Risk scorecard
Each area is scored 0 (clean) to 10 (worst). Higher means more risk.
Regulation
10/10 · CriticalNo licence was ever claimed or found, the FCA register lists STB Markets as unauthorised, and the FCA, AMF and FSMA all name stbmarkets.com on warning lists.
Identity & transparency
9/10 · CriticalNo company was ever named, the London address has no UK company behind it, the WHOIS was privacy-shielded and the site text carried blank company-name placeholders.
Withdrawals & conduct
9/10 · CriticalFive detailed fund-integrity reports on two platforms (Aug 2022 to Mar 2023) describe unpaid withdrawals and a blocked account, and one client was asked for USD 1,000 to release funds.
Reputation
9/10 · CriticalThree regulator warnings and unresolved client reports; the only positive trace is one generic three-star review.
Website claims
8/10 · CriticalPromised 'Guaranteed fast withdrawals' and called itself 'one of the largest CFD Trading brands around' months after launch, on copied text that still named another broker.
Operational history
8/10 · CriticalDomain registered in August 2022 and lapsed in August 2024, no company ever behind it, and it ran alongside sister brands on the same server.
Who they are
A quick desk file on the company behind the brand.
- Brand: STB Markets
- Legal entity: none disclosed. The site terms refer only to 'the Company', and UK Companies House holds no company named STB Markets.
- Registered: nowhere we could find. The only contact details were 177 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JR and the UK mobile number +44 7418 376781, the same details the FCA records.
- Website: stbmarkets.com, with client login at cfd.stbmarkets.com. Registered on 12 August 2022 behind a privacy service; offline since the registration lapsed in 2024.
- Only licence: none. No regulator or licence number appeared anywhere on the site.
- Offers: CFDs on forex, stocks, crypto, metals, indices, commodities and 'NFT indexes'; six account tiers up to USD 100,000; leverage up to 1:1000; minimum deposit USD 250; pages in English, French and Dutch.
- Not accepted: the disclaimer excluded Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, but not the UK, France or Belgium, whose regulators later warned against it.
- Age claim: no founding year. It called itself 'one of the largest CFD Trading brands around' within months of the domain being registered.
- Linked brands: Bullden (bullden.io) and Comovest (comovest.com), which ran on the same server certificate.
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.
No licence claims on record.
Why we reached this verdict
How the evidence adds up.
We rate STB Markets a confirmed scam at 90%, because two independent kinds of hard evidence agree: regulators named its exact domain, and clients describe money taken and not returned.
- Three regulators named stbmarkets.com: France's AMF (11 January 2023), Belgium's FSMA (23 February 2023) and the UK FCA (7 March 2023). The site sold in English, French and Dutch, and the regulators of the UK, France and Belgium each flagged it. The FCA record carries the same London address and phone number the site displayed.
- No licence at all: the site claimed none and linked to no register, and the FCA lists STB Markets only as an unauthorised firm. Clients had no compensation scheme and no ombudsman behind their deposits.
- One repeated failure: five detailed reports on two platforms, all between August 2022 and March 2023, describe withdrawals that were never paid. They give amounts from EUR 227 to a claimed USD 37,974 balance, one names the account manager, and one client was told to pay a further USD 1,000 to release funds.
- A reusable kit: the brand name was a single setting in the site's code. The same code and the same server certificate served Bullden and Comovest, which the Ontario Securities Commission also warned about.
- No one accountable: no company was ever named, and UK Companies House holds no company called STB Markets despite the London address.
- Age is an upper bound: with no company to date, the track record rests on the domain alone, registered in August 2022 and lapsed in August 2024. The operation ran for about two years at most.
Evidence ledger
Every finding, with its source and how strongly it points.
E1The FCA warning list names STB Markets at https://stbmarkets.com/ as an unauthorised firm targeting people in the UK, with the address 177 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JR, phone +447418376781 and email support@stbmarkets.com. First published 7 March 2023.
Hard proofFCA warning listE2The FCA Financial Services Register lists STB Markets as Unauthorised (added 7 March 2023) with the same website, address, phone and emails. A register search for STB Markets returns no authorised firm of that name.
E3France's AMF lists stbmarkets.com on its Forex blacklist of firms not authorised to offer financial services in France, posted 11 January 2023.
Hard proofAMF blacklist (Protect Epargne)E4Belgium's FSMA warning of 23 February 2023 lists STB Markets (stbmarkets.com) among new fraudulent trading platforms. The FSMA says victims of these platforms cannot recover their money and that 'these are most likely cases of investment fraud'.
Hard proofFSMA warningE5IOSCO's I-SCAN database carries the FCA alert (14 March 2023) and the FSMA alert (24 February 2023) for STB Markets. It repeats those two warnings and is not counted separately.
WeakIOSCO I-SCANE6A client comment on a stbmarkets.com review page (2022) reports depositing USD 280, being pushed to deposit USD 10,000, then being told the withdrawal was not approved and that another USD 1,000 was needed to release the funds.
