FXOpen public letter.
Dear Friends,
We would like to share with you with the results of an investigation that has been made by the FXOpen team regarding the case of "Erlan". In the 1st part of our report, we ask you to check facts and direct evidences such as:
1)
An examination of the Identity Document and Utility Bill (sent by the person named
Erlan S.)
2)
Recorded calls (Calls were made to the administration of Baktybaya city. The conversation
was in the Russian language and a compressed translation will be provided in English.
Some of the information on the tapes, such as: The name of the Kazakhstan Official,
and the contact phone number of the authority are edited out as they are not for
public viewing. Unaltered records have been made available for legal purposes (Police,
Courts of Law) however.
3)
An Official letter sent by the Administration of Baktybaya city (The letter is in
Russian language and translated to English by FXOpen. The Original of the letter
will be made available for legal use).
In the 2nd part of our report we will analyze some additional evidences that support the main evidences and will try to help to determine, who is Erlan S. or who is standing behind the name of Erlan S.
Part 1.
Due to a smear campaign over the last 2 weeks and a lot of wild speculation regarding the case, our team decided to make our own investigation and to try and show to the people who might have had their opinion of the company tarnished under the effect of "erlan's" website and posts, that FXOpen is a serious and trustworthy company and that no scam activity has ever happened.
FXOpen, as a partner of Poltek Business Ltd. was managing client support and collecting the ID documents of the clients who opened trading accounts with Poltek. Our 1st step was to analyse the documents which were sent from the e-mail saduakerl@gmail.com which were the ID of Mr. Erlan S.A. and utility bill under the name of Erlan S.A.
Download Erlan's document expertise.
Original scanned copies of the documents are available for legal use.
*This analysis cannot be relied upon 100% as evidence of illegal activity but it gives a highly accurate, scientifically derived result.
Our 2nd step was to call the Administration of Baktybaya city (the residential address of Mr. Erlan indicated in utility bill and ID).
*Remark: Baktybaya city is a small village of just 9000 people located in Kazakhstan, and it was difficult to find any internet connected contacts there. We contacted the telephone directory service asked them to: a) Check if there is a telephone number registered under the address provided in the utility bill, and b) Check for a telephone number registered under the name of Erlan S.A. Both of the requests turned up a blank. However, we managed to procure two available official phone numbers of Baktybaya city (School and Administration). We decided to contact Administration.
Recordings of the calls are in Russian (most of the people speak Russian and Kazakh in Kazakhstan) . Our team have made a compressed translation to English. Details such as the phone number of Administration, name of the representative of Administration are cut from the public tape. The original recording is available for legal purposes).
RECORDING 1
Phone call made to the Administration of Baktybaya village 18th of October, Kazakhstan
FXO (FXOpen company representative), ADM (Administration representative)
FXO: Hello
ADM: Good afternoon
FXO: Good afternoon. Can you please correct me, am I calling to Baktybaya(*1)?
ADM: Yes, how may I help?
FXO: I am so sorry, I am calling on behalf of an overseas financial company.
This is the only phone number of Baktybaya village I found...is there any information
service or structure which can find a person living in your village?...as we have
documents registered under the name of a citizen of your village, and we do believe
that the documents are fake or were stolen. We need find the owner of the documents
urgently.
ADM: What is the surname of the person?
FXO: Ok...We have documents under the name Erlan. S.A.
ADM: And address please?
FXO: The address provided is Baktybaya, str. Rechnaya(*2), house #17 and flat #20(*3)...
ADM:Hmmm...you know, there is no such a street in Baktybaya...Baktybaya is a village
in the countryside and there aren't even any flats...only private houses...
FXO: Ok....we have a problem...the person is using Erlan's details and we strongly
believe that Erlan has no knowledge of his identity being used, so we need to contact
Erlan somehow...and the person using Erlan's details has not provided a phone number
in Baktybaya, but provides only a phone number in the USA. So, this is a serious
situation. Could you please help us find him and to check if it is the real Erlan
using these ID details or not? Because if not, the real Erlan should report to the
police.
ADM: So...the street Rechnaya (*2) , like you said, does not exist at all...
FXO: This is information from the utility bill for July 2007 provided by "Erlan"...There
is an address at the bottom, but it is badly scratched...so I can't see the full
name.. All I can read is the name "Shoss"....or maybe the street name. Shosseynaya
or Shossevaya?
ADM: There is also no such street here...There is a street named ZARECHNAJA, but
there are no flats there. Only private houses...
FXO: Ok...So, maybe it is possible to find a person by name or legal document ...
ADM: Is it written Baktybaya village in ID? What is written in the place of residence
section?
FXO: Ok, it is provided there: Place of residence: Almaatinskaja
state, Ekseldinsky district, Baktybaya. Issued in 2004.
ADM: hmmm....yes, right...Baktybaya is located correctly...
FXO: ...So...could you kindly help us to find the person?!?!
ADM: Ok...I will check...but I am sure there is no such a street as you provided
(Rechnaya) But I will check...
