So you want to withdraw money from MT4, but you aren't sure how to go about it. Not to fear, this tutorial will break down what to do and how to tell if your broker is legit or a scam.
The process of withdrawing money is easy if you have a legitimate broker. Simply contact their support team and they will give you instructions on how to do it. If your broker is not legitimate, then it's very unlikely that you'll get your money back.
Now let's get into the details of each of these scenarios. I'll also give you some tips on how you can potentially get your money back, if you feel that you've been scammed.
How to Contact a Legit Broker
Let's start with the easy stuff. There are several ways that you can find your broker's contact information.
The first way is to simply do a search with DuckDuckGo. If you want earn cryptocurrency for every search, then use Presearch.
Type in: [your broker's name] support
That will bring you to their support page.
You can also find their support page at the bottom of their website. Here's the Oanda website as an example.
They will usually have tutorial pages or videos on how the withdrawal process works. If not, they can usually walk you through the process over phone, email or chat.
How to Tell if Your Broker is a Scam
For starters, you can tell that a broker is a scam if you have more money in your account than you deposited, and you didn't personally take any trades.
This is especially true if you made a lot of money very quickly.
That might sound like an obvious scam to me, but apparently it's not obvious to everyone.
I'm not judging you if didn't know that.
If that's the case for you, then you could try to get your money back, but it's probably gone. That's doubly true if you paid in cryptocurrency.
A second thing that a scam broker will try to do is to get you to deposit more money into your account, in order for you to withdraw any money.
They could say that's it's for any of the following:
- To pay taxes
- An excessive withdrawal fee
- Holding fee
- A trading volume fee
Another popular one is they will show that you made a lot of money, then they will ask you deposit more so you can take advantage of a “hot market.” You can read about the many variations of this scam in the comments here.
The bottom line is that a normal transaction fee to withdraw your money from a legit broker is usually about 3% or less. If a “broker” asks for more, it's a scam.
Can You Get Your Money Back if it's a Scam?
Probably not.
But maybe.
There are a few things that you can try. I created a list here.
If none of those things work, then I also give you a suggestion on what you can do next.
You Aren't Actually Withdrawing Money From MT4
There's an important point that should be clarified here. MetaTrader and the company that owns MetaTrader, MetaQuotes Ltd, does not have your money.
I see many people get mad at MetaQuotes Ltd because they think that the company should be responsible for getting their money back or not allowing scams.
In reality, MetaQuotes Ltd simply creates software.
The software is licensed to brokers and the brokers are the ones who actually handle your money. So if there are any money issues, you need to talk to the broker that you opened your account with.
If you are the victim of a scam, I have a feeling that the scammers probably do a few things:
- Give you a login to a demo account that they add play money to
- Give you a login to a real account that they control
- Give you access to a fake reporting system like a website or mobile app, where they can change the numbers
I don't know that for a fact, but it would be logical, based on what I've heard from people who have been scammed.
When you send money to the scammers, they probably use one of the 3 methods above to create an “account” for you, then they put your money directly into their bank account.
Since they control the MT4 account, they can make the account have any balance they want, by simply withdrawing and depositing “money.” MT4 is built so that anyone can create a demo account and start trading, so there's no way for MT4 to check if the person is a scammer or not.
So the bottom line is that your money isn't actually in MT4. MetaTrader is just software. Your money is with the entity that you sent your money to.
Final Thoughts on Withdrawing Money From MT4
That's all there is to it! The process is exactly the same if you want to withdraw money from MetaTrader 5.
The bottom line is to contact your broker and get them to help you. That's what they are there for.
Remember to always do your own homework on a broker before sending money and test them out before putting all of your risk capital into your account.
If you’re looking for a legit broker, be sure to see our list of favorite brokers.