Hard proofpersonal-reviews.com client commentE7Other comments on the same page describe the same failure from different clients: a withdrawal still unpaid a week after the request, with emails bouncing (2022); an account blocked on 7 March 2023 after a withdrawal request, with EUR 227 lost; a GBP 250 deposit followed by constant calls to invest more and no withdrawal (2023).
E8A BrokersView entry for stbmarkets.com carries a client report dated 19 February 2023: a USD 37,974 balance at the end of 2022 that the broker said it had sent to two crypto exchanges, neither of which received it. The client names the account manager.
ModerateBrokersViewE9Public certificate records show that from 15 August 2022 stbmarkets.com and its cfd, api and socket subdomains shared one TLS certificate with bullden.io, joined by comovest.com from December 2022. The same operator, or the same hosting platform, controlled all three sites.
Strongcrt.sh certificate logE10The archived site code of stbmarkets.com (2 February 2023) is a reusable kit in which the brand is a single setting (COMPANY = STB Markets). It matches bullden.io's archived code (14 July 2022) in structure and wording, including the same account tiers, bonus and fee clauses and the same 12 leftover mentions of another broker's name.
E11The Ontario Securities Commission warned on 21 November 2022 that Bullden (bullden.io) is not registered to trade securities in Ontario, and issued the same warning about Comovest (comovest.com) on 5 June 2023.
ModerateOntario Securities CommissionE12The archived site names no company and no licence anywhere. Its terms refer only to 'the Company', the About text is a template with blank %%COMPANY_NAME%% placeholders, and product pages still invite readers to join 'Investous', another broker's brand.
E13The archived homepage (2 February 2023) gives 177 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JR and +447418376781 as its only contact details. These match the FCA record and tie the archived site to the operation the regulators warned about.
E14UK Companies House has no company named STB Markets, current or dissolved: its alphabetical index runs from STB MARKETING SERVICES LTD straight to STBM BUILDING AND SPECIALIST MAINTENANCE LTD.
ModerateUK Companies HouseE15A Paris law firm's investor alert of 26 January 2023 records the domain registration date of 12 August 2022 and the AMF, ACPR and Banque de France blacklisting from 11 January 2023. It also states that no STB Markets entity is registered at the London address.
ModerateColman Avocats investor alertE16The site's own terms lock bonus money until the client trades the bonus divided by four in lots (USD 2,000 of bonus means 500 lots) and forfeit bonus and profits on any earlier withdrawal. They also charge USD 50 a month after 30 days without activity and offer leverage up to 1:1000, while the homepage promised 'Guaranteed fast withdrawals'.
E17WHOIS records show stbmarkets.com was registered on 12 August 2022 through Tucows with a privacy service (registrant location Charlestown, Saint Kitts and Nevis), renewed once to 12 August 2024 and then parked. The first TLS certificate was issued on 15 August 2022.
ModerateWHOIS record via ScamAdviserE18stbmarkets.com no longer resolves. Public DNS returns a non-existent-domain answer from the .com registry, and the name is no longer registered.
E19Trustpilot's page for stbmarkets.com holds two reviews. The one shown (3 stars, 30 August 2023) calls it 'one of the good companies' but gives no transaction detail, and Trustpilot marks the website as closed.
WeakTrustpilotE20A similarly named site, STB Provider at stbbrokers.com, belongs to a different company (STB Provider LTD, Saint Lucia). It first appears in certificate logs in October 2023 and shares no certificate with stbmarkets.com, so it is not attributed to STB Markets.
The other side
The strongest case in this broker’s favour.
We looked for an innocent explanation and did not find one that holds up.
- Part of a real group? No parent company, regional entity or group website ever claimed STB Markets. The only related brands are Bullden and Comovest, which carry their own regulator warnings.
- A mistaken identity? Every warning names the exact domain stbmarkets.com, and the FCA record matches the address and phone on the archived site. A similarly named site, STB Provider at stbbrokers.com, is a separate operation, and none of its record is used here.
- A licence the registers missed? The site never claimed one, so there was nothing to lag behind. The FCA register lists the firm as unauthorised.
- Planted complaints? The reports come from different people on two platforms, give amounts, dates and an account manager's name, and none promotes a rival broker or a recovery service. One of the review pages that hosts them also advertises chargeback help, so we rely on the comments' specifics rather than the page's own text.
- What counts in its favour: its terms promised withdrawals within two business days and protection against negative balances, and one three-star Trustpilot review calls it 'one of the good companies'. That review gives no transaction detail, and the promises are the broker's own words.
- Small numbers: only about five detailed reports exist, which fits an operation that lasted months rather than years.
What would change this
What we would need to see to revise the verdict.
The verdict would change only with evidence that the regulators and the clients were wrong, and none is likely for a site that no longer exists.
- A licence for the operator of stbmarkets.com on any national register.
- The FCA, AMF or FSMA withdrawing its warning. All three were still published at the time of writing.
- Verifiable proof that clients' withdrawals were paid in full.
- A registered company coming forward as the operator and accounting for client money.
Check it yourself
Official registers and warning lists. Verify every claim first-hand.
FCA register: STB Markets (unauthorised firm)
The FCA's own record listing STB Markets as unauthorised, with its website and contact details.
