Afriq JM Arbitrage (afriqjmarbitrage.us) Review: Legit or Scam?

On the about page of their website, Afriq JM Arbitrage claims to be “a digital currency trading platform that uses high-frequency trading and algorithms to automatically buy digital currencies at low prices and sell them at higher prices to generate returns.“

They also claim to be “a model focused on digital currencies and high-frequency transactions, AAS has built a world-class digital exchange that has created a topnotch wealth space for investors globally.

You would agree that these are quite lofty claims, and it is from these claims that we decided to begin our investigation. The first thing we noticed about this “world-class digital exchange” is that there is no information about the owners or the management team in charge of the company. No information on the CEO, management team, founders, board, staff, nothing at all on their website. This is a huge red flag, as most fraudulent investment platforms do not reveal those behind it, so when they run away with investors’ funds they can’t be traced.

The next thing that caught our attention was their claim that “Afriq JM Arbitrage System LLC is certified as a Colorado Limited Liability Company and has verifiable good standing certificate.“

Afriq JM Arbitrage does display a certificate of incorporation from Colorado on its website, hence we decided to fact check this claim.

To do this, we sent an email to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Below is a screenshot of the response we received.

While confirming the authenticity of the certificate they clearly state: Entities filed with our office can be listed as in Good Standing. “Good Standing” status means that statutory filing requirements have been met with our office. However, this office does not review or verify information submitted in those filings. This office also does not regulate or investigate business practices or operations.

The above simply means they do not even verify the information submitted to them. They continue: Our agency helps business owners register their business name and file business documents, we are not an enforcement agency, so we do not have the authority to check to see if there are any complaints, take any for a business or to see if a business is legitimate in their business practice.

They make it clear they cannot check to see if a business registered with them is legitimate. Hence this certificate cannot be taken as proof that Afriq JM Arbitrage is a legitimate business. To figure if it is legit, you must look beyond the certificate, hence we turn our attention to other information on their website.

Afriq JM Arbitrage claims to offer 1.65% daily return on investment.

This translates to 49.5% return on investment per month. This is extermely high, and another indicator that this is a scam, as most fraudulent investment schemes use high returns on investment to entice victims. Yet another pointer is the 5% “direct referral commission.” This means anytime you introduce someone into the scheme you get paid 5% of their registration fees. This is another common ploy used by fraudulent investment platforms, the aim is to have those who have registered get new recruits into the scheme thereby keeping the pyramid alive, but as always, when there are no new registrations, the whole thing collapses.

Moving on, we decided to look at their platform. After registering, we were greeted with this dashboard below

Notice that the digital currency on display is USDT (Tether). We decided to click on the investment tab to see if we would see other cryptocurrencies. But we found that their investment plan is in USDT

We found no other cryptocurrencies or digital currencies or a place where you can input an api key to connect to an exchange. This is significant because Afriq JM Arbitrage claims to be doing arbitrage, which is buying a currency and selling it at a higher price to make a profit. For this to be possible a price difference must exist between the two currencies. For cryptocurrencies, this is possible when there is a price difference between two exchanges. Looking at the Afriq JM Arbitrage platform there is no evidence that any sort of arbitrage is being done. All you have is a dashboard where you deposit USDT, and it magically increases after a stipulated period and then you withdraw your gains. No information is given about the currencies being traded or where the trading is done.

The most troubling thing about Afriq JM Arbitrage is that it is not registered with the securities and exchange commission (SEC), a visit to their portal showed no record of Afriq JM Arbitrage.

Putting it all together, Afriq JM Arbitrage offers a high return on investment, has a pyramid component, is not registered with SEC and there is no proof on their platform that any sort of arbitrage is being done. Therefore, we advise that you keep away from this platform.