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Scam Watch

Documenting fraud, manipulation, and bad actors in the prop firm industry. Community-sourced, editorially verified.

FundingPips

FundingPips: “Zero Reward Denials” Claim Contradicted by Documented Cases

FundingPips built part of its brand around “Zero Reward Denials,” but the complaint record shows this claim is not sustainable as stated. Documented cases include post-pass account restrictions not selected by the trader, copy trading accusations built on weak factual overlap, and KYC-stage closures without meaningful resolution. The temporary Trustpilot suspension adds a separate integrity concern.

4/8/2026

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HIGH

BrightFunded

BrightFunded: Post-Payout Account Crippling and Phantom Trade Allegations

BrightFunded shows a documented pattern where trader problems intensify after profitability. Reported issues include daily drawdown being cut from 5% to 1% after payout, traders being blacklisted after withdrawal, and phantom opposite trades appearing on profitable accounts before payout review. The trust problem is compounded by a major gap between the firm’s payout marketing and available independent verification.

4/8/2026

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HIGH

SharkFunded

Rebranded from Monero Funding — Hidden Rules, Manual Payout Reversals, and Fake Review Removals

SharkFunded (sharkfunded.com) is a Saint Lucia-registered prop firm launched in 2025, reportedly led by Ibrahim Shaikh. The firm was previously known as Monero Funding — a rebrand that Trustpilot reviews and the firm's own support responses confirm. Rebranding prop firms is a pattern we track closely, because it's how firms with damaged reputations reset their review profiles. The firm offers 1-step, 2-step, and instant funding challenges on MetaTrader 5, with account sizes from $5K to $100K and claims of "True Daily Payouts with No Consistency Rules." The reality reported by traders is different. **Hidden Rules Enforced at Payout** Multiple traders document the same pattern: pass the challenge, hit profit targets on the funded account, request a payout — and get breached for rules that don't appear on the website. Specific documented cases: - A trader was breached for "scalping" on their funded account. No scalping rule exists on SharkFunded's website. - Another trader's payout was rejected for "tick scalping and overtrading" — despite their published rules not specifying any limit on trades per day. - Traders report accounts frozen using "lots of hidden rules" as justification when they reach payout thresholds. **Manual Payout Reversals** One trader documented a payout being accepted by the system, then manually reversed 7 hours later with a "rule breach" citation. Their argument: if a rule was actually violated, the automated system would have rejected the request at submission. A manual reversal hours later suggests human intervention to avoid paying profitable traders. **Rebrand from Monero Funding** The sharkfunded.com domain is registered on Trustpilot under "Monero Funding." The firm's support team signs responses as "Team SharkFunded (Monero Funding)." The rebrand split the firm's review history across two Trustpilot profiles — sharkfunded.co (3.7/5, 182 reviews) and sharkfunded.com/Monero Funding (51% one-star reviews). Trustpilot has removed fake reviews from both profiles. **Our Assessment** The rebrand alone is a yellow flag. Combined with hidden rule enforcement, manual payout reversals, and fake review removals across two Trustpilot profiles, the pattern is clear: SharkFunded markets aggressively with "daily payouts" and "no consistency rules" to attract traders, then uses unpublished rules to deny payouts to profitable ones. The $3.5M total payout claim is unverifiable and low for a firm selling $59 challenges at volume.

HIGH

Goat Funded Trader

Hidden Rules, Fake Reviews, and Blank Payout Rejections

Goat Funded Trader (goatfundedtrader.com) was founded in 2023 by Edoardo Dalla Torre and is registered in Saint Lucia and Hong Kong with no financial regulatory oversight. They claim $13M+ paid to 250,000 traders. The reality is messier than the marketing suggests. **Trustpilot Flagged for Fake Reviews** Trustpilot itself has flagged Goat Funded Trader for "guideline breaches" and removed a number of fake reviews. When a review platform has to intervene and strip reviews from your profile, that's not a technicality — it's a credibility failure. The displayed rating (~4.0) is inflated; the underlying sentiment is closer to 3.4 when accounting for removals. **Hidden Rules Used to Deny Payouts** Multiple traders report being denied payouts based on rules that don't appear in the official terms: - "Your biggest day can't be more than 15% of total profits" - "You can't make more than 0.5% per day" - First payout caps that limit withdrawals to a fraction of earned profits Traders making $1,000+ on their first cycle report receiving 6% or less of their actual profits. These caps aren't disclosed at signup — they surface only when you request a withdrawal. **Blank Payout Rejections** Traders have documented withdrawal requests rejected with literally no reason given — a blank rejection field. One trader completed full KYC, met all stated trading rules, and qualified for payout, only to receive a rejection with zero explanation. **Trades Hidden from Dashboard** One trader reported hitting profit targets on a $5K account in March 2026, but the company refused to display the trade in their dashboard — effectively preventing the account from showing as passed. When the firm controls the dashboard and can choose which trades to show, the evaluation is no longer objective. **Competition Prizes Not Delivered** A trader who won 1st place in three monthly competitions in June 2025 reported receiving no prizes, no funded account, and no valid response despite 30+ days of follow-up. This thread was marked "ABANDONED" on Forex Peace Army. **Our Assessment** The combination of Trustpilot flagging fake reviews + undisclosed payout rules + blank rejections + dashboard manipulation represents a pattern of systematic deception. Unlike firms with occasional payout disputes, Goat Funded Trader appears to have structural mechanisms designed to reduce or prevent payouts to qualifying traders.

