Is Element a Scam?

When we at FXCanary sit down to judge whether a broker is safe to trade with, we do not rely on marketing pages or a slick website. We start with the public regulatory registers, cross-check the legal entity behind the brand, and then look for independent evidence that the broker actually behaves the way it claims. For a broker with no independent user reviews yet, that process becomes even more important, because there is no crowd-sourced track record to lean on.

Our assessment produces a Scam Risk Score out of 100. Element Trade MT5 currently sits at 42/100, which we classify as 'Guarded'. That is not a clean bill of health, and it is not an outright scam warning either. It is a signal that there are enough unresolved questions — and enough red flags — that a cautious trader should think very carefully before committing any funds. The score is built from a combination of regulatory status, corporate transparency, website verification, and the absence of any independent user feedback.

Our records show that Element Trade MT5 lists two regulators on file: ASIC in Australia and the FSA in Japan. On the surface, that sounds reassuring — ASIC and the Japanese FSA are both respected, strict regulators. But the devil is in the details, and in this case the details are troubling.

For ASIC, the licence number on file is 406684, with a Market Making (MM) status. For the FSA, the licence is listed as 関東財務局長（金商）第1662号, also with a Market Making status. We cross-checked these against the public registers as far as we were able, and we have to be blunt: the status column for both is marked as '—', meaning we could not confirm an active, current authorisation. That is a significant gap. A licence number that cannot be verified as live is, for our purposes, no licence at all.

If Element Trade MT5 were genuinely regulated by ASIC, Australian clients would be covered by a set of protections that are among the strongest in the world. ASIC requires client funds to be held in segregated accounts, separate from the broker's own operating funds. That means if the broker went bankrupt, client money should be ring-fenced and returned. ASIC also imposes strict capital requirements and conduct standards, and since 2019 it has banned binary options and heavily restricted retail leverage on CFDs.

The Japanese FSA regime is even more protective in some ways. Japan has some of the toughest leverage limits in the industry — retail forex leverage is capped at 25:1 — and the regulator enforces strict disclosure and reporting rules. Japanese brokers are also required to keep client funds segregated, and the FSA has a reputation for aggressive enforcement. If Element Trade MT5 were truly operating under both of these regulators, it would be a very well-protected broker indeed.

Here is where the story takes a sharp turn. Our known facts include the company's own description, and it states plainly: 'However, it is not regulated currently.' That is a direct contradiction of the two licences listed on file. A broker cannot simultaneously claim to hold an ASIC licence and a Japanese FSA licence while also admitting it is unregulated.

In FXCanary's assessment, this contradiction is the single most important finding. It means that whatever the licence numbers on file might suggest, the company itself is telling you that it does not currently hold valid regulatory authorisation. That is not a minor administrative detail — it is a fundamental issue of trust. If a broker cannot be honest about its regulatory status, how can it be trusted with your money?

When you trade with a regulated broker, your funds are protected by a framework of rules that are enforced by a government authority. If the broker fails, there are compensation schemes and segregation rules that give you a realistic chance of getting your money back. With an unregulated broker, none of that applies. Your money is simply an unsecured claim on the company's balance sheet.

For Element Trade MT5, that means there is no independent authority to complain to, no compensation scheme to fall back on, and no guarantee that your funds are segregated from the broker's own operating cash. If the broker were to disappear overnight, you would have little legal recourse. The fact that the company is registered in the United States, where forex and CFD brokers are heavily regulated by the CFTC and NFA, makes the absence of any US regulatory licence even more conspicuous.

Our records show that no clone or impersonator sites have been found for Element Trade MT5. That is a small positive, but it is not a reason for comfort. For a broker with no verifiable website or social-media presence, the risk of impersonation is actually higher than for a well-established brand, because there is no official site to compare against.

The official domain on file is user.wamsm.com, which is not a typical broker domain. Most legitimate brokers operate from their own dedicated domain, such as broker.com or broker.io. A subdomain of a third-party platform is a red flag, because it suggests the broker may not have full control over its own infrastructure. We were unable to verify any independent website or social-media presence for this broker, which makes it very difficult for a trader to confirm they are dealing with the real entity.

Element Trade MT5 has no independent user reviews anywhere that we could find. For a broker that was founded in April 2023, that is not entirely surprising — it is still a young operation. But it is also a warning sign. Established brokers accumulate reviews, complaints, and forum discussions over time. The complete absence of any independent feedback means there is no way to know how this broker treats its clients in practice.

We are not saying that a lack of reviews means the broker is a scam. It simply means that the information available is entirely self-reported. Everything we know about Element Trade MT5 comes from the company's own claims and from regulatory records that we cannot fully verify. In that vacuum, caution is the only rational response.

If, despite our guarded assessment, you are still considering trading with Element Trade MT5, there are concrete steps you should take to protect yourself. First, verify the regulatory status directly. Do not take our word for it — go to the ASIC register and the Japanese FSA website and search for the licence numbers yourself. If you cannot find them, or if the status is not active, treat that as a definitive red flag.

Second, test the broker with a tiny deposit — an amount you can afford to lose entirely — and attempt a withdrawal as soon as possible. A legitimate broker will process a small withdrawal quickly and without drama. A broker that delays, makes excuses, or refuses to return your money is telling you everything you need to know. Third, never deposit more than you can afford to lose, because with an unregulated broker, that is exactly what you are doing: risking money you may never see again.

In FXCanary's assessment, Element Trade MT5 is a broker that fails the basic test of regulatory honesty. It lists two major regulators on file, yet its own company description admits it is not currently regulated. That contradiction, combined with the lack of a verifiable website, the absence of any independent reviews, and the use of a third-party subdomain, leaves us with a Scam Risk Score of 42/100 — 'Guarded'.

We cannot say with certainty that Element Trade MT5 is a scam. There is simply not enough verified information to make that call. But we can say with confidence that it is not a broker we would recommend to any trader, especially not a beginner. The safest choice is to walk away and find a broker with a clean, verifiable regulatory record and a transparent online presence. Your capital is too hard-earned to gamble on a broker that cannot even be honest about its own licence status.