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If you are reading our Fonds Avenue overview, it means the offers of this so-called “regulated” broker genuinely caught your attention. Its promises of exceptional trading conditions, ultra-fast order execution, and premium customer support may look appealing at first glance. Well, in reality, these are typical tricks used by scammers to attract new victims. Below, you will find everything you need to ensure your money does not end up in the hands of those who created this fraudulent platform.
The company has placed an intrusive “Regulated Forex Brokers” banner in the lower right corner of the screen (which, by the way, is quite distracting) and is doing everything possible to convince visitors that the statement is true. On the “Regulation” page, Fonds Avenue claims to operate under the supervision of one of the most reputable financial regulators in the world, the UK’s FCA, and even provides a reference number from the regulator’s database. Interestingly, the website does not include any information about its alleged registration in the United Kingdom. Instead, it lists a London office address and the name of the head of its financial department. If all traders simply took such statements at face value, scammers would have an easy time. Fortunately for the owners of Fonds Avenue, many traders know how to verify official information, and they understand where to find real regulatory data.
Let’s begin with FCA reference number 718098. It does exist in the FCA database; however, it belongs to a Luxembourg-registered company called FUNDS AVENUE S.A.
We immediately noticed that the company name does not match the broker’s name. At first, the difference of a single letter (Funds Avenue in the regulatory register vs. Fonds Avenue on the platform’s website) may seem insignificant, but even this small discrepancy means they are considered different legal entities. This would not be an issue if the company operated under the trading name “Fonds Avenue,” but the FCA profile clearly states that its only approved trading name exactly matches the name listed in the register.
This means the broker Fonds Avenue has no relation whatsoever to the Luxembourg company FUNDS AVENUE S.A., which appears in the FCA register. Moreover, the license previously granted to that company has expired, and as of 29 July 2025, it is listed only as the operator of a formerly recognized foreign scheme. This status remains solely because it may still hold funds or securities belonging to UK clients. It is not authorized to conduct any regulated activities, and restoring such authorization would require relicensing.
We also want to draw attention to the fact that the creators of the Fonds Avenue website chose to ignore the FCA’s information about the company’s Luxembourg registration. The Luxembourg business registry indeed contains an entry for FUNDS AVENUE S.A., established in 2014.
The main area of activity of this company is the management of investment and pension funds, and there is not even a mention of it providing brokerage services. Most likely, the platform’s owners chose not to highlight this fact because it would immediately undermine their entire narrative.
However, they manage to discredit themselves anyway, for example, by presenting information about their supposed Head of the Financial Department, Richard Weinhaus. We would not have focused on this detail if we had not seen a CRD number listed next to his name. The issue is that we know exactly what a CRD number represents: it is a unique identifier assigned to every broker (individual) and brokerage firm (legal entity) operating in the U.S. securities market. In other words, it is a record number in FINRA’s database, the U.S. financial industry regulatory authority.
What connection could a person with direct access to U.S. stock exchanges possibly have to the financial department of a British (or Luxembourg) broker? This was already unclear, but the situation became even more absurd after reviewing the actual record. According to FINRA, Richard I. Weinhaus holds 56 broker and financial advisor licenses across multiple U.S. states, and for the last 13 years he has worked without interruption at J.P. MORGAN SECURITIES LLC. Moreover, among the six firms with which he was previously associated, there is not a single European or UK entity, let alone anything resembling Funds Avenue or Fonds Avenue.
The timeline further confirms this. Nowhere on the platform’s website is there any information about when the broker was established or how long it has been operating online. Meanwhile, official data shows that the company whose license the scammers are trying to impersonate was founded in 2014 and authorized by the UK regulator in 2015. Now let’s take a look at the whois data for the domain.
As we can see, the domain fondsavenue.com appeared only on 26 May 2025. By the time this analysis was written, about six months had passed, but certainly not the 10–11 years implied by the information about the company whose name the scammers are using. This is yet another confirmation that the broker has no connection whatsoever to the firm from Luxembourg.