HIGH

GetLeveraged

$25K Penalty for Negative Reviews and Systematic Payout Rejections

GetLeveraged (getleveraged.com) was founded by Tal Fromchenko and launched in early 2025. The company operates through GetLeveraged Ltd, registered in Saint Lucia (2025-00808), with a head office listed at Avenue Omonoias 13, Limassol 3052, Cyprus. They offer cheap "Turbo" challenges starting at $8.88, claim 12-24 hour payouts, and carry a 4.8 Trustpilot score. Dig deeper and the picture changes. **The $25,000 Non-Disparagement Clause** GetLeveraged's terms include a clause requiring traders to pay $25,000 in "liquidated damages" if they post negative or disparaging content about the company. This means every trader who signs up is legally threatened with a five-figure penalty for writing an honest negative review. This single clause makes their 4.8 Trustpilot rating meaningless. When traders face $25K in damages for posting a 1-star review, positive scores are inflated by design. You are not seeing genuine sentiment — you are seeing suppressed feedback. **Payout Rejection Pattern** Multiple traders report the same experience: pass the challenge, trade profitably on the funded account, request a payout — and get rejected one day before the scheduled payout date. The rejection reasons include: - "Irregularities within the account's identification and/or KYC verification" - Documentation "flagged as suspicious and indicative of potential fraudulent activity" - Vague compliance violations with no specifics One trader reported two separate accounts — $5,000 profit on one, $2,000 on another — both denied using the same pattern: rejection arrives the day before payout. **Offshore Registration** GetLeveraged Ltd is registered in Saint Lucia — a common jurisdiction for entities seeking minimal regulatory oversight. The Cyprus office address provides a European presence but Saint Lucia registration means no meaningful financial regulation applies to the prop firm entity. **Our Assessment** The combination of suppressed reviews + payout denials + offshore registration follows a pattern we've seen before in prop firms that prioritize challenge fee collection over trader payouts. The non-disparagement clause is the most telling signal — legitimate firms don't need to legally silence their customers.

HIGH

Apex Trader Funding

Retroactive Rule Changes and Systematic Payout Denials

Apex Trader Funding has a documented pattern of changing trading rules after traders have already passed evaluations and then using those new rules to deny payouts. This is not a one-off complaint — it's a structural issue that persisted across 2024-2025 and only began to be addressed in their March 2026 "4.0" overhaul. The pattern works like this: a trader passes the evaluation under one set of rules, requests a payout on their funded account, and then gets denied for violating a rule that either didn't exist when they started trading or was vaguely defined enough to be enforced selectively. Specific documented tactics include: - **"Windfall profit" denials**: Traders were denied payouts for what Apex called "windfall behavior" — profitable trades made using dollar-cost averaging strategies. This wasn't in any public rulebook at the time of the trades. Apex retroactively flagged it. - **Forced video reviews**: Apex required traders requesting payouts to submit videos of themselves trading as "proof." Hundreds (possibly thousands) of traders received emails demanding they vlog their trading sessions before any payout would be processed. - **"Erratic trading" rejections**: Profitable traders reported payout denials citing vague reasons like "erratic trading" or "scheming and scamming" with no specific rule violation identified. - **MAE limit enforcement**: Traders discovered their payouts were denied based on Maximum Adverse Excursion limits that were inconsistently disclosed or retroactively tightened. One trader documented being denied over $28,000 due to sudden rule changes applied to trades that were already completed. Another reported $20,000 retained despite submitting multiple trading videos as demanded. Apex's own March 2026 "4.0" update is the most telling evidence — they marketed "no more payout denials" and "no more video reviews" as headline features. You don't advertise the removal of a practice unless it was a real problem.