The Anatomy of a Half-Assed Forex Scam

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Forex scam

Forex scam

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…

adrian-shiroma

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:

adrian-shiroma

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.

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44 thoughts on “The Anatomy of a Half-Assed Forex Scam”

  2. “Here is my account report: http://www.tradingheroes.com/trading-log/ The results are not nearly as good as Adrian’s, but it is verified and real.”

    Hugh I was wondering why when I clicked on the link it took me to a page that said “I had gone too far” and the “page does not exist” ?

    Please explain. Thank-you.

  5. I do not understand is whether the transactions were real or not because the schedules, etc. movimeintos the market were perfectly real … honestly I’m lost.

    And if you can do something legally compensated for people, who know or who they are, if anyone knows anything about this ….. I find it outrageous that there are people so …..

    • I’m pretty sure that the transactions were fake because their MyFxBook account was not verified. As far as legal action, I don’t know what can be done because it has been hard to find the identity of these guys. I don’t even know what country they are operating out of.

      If you would be willing to write a testimonial of what happened or even do a video, I can post it in the hopes that other people will see it and start to connect the dots back to the Adrian Shiroma ring. Just a thought…

  6. You can see with their own eyes the broker scam Adrian Shiroma, has lost 99.9% of Pamm in 3 days. That shows the scam that was all this starting with the broker ….

  7. And gold operations are true, because the times, prices etc its operations totally agree ….. and that can not be changed.
    I know nothing

  12. Checked out his website. It’s a real scam and the Japanese version? It’s just butchered text from a machine translator. Hmm and Shiroma… are his ancestors from Okinawa? I’m highly doubtful about that as well.

    • Yeah, it’s pretty half-baked, but it might be just enough to fool some people. If you search for his name and read the other two articles I wrote, it is interesting to see how they keep changing things.

    •  @lewisjames366 Haha, nice statement.  If you are for real, then why do I get a pop under for PORN when I click on your link above?  Here is the screen shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tradingheroes/7478930992/
       
      Second, that statement proves nothing.  I can backtest any random EA in Metatrader, pick the best 6 months and create a report that looks exactly like that one. Do I even have to call FXPro and ask them if that is a real account number? Where is a VERIFIED MyFxBook account that shows your performance? 
       
      Next, why is Adrian Shiroma’s MyFxBook account not verified?  This is the official blog post from MyFxBook as to how account records can be easily forged if not verified: http://myfxbook.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/verification-system-is-finally-here/
       
      Third, why do all you spammers spell excellent wrong?  I’ve seen several comments related to Adrian where you spell it “excelent”. You guys also all refer to him as “my trader.”  Interesting…
       
      Here is my account report: http://www.tradingheroes.com/trading-log/ The results are not nearly as good as Adrian’s, but it is verified and real. 
       
      Do you want me to keep going? 

  14. This is a funny post, you can not write something if you do not know I have a managed account with adrian since 2011 without problems, good profit, performance and excelent customer service. I’m sure you’ve never had an account with Adrian ¿or yes? I hate you talk bad about my trader here without any experience. Please rectify.

  15. Adrian Shiroma use a fake forex broker named “Mitsui Fx” mitsuifx.com if you look the whois ifo you can see this:
     
    Domain Name: MITSUIFX.COM Created on: 04-Nov-10 Expires on: 04-Nov-12 Last Updated on: 13-Apr-12 Administrative Contact: JP, MITSUIFX atencion@mitsuifx.com MITSUIFX & CO, LTD. 2-1, Ohtemachi 1-chome Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0004 Japan +0.332859617 Fax — +0.332859617
     
    The e-mail atencion@mitsuifx.com is in spanish 😕 WTF a Japanise bussines has spanish e-mail adress?

    •  @dragonportis Interesting…thanks for sharing that information. If you don’t mind telling us, how do you know that he uses this broker and how do you know it is a fake? I would have guessed by the terrible website design, but I couldn’t say for sure unless I actually tried to open an account. I like the “1998-2011? copyright on the bottom, nice touch. I just want to be fair…thanks.  