FXO: I can give you the number of ID if you need. 0162*****
ADM: and issued when..?
FXO: 13.10.2004
ADM: Ok, I will check, but I cannot answer right now...also, as I told you there
is no Rechnaya street in our village. Please call me tomorrow 10.00.
FXO: Ok, sorry for disturbing, bye.
ADM: Bye
*1. Baktybaya is a residential address provided by the name of Erlan S.A.
and approved with the scanned ID and utility bill.
*2. Street "Rechanaya" is provided as the residential address in the electric utility
bill sent in the name of Erlan S.A.
*3. House #17, flat #20 is indicated in the utility bill under the name of Erlan
S.A.
We waited for 1 more day to get more detailed information. Please examine the 2nd
recordeded call made to Baktybaya village on the 19th of October.
RECORDING 2
Call made 19th of October to Baktybaya Administration.
FXO: Good afternoon, is this ******** (name)?
ADM: Hello. It is *******, how may I help?
FXO: I am contacting you again from the company, FXOpen...
ADM: Yes, yes...I have found a person with the surname, Saduakassov and I have invited
him to come to the administration office ...but he is not Erlan. His name is Nurlan
and his middle name is K. Born in 19**. I have asked him if he has a brother called
Erlan...he said that he has no brother at all.
FXO: Ok, I see. So, we need to get an official report from you so we can give an
official request to the police. Of course we will cover any expenses incurred in
sending us official papers (postage, calls and so on).
ADM: No, no...i can send a fax from the main city of our area, no problem.
FXO: Ok...so we can send you a request on our letterhead? Do you have official letterhead
to send back to us??
ADM: What do you need exactly? You need a report that the person you are interested
in is not living at this address?
FXO: We need a report saying that there is no such street (Rechnaya) and here is
no person named Erlan A.S. in the village. It would be wonderful if you can make
it an official statement!
ADM: Ok, please send the request to the fax number XXXXXXXXX
FXO: Great, when you will be able to answer?
ADM: By Monday, afternoon.
FXO: Ok, good. Just to confirm, I am calling to the Administration of Baktybaya?
And are you a official representative of Administration? I am asking to know
what kind of approval for the letter you can make, like an official stamp, signature
and the name of the responsible person?
ADM: We will provide an official letter with the stamp.
FXO: Ok, great. I would like to thank you as you are helping us a lot now! Once
again, if there are any expenses incurred in sending this fax, we are ready to compensate
you.
ADM: No thank you, the fax will be sent without problems.
FXO: Ok, thanks a lot, goodbye!
ADM: Goodbye.
Scanned copy of original letter will be added soon.
All of the above information leads us to believe that the documents of the person "Erlan" are fake (we can say that with a high degree of certainty about the utility bill) however, the ID is very suspicious as well.
We are not saying that Erlan S.A. does not exist but definitely, a lot of illegal manipulations were made to the documents provided. This kind of illegal manipulation gives us the right to freeze the funds of the client and send the report to the authorities, however FXOpen never received the money of "Erlan" so there was nothing to freeze in this case.
Part 2.
It has become painfully clear to us that there were some major manipulations done by the Poltek owners using their administrative access of the Metatrader 4 system. Manipulations designed to benefit Poltek at the expense of FXOpen.
Regarding the Egold transfer made from the account of "Erlan" to the egold account of FXOpen, we can say that until 28.09.2007, Fxopen was working in cooperation with the Poltek and that the Egold account, and the bank account was shared between the Poltek owners and Fxopen management. So, all that happened was that a deposit was made by the Poltek owners to the egold of Fxopen which was a shared account at the time. Poltek made a deposit to Poltek to put it simply.
When the facts are collected together as a complete puzzle, you will see that image behind "Erlan", is somewhat different to the image of a poor scammed person being proffered up to an eager public.
One very important thing has been ignored by the public is the fact that, during the time that Fxopen was with Poltek, there was the maximum allowable limit for a leverage of 1:500. Accounts over $20,000 were given a 1:200 maximum leverage allowance. In "Erlan's" case, his leverage was automatically changed (also, the Poltek Trader's cabinet did not have the option of leverage change by the clients as Fxopen cabinet has now):
Email sent 19th of September 2007, 6.30 P.M. Eastern time (US time)
"Hello Erlan,
Your leverage has been changed to 1:200 due to our reglament which
allow 1:500 only for deposits below 20000$."
And here is a screenshot made from "Erlan's" email account which clearly shows that the leverage changing email was received by him:
Receiving time in Gmail indicates 20 of September 2007, 5.30 A.M. Simple calculations will show that person loged in to Gmail account was located or using IP adress for the region located in the time zone +6 GMT .
In a several hours after the leverage change, "Erlan" somehow opens a position of 150 lots EUR/USD with a balance of $55,000 in margin. This is impossible, as system would cancel the order as the margin is insufficient to open the position.
((1.3979x100,000)x150 lots)/200(leverage level) = $104,842.50 is the margin amount required (at the time) to open 150 lots of EUR/USD at 1:200 leverage. Clearly this account had insufficient margin to do this.
