Risk scorecard
Each area is scored 0 (clean) to 10 (worst). Higher means more risk.
Regulation
8/10 · CriticalA genuine CySEC licence 339/17 sat behind the Cyprus arm, but a regulator warning names the site for false New Zealand registration and no licence stands in the ABC 123 name today.
Identity & transparency
6/10 · HighThe Cyprus entity and licence number were disclosed accurately, but the brand ran in parallel from a Hong Kong address and a field report found no ABC 123 office at the licensed Limassol address.
Withdrawals & conduct
3/10 · LowNo fund-integrity complaints found on any platform checked, and no advance-fee demands; the absence carries little weight for a brand that stopped trading years ago.
Reputation
7/10 · HighNo review footprint of any kind across the platforms checked, and the only substantive third-party records are the FMA warning and a field report that the Cyprus office did not exist.
Website claims
9/10 · CriticalThe FMA found the site held itself out as FSPR-registered when it was not, alongside other incorrect statements about New Zealand regulation.
Operational history
7/10 · HighCompany incorporated August 2015 and licensed November 2017, but the brand abandoned both domains by 2019 and they were recycled into unrelated businesses.
Who they are
A quick desk file on the company behind the brand.
- Brand: ABC 123, also styled ABC123 Group and ABC 123 Prime.
- Legal entity: ABC 123 (CY) Ltd, Cyprus company HE 346068, incorporated 10 August 2015. The Cyprus registrar records this as a previous name; the company trades today under a different name.
- Registered: Limassol, Cyprus. The licence address was 9 Spyrou Kyprianou Avenue, Neda Court, Floor 1, 3070 Limassol. The FMA recorded a separate address at Level 12, World Trade Plaza, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.
- Website: abc123prime.com and abc-123.co. Neither resolves and neither is registered.
- Only licence: CySEC 339/17, issued 2 November 2017. The register now records it against SM Capital Markets Ltd, not against ABC 123.
- Offers: CFDs, foreign exchange and metals, sold as a boutique brokerage with deep liquidity and FIX API access for institutional and API traders.
- Not accepted: New Zealand residents were the subject of the FMA notice; the site was not licensed to offer derivatives there.
- Age claim: The company dates to August 2015 and the licence to November 2017, but the brand had left both of its websites by 2019.
Regulation
Who really oversees this broker, and what each licence is worth to you.
Proof of regulation on an official register: No
We could not confirm this broker on any genuine regulator’s register.
Licences the broker publishes
Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)
Financial Markets Authority / Financial Service Providers Register (New Zealand)
Why we reached this verdict
How the evidence adds up.
Two things decide this. A national regulator publicly warned about the exact website in our records, and the brand no longer exists.
- Regulator warning, exact domain. The FMA notice of 8 February 2018 names ABC123 Group and www.abc-123.co. It states the firm was holding out that it was registered on the Financial Service Providers Register when it was not, and that it may have been offering derivatives to New Zealand retail clients without a derivatives licence under the FMC Act. The FMA also flagged a number of other incorrect statements on the site about the regulation of New Zealand's financial markets.
- Misstating your regulatory status is the deception itself. It is not a filing slip. A client who picks a broker on the strength of a registration that does not exist has been misled about the one thing that is supposed to protect them.
- The brand is gone, and its domains were recycled into unrelated businesses. abc-123.co was serving an unrelated digital asset exchange page by August 2018, with every legal and policy link dead. abc123prime.com was serving an unrelated Chinese gambling page by December 2019. Both domains have since been deleted outright.
- What we did not find matters too. There are no withdrawal complaints, no reports of seized balances, no chargeback record and no enforcement action for fraud naming this brand. We assess the risk of fraud as elevated on the regulator's misrepresentation finding, not on client losses we can evidence.
- The age figure is an upper bound. The Cyprus company dates to 10 August 2015, but neither domain can be dated from registration records because both have been deleted, so the operating history rests on the company leg alone. The brand itself was visibly active for roughly four years.
Evidence ledger
Every finding, with its source and how strongly it points.
E1New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority warned on 8 February 2018 that ABC123 Group was holding out it was registered on the FSPR when it was not, and that it may have been offering derivatives to New Zealand retail clients without a licence under the FMC Act. The notice names the website www.abc-123.co, the Hong Kong address and three contact emails at that domain.
E2The CySEC register of Cypriot Investment Firms records licence 339/17, dated 02/11/2017, against SM Capital Markets Ltd, company registration number 346068, with approved trade names Scope Prime and Scope Markets. No firm named ABC 123 appears anywhere on the current list.
