regulation Center (IFMRRC) claims to be a non-commercial organization that certifies financial market entities dealing in forex, securities cryptocurrencies and other instruments.

Website Information

Official Domain

www.ifmrrc.com

Registered on

2017-09-25

Domain Owner

Not provided

Server Location

United States

Site Popularity (Alexa Rank)

1,375,950

Contact Details

Address: None provided

Phone No: None provided

Social Media: None provided

Email ID: info@ifmrrc.com

The rationale behind an organization like IFMRRC is to develop framework for sectors which are not directly regulated by the government. For example - cryptocurrencies are very poorly regulated, but investor interest is immense, which often leads to fraud. IFMRRC certifies crypto dealers and brokers so that certain standards are maintained, or at least that is what the organization claims. 

A simple Google search returns several results regarding IFMRRC. What is intriguing is that there supposedly is another organization with the initials FMRRC likely based out of Russia, judging by the Russian language used on the website. IFMMRC does not divulge its location, which is suspicious.

Moreover, both the websites have the same description text on the home page:

crofr.net (left) and imfrrc.com (right)

I sent emails querying the registration process for both the websites only to learn that they are probably the same entity. While a confirmation from IFMRRC that it maintains two websites should clear the air, it raises more questions. Web development tools can incorporate multiple languages for the same webpage, so a second domain seems unnecessary. Also, why are the organization names different on both the sites?

For this article, we investigated www.ifmrrc.com and not www.crofr.net. However, the latter’s website is over 9 years old while the one we are investigating is about 4 years old. This makes it difficult to ascertain which website is authentic, as IFMRRC is the one that shows at the top of any search request.

Additionally, why would a legitimate organization maintain two domains and decide on creating the second-language domain after a five-year gap? Seems suspicious.

Upon reaching out to request information, I only received a reply from the Russian language website and they demanded $3,000 as membership + compensation fund fee.

Here is a screenshot of their response:

First and foremost, my problem with the accreditation organization was the poor grammar and presentation in the email which fails to present a professional image. More importantly, IFMRRC says it can give a certification in five business days. This is suspicious as any kind of regulation entity takes at least two to three months to certify an organization. The process generally involves multiple steps such as application, verification of documents, physical inspections, compliance training, and other things depending on the business sector.

The cost of certification is stated as $3,000. Also, IFMRRC website indicates its certificate is valid only for a year. There is no mention in their email of the said $3,000 being a yearly fee or a one-time fee. Moreover, the email failed to inform about any real requirements for certification. I felt I was going in circles as the email just talked about what IFMRRC does, but not how it does it.

But wait, there is another website which claims to be FMRRC! www.fmrrc.ru

So now we have three domains claiming to be the same organization and having almost the same text on their home pages. Seems fishy, doesn’t it? The most interesting part is fmrrc.ru has blacklisted crofr.net/ifmrrc.com and the other way around. They both claim that the other one is a fraud.

Notice the spelling mistake of ‘companies’? This kind of oversight is hard to overlook as fmrrc.ru is nearly 7 years old.

Certified brokers and financial entities

Let us move on to the organizations IFMRRC certifies. We are not considering the third website fmrrc.ru as it has been established that ifmrrc.com and crofr.net are run by the same entity. They both certify 55 entities, but when we searched for them, they had mentioned certification only from IFMRRC and not CROFR.

Let us look at some of the IMFRRC certified brokers. Scanning using the Scamadviser.com analyzer showed that majority of the links have a rating of less than 3 out of 5. Only two links score above 3. Our algorithm pulls up reviews from our own site, Trustpilot, Sitejabber, MyWOT and other such sites.

The average review score of the brokers and traders IFMRRC certifies is merely 1.68 out of 5. Several “certified” websites have no reviews or ratings.

Now the question is whether the websites IFMRRC certifies are likely to be a scam?

To give an example, a firm certified by IMFRRC called FINMAX (Max Capital Ltd) has been flagged by the French and Spanish financial regulators for suspicious dealings and likely fraud.

Here is a copy of the notification by Spain’s Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV).

Another IFMRRC certified trader is Lexatrade. The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) flagged Lexatrade as an unofficial entity operating in the country and issued a warning for investors.

Here is a comment from a reviewer of PocketOption, one of the IMFRRC certified platforms:

Another website is maxitrade.com which provides crypto trading services. Here is a review from a user on Trustpilot:

Another reviewer from Trustpilot had shared the following about IFMRRC certified finmaxbo.com

Conclusion

Judging from the research I did, it seems IFMRRC is highly likely to be a fraud regulation body. Firstly, self-regulated industry bodies are established by existing players, in this case a financial trading or brokerage firm.

The IFMRRC website does not mention any founders, and apart from the flowery tone, give little details about its whereabouts. The contact information only includes e-mail ids, with no real address or telephone number. Credibility can also be established by the people in the board of directors citing their qualifications and experience. However, IFMRRC fails to provide any of these details.

Next is the issue with multiple websites, with no real clarity as to which one is the authentic one. In fact, each claim they are unique and that the others are fraud. And lastly, the credibility of the brokers IFRMRRC certifies is questionable with complaints, government warnings and negative reviews.

I would advise investors to take caution when dealing with IFMRRC or brokers certified by the self-proclaimed regulatory body.

This article has been written by a scam fighter volunteer. If you believe the article above contains inaccuracies or is missing relevant information, please contact Scamadviser.com using this form.