Inspection Reason

Recently, the inspection team received many phone calls from investors who expressed their hope of more exposure of Australian brokers whose real addresses are inconsistent with those from regulatory information. In order to help investors identify fraudulent brokers, the inspection staff went on a field trip to the Australia office of fandford.

Company Building

According to regulatory information, the address of fandford is Level 6, 360  Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000. The inspectors set out for the premises.

Featured Photo

Guided by the navigation app, surveyors drove to this quite modern office building early in the morning and entered the building right away in order to complete the survey as soon as possible. The lobby was luxuriously decorated and looked spacious and clean.

The staff checked the floor guide, which shows no information about the broker at all.

The surveyors then came to the 6th floor by elevator in line with the survey procedure, and found the names of four companies from the floor guide. However, fandford was not among them. Having walked around the entire floor, they still couldn’t find neither the broker’s logo nor its office.

Inspection Conclusion

The field survey verified that fandford’s real address is inconsistent with that from regulatory information. The broker’s MM license (license number: 391441) issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, another MM license issued by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (license number: 185/12) and an STP license (license number: 677530) issued by the Financial Conduct Authority are likely to be clones. according to the results of queries to these regulators.