      •  @Hugh Kimura In the Adrian Shiroma blog site you can see at the right in a yellow box “Requisitos para ingresar  al Fondo PAMM al 25%: Cuenta en MitsuiFx …” also if you scroll down you can see banners of diferent brokers with Mitsui Fx between them, yesterday it was the first banner but now it’s moved more down.
         
        I made this capture where you can see the Mitsui Fx logo and the text in the yellow box:
        http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4736/mitsuifake.png

    •  @dragonportis You got me curious, so I looked up the NFA number they have listed on their website as of today: 0231324.  Their registered address is in New York, but the address on their website is in Japan.  They are also not registered to do business in the Forex market and they are offering 200:1 leverage according to their website.  If they are registered with the NFA in the US, the most leverage that they can offer is 50:1 in Forex.  Also, there is no mention of MitsuiFX anywhere on the NFA website, they are listed under: MITSUI BUSSAN COMMODITIES USA INC. 

    •  @raultorres371 Until I see some real proof, I’m not going to change my stance. How long have you been with him?  What has been your average profit/loss? 
       
      1. Wow, so he had a good two months on his MyFxBook statement…just recently too.  Anyone can do that. Show me a 3 year track record, then I may change my mind.
      2. Why does his blog say that he made 7.33% in April, while his MyFxBook account say that he made 12.97%?  If that really is official account, then why the difference? 
      3. The account is not verified on MyFxBook.  That means anyone could have uploaded a false MT statement.  Here is the official statement from the MyFxBook blog on why verification is important: http://myfxbook.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/verification-system-is-finally-here/
      4. What’s wrong, don’t want to show your face?  Why not link your LiveFyre comments to a real account on Facebook or Twitter?  When I click on your profile above, you don’t have a real profile and only the comment you left above. 
      5. I Googled the IP address you used to write your comment from and it is in a spam database under two other email addresses. 
      6.  You have no answer to any of the issues I posed in the post above.  
      7.  Do you really want me to keep going? 
       
      You are only digging the hole deeper, quit while you are ahead.  Look, if he really is a real trader making real money, then I am happy to apologize and take down this post.  But you are doing to have to show me one hell of a lot more evidence than you are showing me now.

  17. Hi, I’m new to forex world, but from what i’ve heard it’s perfectly legal and secure to have a third person administrating your forex account, right??

    I mean in a big broker like Dukascopy, if I agree that other person can manage my account, let’s say mister X, there is no way mister X can withdrawal or transfer the money that I deposited with Dukascopy to another bank account or another forex account, right???

    I hope you can answer my because I was thinking about contacting Adrian Shiroma, and also a person is convincing me to trade my personal account trought his account, I thought this was secure but I’m still have doubts

    thanks a lot, sorry my english I speak spanish as a native language, so maybe a can help you about what Adrian says in his blog, the guy looks like a scam but I thought maybe he’s just trying to get some costumers and get his 30% legally and not scam, of course I’m not sure after reading this

    thanks and regards!

    • Hi Remy,

      Well, it depends where you live. In the US, you have to be properly licensed to manage money for others. You have to check on the laws for where you live.

      If someone has your login and password, they can probably figure out a way to withdraw money from your account if you do not watch it closely. If they trade your account through a PAMM type system, then that is probably pretty safe because they never get your passwords, you just approve them within the system and their trades show up in your account. This is something you have to check out with your broker.

      Even if they don’t steal your money, if they are a bad trader, the result will be the same, you will lose money.

      Based on the evidence above, you should avoid Adrian Shiroma, it looks like a total scam!

      If someone else is asking to manage your account, you need to check them out properly. They need to have the proper licenses (if required in your country) and you need to see AT LEAST a 3 year track record trading a system in a real money account. You need to see their statements AND verify their performance with their broker.

      Even if they check out, then it is a matter of how much you know them and trust them. If there is any doubt, I would stay away. I cannot tell you to invest with them or not, it is your responsibility to make that decision based on your research and gut feeling.

      I still believe that the best way to do it is to learn how to trade your own money!

      Hope that helps!

      Hugh

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