FCA warning: STB Markets
UK warning list entry, first published 7 March 2023.
AMF blacklist: stbmarkets.com
French blacklist entry in the Forex category, posted 11 January 2023.
FSMA warning of 23 February 2023
Belgian warning listing STB Markets (stbmarkets.com) among new fraudulent trading platforms.
IOSCO I-SCAN: STB Markets
Global regulator alert database showing the FCA and FSMA alerts.
UK Companies House index: STB MARKETS
Shows that no UK company named STB Markets exists.
OSC warning: Bullden (sister brand)
Ontario warning about bullden.io, which shared stbmarkets.com's server certificate.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about this broker’s safety.
Is STB Markets a scam?
Yes. STB Markets (stbmarkets.com) never held a licence, three European regulators warned against it within two months of each other, and clients report withdrawals that were never paid. The site has since gone offline.
Is STB Markets a fraud?
Belgium's financial regulator, the FSMA, listed STB Markets (stbmarkets.com) on 23 February 2023 among new fraudulent trading platforms, and said victims of these platforms complain of being unable to recover their money. The UK FCA and France's AMF also list it as unauthorised. We found no licence and no registered company behind it.
Is STB Markets regulated?
No. Its website named no regulator and no licence, and the FCA's Financial Services Register lists STB Markets as an unauthorised firm. We found no licence for it on any register.
Can I withdraw my money from STB Markets?
Clients who tried report that withdrawals were not paid. One says the account was blocked after a withdrawal request, and another was told to pay USD 1,000 more before funds could be released. The website no longer exists, so there is no platform left to withdraw from, and you should not pay anyone who claims to act for it.
Is stbmarkets.com still online?
No. The domain stopped resolving after its registration ran out in August 2024, and the name is no longer registered. Anyone who contacts you today in the name of STB Markets is not a working broker.
Who owns STB Markets and where is it based?
No owner or company was ever disclosed. The site gave a London address (177 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8JR), but no company named STB Markets is registered at UK Companies House, and the domain owner's details were hidden behind a privacy service.
Is STB Markets a UK broker?
No. It used a London address and a UK mobile number, but it had no UK company and no FCA authorisation. The FCA lists it as an unauthorised firm that was targeting people in the UK.
How old is STB Markets?
The domain stbmarkets.com was registered on 12 August 2022, and its first security certificate was issued three days later. France's AMF had blacklisted it by January 2023, and the domain lapsed in August 2024, so it operated for about two years at most.
Is STB Markets linked to other brokers?
Yes. From August 2022 the site ran under one server certificate with Bullden (bullden.io), joined by Comovest (comovest.com) in December 2022, and its site code was the same kit Bullden used. The Ontario Securities Commission issued investor warnings about both Bullden and Comovest.
Is STB Provider (stbbrokers.com) the same company as STB Markets?
We found nothing tying them together. STB Provider uses a different domain and a Saint Lucia company, and its certificates share nothing with stbmarkets.com. This report covers stbmarkets.com only.
Someone from STB Markets asked me to pay a fee to release my money. What should I do?
Do not pay. A demand for a fee, tax or extra deposit before a withdrawal is the classic advance-fee pattern, and one STB Markets client reports exactly that. Paying only increases the loss.
What should I do if I lost money with STB Markets?
Contact your bank or card issuer straight away about a chargeback or recall, and keep all emails, chat logs and transfer receipts. Report the loss to the police and your national regulator; in the UK that means Action Fraud and the FCA helpline on 0800 111 6768. If you paid in crypto, report the transfer to the exchange you used.
Can a recovery company get my money back from STB Markets?
Be very careful. Firms that promise to recover lost money for an upfront fee are a common second scam aimed at people who have already lost money. Go through your bank, the police and the regulator instead.
What should I check before depositing with any broker?
Search the broker's exact domain on the regulator's own register, and check warning lists such as the FCA warning list and the AMF blacklist. Confirm that a named, registered company holds your money. A broker with no company name and no licence number, like STB Markets, should be avoided.
What we recommend
The practical takeaway from everything above.
Treat anyone using the STB Markets name as a scammer, and do not send more money.
- Do not pay any fee, tax or extra deposit to unlock a withdrawal. That demand is the advance-fee pattern, and paying only adds to the loss.
- If you paid by card, ask your card issuer about a chargeback now. For a bank transfer, ask your bank to attempt a recall. For crypto, report the transfer to the exchange you used.
- Keep every email, chat log, screenshot and payment receipt.
- Report it: in the UK to Action Fraud and the FCA consumer helpline (0800 111 6768), in France to the AMF, in Belgium to the FSMA.
- Ignore recovery offers that ask for an upfront fee. They are a common second scam aimed at people who have already lost money.
- Our broker page keeps STB Markets flagged as a scam.
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 October 23, 2026. If any detail here is out of date or incorrect, or you represent this broker, please contact us.
What traders say about STB Markets
Comments on STB Markets are posted on its profile
Nobody has commented on STB Markets yet. If you have traded with them, your experience helps the next reader decide.
Write the first comment