E3The broker's own homepage stated that ABC 123 (CY) Ltd is registered as a Cyprus Investment Firm and licensed by CySEC under licence number 339/17 in accordance with MiFID, and published a full policy set including an investor compensation fund policy and a Pillar 3 disclosure report for 2017.
E4The Cyprus registrar records ABC 123 (CY) LIMITED, registration number HE 346068, registered on 10/08/2015, organisation status Active, at Gladstonos 116, M. Kyprianou House, Floor 3 and 4, 3032 Limassol. The name is flagged as a previous name of a company operating under a different name today.
E5Neither abc123prime.com nor abc-123.co resolves in DNS, and the .com registry returns no registration record for abc123prime.com. Both domains have been deleted rather than merely parked.
E6By 9 August 2018, six months after the FMA warning, abc-123.co was no longer a forex site. It served a digital asset exchange page branded OK PARTNER with a Chinese support number, and every legal link including terms of service, disclosures and privacy policy pointed to a missing page.
E7By 15 December 2019 the main brokerage domain abc123prime.com was serving an unrelated Chinese lottery and gambling tips page, showing the domain had been abandoned by the brokerage and recycled.
E8Trustpilot holds no review page for either abc123prime.com or abc-123.co, and searches of Reddit and Forex Peace Army return no substantive threads about the brand. There are no complaints and no positive reviews to weigh.
E9Trade press reported in the final weeks of 2017 that ABC 123 Prime had obtained a CySEC licence and was preparing a boutique brokerage offering FX, CFDs and metals pricing via FIX API to professional and institutional traders.
ModerateFinance MagnatesE10A sweep of the FCA, ASIC, CONSOB, BaFin, CNMV and IOSCO alert channels returned no entry naming ABC 123, ABC123 Group or either domain. The FMA notice is the only regulator warning on record for this brand.
E11A field report on the Cyprus address recorded on the licence, 9 Spyrou Kyprianou Avenue, Neda Court, Limassol, found no ABC 123 branding on the building directory and building staff said no such company was present.
ModerateA third-party broker directory field survey
The other side
The strongest case in this broker’s favour.
The case against a harsher verdict is real, and part of this operation was genuinely regulated.
- ABC 123 (CY) Ltd held a real Cyprus Investment Firm licence, number 339/17, granted on 2 November 2017 under MiFID. That is a tier-2 European authorisation with capital requirements and client money rules, not a nameplate bought offshore.
- The site published a full regulatory document set: investor compensation fund policy, client categorisation, order execution, conflicts of interest, client acceptance and a Pillar 3 disclosure report. Shell operations rarely go to that expense.
- We found no record of the licence being cancelled for misconduct. It remains on the CySEC register today under the company's current name, SM Capital Markets Ltd, which is a separate and currently authorised business. Nothing in this report is a finding about that firm.
- A rebrand is an ordinary commercial event. The company kept its registration number, kept its licence and changed its market positioning. That is not the profile of an operator running from its clients.
- No client has publicly complained about this brand on any platform we checked, and no regulator other than the FMA has published anything about it.
- The FMA notice concerned statements about New Zealand registration on the abc-123.co site. It was not a finding that client money was taken or withheld.
What would change this
What we would need to see to revise the verdict.
This verdict rests on one regulator warning and a dead footprint. Specific findings would move it in either direction.
- Evidence that the FMA withdrew or corrected its 8 February 2018 notice, or that the notice concerned a different operation using the same brand, would remove the single hardest item and push this to a much lower risk rating.
- Documentation that the abc-123.co operation addressed in Hong Kong was never connected to ABC 123 (CY) Ltd would narrow this report to one arm of the brand and change how the licence evidence applies.
- Contemporaneous evidence that clients were repaid in full when the brand was retired would strengthen the benign reading considerably.
- In the other direction, first-hand accounts of deposits taken and not returned, a chargeback record, or any enforcement action naming ABC 123 (CY) Ltd would push this to a confirmed finding.
- A CySEC decision recording an enforcement action against licence 339/17 covering the ABC 123 period would do the same.
Check it yourself
Official registers and warning lists. Verify every claim first-hand.
FMA New Zealand warning: ABC123 Group
The regulator's own notice, naming the entity, the website and the Hong Kong address.
CySEC register of Cypriot Investment Firms
Where licence 339/17 and the name it now stands in can be checked.
Cyprus registrar entry for ABC 123 (CY) Limited
Company HE 346068, registered 10 August 2015, recorded as a previous name.
Finance Magnates report on the CySEC authorisation
Trade press record of the licence being granted in late 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about this broker’s safety.
Is ABC 123 a scam?
We rate it a likely scam, mainly because New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority warned on 8 February 2018 that ABC123 Group was holding itself out as registered on the Financial Service Providers Register when it was not. That is misrepresentation of regulatory status. It is also academic now: the brand is defunct and both of its websites are gone.
