Expert Advisor scams are not especially inventive. They rest on a small set of mechanisms, recycled from one offer to the next. Once you know those mechanisms, most fraudulent offers give themselves away within minutes.
This article describes the nine most common signals, along with the concrete check that goes with each one.
1. A return presented as guaranteed
No strategy guarantees a return on any market. The wording varies — "steady 8% per month", "secured performance", "capital protected by the algorithm" — but the claim is always the same, and it is false by construction.
The check: ask for the worst month since launch. An honest vendor supplies it without hesitation. A fraudulent one changes the subject or claims there has never been one.
2. Evidence limited to screenshots
A screenshot of a MetaTrader terminal or an account balance proves nothing. It takes minutes to produce, either on a demo account or by simply editing the image.
The check: insist on the full statement exported from MetaTrader (the HTML file), not a picture. A statement contains the history of every position and can be recalculated from end to end. A screenshot cannot.
3. A demo account presented as live
This is the most widespread technique, because it is superficially legal and free to produce. On a demo account, execution is flawless, slippage is non-existent and the capital is fictional.
The check: in a MetaTrader statement, the account type is usually shown in the header. Three further clues betray a demo: a large, suspiciously round starting balance, perfect execution through major economic releases, and the complete absence of commissions or swaps.
4. A short history offered as proof
Three to six months of gains demonstrate nothing. Over a short, favourable window, a structurally losing strategy produces an excellent curve. Grid and martingale strategies are designed for precisely that: they win steadily until the event that wipes everything out.
The check: ask for the date of the first trade in live conditions. Below twelve months, a history remains an indication, not a proof.
5. An equity curve with no drawdown
A perfectly straight line is not the mark of a superior strategy but of displaced risk. There are two possible explanations, and neither is favourable: losing positions are never closed — the loss exists but stays floating — or the period shown is too short to contain a shock.
The check: compare closed-trade drawdown with floating drawdown. A wide gap reveals losses still in waiting. A vendor who does not understand the distinction does not understand their own product.
6. Commercial urgency
Countdown timers, a limited number of licences left, a price valid until tonight. A product whose value rests on its performance needs none of this: performance can be verified, and verification takes time. Urgency has one function only — to prevent exactly that verification.
The check: wait for the deadline to pass. The offer always comes back.
7. A request for your master password
Account management, "assisted installation" or a "setup service" that requires your master password grants total control over your capital: opening positions, changing leverage and, with some brokers, initiating withdrawals.
The check: none. This request ends the conversation. Read-only access is obtained with the investor password, which exists for exactly this purpose.
8. A track record that cannot be tied to a live account
Tracking platforms such as MyFxbook or FXBlue display whatever is sent to them. A link to a tracking page is not, in itself, proof: the account may be a demo, the history may have been imported rather than tracked live, and certain settings allow part of the information to be hidden.
The check: confirm that tracking is live rather than imported, that the account type is real, that the period covered is complete and that the broker name is visible. All four points appear in the sharing settings of the tracking page.
9. No identifiable legal entity
A pseudonym, a messaging channel and an irreversible payment method. No company, no address, no legal notice. In a dispute there is no recourse, because there is no counterparty.
The check: look for the site's legal notice and the company's registration details. Note the payment method requested as well: crypto transfer as the only option is a deliberate choice of irreversibility.
The check that settles it
These nine signals converge on a single requirement: the raw account statement. It is not easily falsified, it contains every position, and it lets you recalculate what the vendor claims.
If you obtain an MT4 or MT5 statement, import it into Judgebot. Real drawdown, profit factor, recovery factor and payoff are recalculated from the trades, martingale and grid behaviour is detected, and the robot receives an A/B/C/D grade with its weaknesses spelled out. Any gap between the statement and the sales pitch shows up immediately.
👉 Analyse a statement for free
If you cannot obtain a statement at all, the question is already answered.
If you are already affected
Stop all further payments, including if a final payment is presented as the condition for a withdrawal — that technique is a second scam grafted onto the first. Change your trading account passwords immediately and contact your broker if a third party has had access. Keep every exchange and every proof of payment.
In summary
Guaranteed returns, screenshots offered as evidence, a disguised demo account, a history that is too short, a curve with no drawdown, artificial urgency, a request for the master password, unverifiable tracking, no legal entity. A single one of these signals justifies caution; two justify walking away. And in every case, a raw account statement settles the matter faster than an hour of discussion.