Half a year, in our opinion, is more than enough time for the first user reviews of the platform to appear online. And our expectations were fully justified: there are already 41 comments on reviews.io, as well as 16 on Trustpilot. So what exactly do we see in these publications?
The most striking picture is on reviews.io. All authors praise the company enthusiastically (except for four users who rated it 3 out of 5) and extol its transparency and safety. We clearly understand that these glowing endorsements are commissioned and generously paid for by the project’s owners. On Trustpilot, the situation is completely different: here, 100% of the reviews are sharply negative, with ratings no higher than 2 out of 5.
Judging by the content, the posts on Trustpilot appear to be written by real clients, as they usually contain specific details: amounts, names of account managers, and in some cases screenshots of communication with customer support. And nearly everyone reports the same issues: spam calls from the “specialists” of this pseudo-company; a problematic trading platform where it is impossible to trade, let alone earn; and unprocessed withdrawal requests. In short, the scammers stay true to themselves.
Forex brokers operating in the United Kingdom are traditionally perceived as among the most reliable in the world. This reputation stems from the strict regulatory oversight of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which ensures a high level of client protection and operational transparency. The UK financial regulator tightly monitors the activities of Forex/CFD firms. To obtain a license, a company must meet the following requirements:
The FCA conducts regular inspections and audits of licensed brokers, minimizing risks for traders. Additionally, every brokerage company operating under an FCA license must:
All these protections could, in theory, benefit the clients of Fonds Avenue. However, as we have already established, this pseudo-company has no connection to the UK market whatsoever. Accordingly, none of the regulator’s requirements are met.
Let’s be frank: we are far from impressed by the broker’s official website. To be fair, the designers are not to blame — they clearly tried to do their job well. However, the page content would have ruined even a far more sophisticated layout. Tell us, would you enjoy reading several pages filled entirely with advertising slogans? We certainly did not. What made our impression even worse was realizing that most of the promises published on the site are completely unfounded.
Here are just a few examples:
For example, a new client cannot register independently. The problem is not that the registration form is malfunctioning, it simply does not exist. It appears that the project owners do not want users arriving without an invitation or without proving that they can’t live without trading on this platform. In that sense, the approach is almost honest: they don’t even give such visitors the chance to register, so as not to waste time. As for the “desired” users, support staff will create accounts for them manually.
Frankly, this is exactly what we expected. A website built to last only a few months cannot be of high quality. That is why the scammers did not bother with it. They created the bare minimum just to mark their presence online, and apparently, that was enough.
We were not even able to analyze the trading conditions offered by Fonds Avenue: they are simply not available on the website (as mentioned earlier), and accessing the trading terminal requires an active user account. We have rarely seen a broker conceal such essential information so thoroughly.
For example, on the Choose an Account page, the only meaningful data we found were the account names. The broker offers a total of seven account types: five standard ones and two “Professional” accounts. The standard plans include:
The professional ones are VIP and VIP+. Without any trading conditions provided, there is no visible difference between these tiers. It would be unreasonable to consider such minor features as Personalised Trading Alerts or Practical Guided Trading Sessions as truly defining criteria — most traders simply do not base account choice on such features.
Across all pages of the official website, we managed to find exactly ONE concrete parameter: the minimum deposit amount, which is $300. As for leverage, spreads, swaps and commissions, trade volume limits, and so on, we were unable to find any of this information.
This allows us to draw at least two conclusions:
We would like to describe a data-rich Contact Us page, but the broker gave us no such opportunity. The only thing published there is a support email address.
We almost forgot. The footer lists a UK address that Fonds Avenue claims to use as its headquarters. However, verification showed that among the numerous companies registered at that location, not a single one has a name matching the broker’s. The owners apparently decided that providing additional office locations, phone numbers, or even a live chat would be an unnecessary luxury for traders. After all, as the company assures, support “typically replies within an hour,” so clients can simply wait with their urgent questions and problems.
We also did not find any links to social media pages. However, a company that does not even allow open registration probably has no real need for such channels. Of course, social networks could help build at least some reputation, but it seems the firm considers investing time or resources into that unnecessary.