Is ABC 123 a fraud?
No regulator or court has made a finding of fraud against this brand, and we found no fraud-related enforcement action or court record naming it. What exists is the FMA's 2018 warning about false claims of New Zealand registration. We assess the risk of fraud as elevated on that basis, but we cannot point to proven client losses.
Was ABC 123 actually regulated?
Partly. ABC 123 (CY) Ltd genuinely held Cyprus Investment Firm licence 339/17, granted by CySEC on 2 November 2017. That is a real tier-2 European authorisation. The separate New Zealand registration the site claimed did not exist, which is what the FMA warned about.
Can I still open an account with ABC 123?
No. Neither abc123prime.com nor abc-123.co resolves, and neither domain is registered any more. There is no live ABC 123 brokerage to deposit with.
What happened to the CySEC licence 339/17?
It still exists and is active, but it is no longer in the ABC 123 name. The CySEC register records licence 339/17 against SM Capital Markets Ltd, company registration number 346068. That is the same company number as ABC 123 (CY) Limited, so the company was renamed rather than shut down.
Is SM Capital Markets the same as ABC 123?
It is the same legal entity under a later name, sharing Cyprus company number 346068. It is a separate, currently authorised business and nothing in this report is a finding against it. We name it only because it explains where the licence went and why no firm called ABC 123 appears on the register.
Can I get my money back from ABC 123?
If you have an unresolved balance from that period, the licensed company still exists under its new name and remains supervised by CySEC. Take your account statements and licence number 339/17 to CySEC's complaints process. Be aware that claims from several years ago may be time-barred.
Who owns ABC 123?
The Cyprus company behind the brand, ABC 123 (CY) Limited, was registered on 10 August 2015 and lists several directors on the Cyprus registrar, with M. Kyprianou Fiduciaries (Cyprus) Ltd as company secretary. The registered office is a professional services address in Limassol rather than a trading floor.
How old was ABC 123?
The company was incorporated on 10 August 2015 and licensed in November 2017. The brand was visibly active on the web from late 2015 until about 2019. Neither domain can be dated from registration records because both have been deleted, so the age figure rests on the company record alone and is an upper bound.
Why are there no reviews or complaints about ABC 123?
There is no Trustpilot page for either domain and no substantive forum threads. The brand targeted institutional and API traders rather than a mass retail audience, and it stopped operating years ago. An absence of complaints here means the trail is cold, not that the record is clean.
Is ABC 123 a clone of another broker?
No. We found no evidence that it copied another firm's identity, licence number or address. The licence it advertised genuinely belonged to its own legal entity.
What did the FMA actually say about ABC123 Group?
In a notice dated 8 February 2018 the FMA said it was concerned ABC123 Group was holding out that it was registered on the FSPR when it was not, and that it may have been offering derivatives to New Zealand retail clients without a derivatives licence under the FMC Act. It also flagged other incorrect statements on the site about how New Zealand's financial markets are regulated.
Someone is contacting me using the ABC 123 name. Is it them?
Almost certainly not. Both original domains are unregistered and the brand has not operated for years. Anyone using the name today is a different operation trading on a dead brand, and recovery offers that ask for an upfront fee are a standard follow-up scam.
What should I check before trusting any broker's licence claim?
Search the regulator's own register for the exact legal entity and confirm the website address is the one you are dealing with. This case shows why the brand name is not enough: the licence was real, but it belonged to a company that has since traded under two different names.
What we recommend
The practical takeaway from everything above.
Nobody can open an account with this brand today, so the practical advice is about old balances and anyone using the name now.
- Treat any website, message or caller using the ABC 123 or ABC123 Group name as an impersonation attempt. The original sites are gone and both domains are unregistered, so anything trading under this name now is something else entirely.
- Never send money to get money back. Anyone offering to recover funds from this brand for an upfront fee is running a second scam on the first one.
- If you hold an unresolved balance from the ABC 123 period, the Cyprus company that held the licence still exists under a new name and remains supervised by CySEC. Take your account records and licence number 339/17 to CySEC's complaints route.
- If you were approached while in New Zealand, the FMA notice of 8 February 2018 is the document to quote.
- Before depositing anywhere, check the regulator's own register for the exact legal entity and the exact website address, never the brand name alone. This case is a clean illustration of why: the brand vanished while the licence stayed put under a different name.
This is an independent assessment of risk, not a legal ruling. Scores and verdicts follow the Wikilix broker-safety methodology and can change as new evidence appears. Review scores are treated with caution when a broker’s reviews look manipulated. Last reviewed September 5, 2026. If any detail here is out of date or incorrect, or you represent this broker, please contact us.