Also suspicious is the fact that within a few hours of making a $50,000 deposit, someone claiming to be professional trader, opened a 150 lot position (with 30 pips to spare until margin call) without a stop loss! No speculation is required to determine exactly how "Erlan" was about to open this position. Only someone with administrative control of the Poltek Metatrader system could have opened this position.
The is more piece of suspicious activity to point out. "Erlan" wrote to us:
E-mail received 3rd of Ocober:
"Hello
I have contacted your support once again and they asked for my phone
number.
Since I am a nephew of a city mayor and I am almost sure my phone
line is
tapped, I want to keep this information private.
Therefore, please use our U.S. phone number for communication. The support
team told me you will call today. Please do, I am waiting for your
call. The
issue is very urgent.
My number is US phone number.
Regards, Erlan
A USA phone number was given. A Kazakh landline phone was never provided. Also, a check of the IP of "erlan" indicated that it is a USA IP address. Is it not very strange that the person who is trying to prove that a company has taken his money, would also do his best to hide himself from the company?....
Lets check screenshots of the GMAIL inbox (taken from "erlan's) website:
At a glance, everything appears to be ok, however Gmail inserts Geo-targeted advertisements into the web application. A closer look will reveal that the advertisement in the above image is in Indian Sanskrit. Did Google make a mistake in deciding that the IP address of the person accessing the Gmail account is in India?
Lets check another screenshot (also taken from "Erlan's" website).
Here, we can clearly see "FreeCallPlanet.com/India" (an advertisement for the Indian region).
What exactly does it prove? You decide. We know that Indian VPNs or IP addresses are not that popular or rarely made available. Perhaps "Erlan" was traveling? Perhaps someone else made the screenshots for him under his name? We don't know this for sure, but it's just another of the many mysteries surrounding the mythical Erlan S.A. (but atleast it can explain +6GMT when leverage changing email was received).
Another small point we would like to make is the fact that in any forum posting, or other internet communications made by "Erlan", is that he gives his name as "Erlan Saduakasov", yet his official passport ID spells his name as "Erlan Saduakassov". Yes, with a double S. A small detail, but it is still important to point out.
One more thing, please check out the PINRobot request result from Egold, sent to "erlan's" email box and you will see that the IP: 80.249.178.166 was indicated as having logged on to his Egold account.
You can check the location of 80.249.178.166 with a whois service such as http://all-nettools.com/toolbox and the result will be:
Smart Telecom Company,
Radisheva 39, r. 320
Saint-Petersburg city,
191123,
Russia
Another strange and suspicious story...
From today 22 of October 2007 we have recived another "present" from Erlan's team. An email was sent from his email address to manager@fxopen.com.
Hello
You seem to have noticed the activity that is going on on 2 domains with
your name:
http://fxopen.info and http://fxopen.org
I suggest an equal exchange - you return my USD 137000, and I transfer these
domains to you.
At least we got the information about the owners of this scum domains (fxopen.info and fxopen.org)
So where exactly is "erlan" located? Passing himself off as a Kazakhstan citizen, using a USA phone number and IP address, opening a Gmail account from India, and logging in to Egold from Russia?
A lot of strange activity has happened to FXOpen over the last month. Beginning with the spamming of our clients with "phishing" attempts, and penis enlargement offers, continuous hacking attempts designed to break our servers and now the appearance of "Erlan"...
The truth about "Erlan" is very clear to us now. "Client Erlan" is an organised smear campaign who's main target is FXOpen and who's aim is to give FXOpen a bad image, and a reputation as a scam company.
A lot of effort has gone into this campaign from posts in forums all over the world including those in Russian and Bahasa languages, to libelous websites. They have also gone to a lot of trouble and expense to target web indexing systems such as Google to indicate one thing. That FXOpen is a scam. This is designed to make current FXOpen clients panic and close their accounts, to distract potential new clients and to disrupt normal company activities.
We are guessing their next step will be to launch a new Forex company that will appear from nowhere to be the "Saviour" of former FXOpen clients?
Closing Remarks:
FXOpen is a large company with thousands of satisfied clients already trading with us. Around 300-500 new clients join every day. Whatever the enemies of FXOpen are trying to achieve, their campaign is clearly not very effective. Clients and prospective clients have been drawn to us simply out of curiosity over the whole situation.
We think this letter clearly demonstrates who these people really are. The use of spam and deception is their style of work. Such things are illegal in most jurisdictions and this information has indeed been provided to the appropriate authorities for further criminal investigation.
We would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank our Partners and Clients who have disregarded the campaign "Erlan" and have offered their support during this attack against us. Without you, the company is nothing.
Our company has the potential to offer superior Forex trading services and we have already begun to make improvements in order to better serve our client base. FXOpen is one of the fastest growing companies on the market and promises to continue the policy of making improvements, providing great services and more flexible trading conditions to it's clients. We want you to know that we ensure that all client funds are safe as is their private information and that we take the allegations against us very seriously.
Kindest Regards
FXOpen Management!