Would you put money into a slot machine or gamble at the blackjack table if the house never paid out?
Many Canadians are falling victim to online trading sites which offer binary option trading.
That’s when you bet on a stock or asset to go up or down, sometimes within minutes or even seconds.
It’s an all or nothing bet. Get it right – you get a predetermined payout. Get it wrong – you lose everything.
And even if it looks like you’re winning, good luck when comes time to collect. Spencer Meyer, a 21-year-old from Surrey, knows how difficult it can be.
“Very easy to get your money in, not so easy to get your money out,” he told CTV News.
He invested about $2,200 in binary option trading on a website called OptionRally and says he was up $27,000. He did get a small payout but then couldn’t collect the rest.
“I saw a thousand dollars of that,” he said.
That was the hook. While he was winning he got his mom, Shelley Spencer, involved too. She put up $16,000.
Ross McLaughlin – CTV Vancouver – July 18, 2017.