Why do brokers change the domain names of their websites, and is it worth paying attention to?
A broker's website is an essential component of modern stock trading. It's used to fund accounts, withdraw profits, and open new accounts.
Almost every day, you have to log into your trader's account to perform necessary manipulations or use available tools.
An unpleasant surprise is the change in the site name in the address bar, although I entered the site using the old bookmark in the browser.
Many traders are alarmed by this change, and they ask a logical question: Why do stock brokers change their website domain names and what consequences this might have for traders?.
Fake website – there are cases where attackers create a complete copy of the original website. When you access such a website, you provide them with your username and password.
Typically, in this case, one letter in the domain name changes, resulting in forex.com becoming forux.com. You just need to be careful and pay attention to the address bar:
Nowadays, company websites are protected by the HTTP protocol, and a transition to HTTP should raise concerns. Furthermore, fake websites are often accessed from search engines or links received via email.
Expanding the range of services – the company began to provide a wider range of services and therefore decided to change the domain name.
For example, AForex became AMarkets, and the broker began offering trading services on stock and commodity markets. There's nothing alarming here, and you can continue trading without any worries.
For search engines - brokers often resort to changing their website name to improve the visibility of their website in search engines.
Changing a neutral name, for example, market-group.com to market-group.forex, immediately categorizes the site as a financial services provider.
Bypassing blocking – It is no secret that in order to provide financial services related to stock trading, it is necessary to have a license from the country in which these services are provided.
But if a company already has several licenses for its activities, it doesn't always want to obtain another one in a specific country. Moreover, the provision of online services is a contentious issue, as it's unclear whether they are provided in the client's country or the company's.
Therefore, brokers work with clients from countries where they are not licensed, causing regulatory authorities in those countries to block their websites. Meanwhile, the brokers successfully migrate to new domains.
In this case, there's no need to worry, as you'll be automatically redirected to the new website from the old domain. The broker's license, and often insurance issued in another country, serves as a guarantee.
The principle here is practically the same as if you were opening an account in a foreign bank without notifying the authorities of your country.
