DLSM Review: Legit Broker or Just Another Scam?

Today, in our DLSM review, we examine a project that seeks to attract traders by highlighting the advantages of working with a licensed broker and promising extremely favorable trading conditions. How well does this information reflect reality? Can the data published by the company be trusted? Is there a risk of investing money in yet another scam? We tried to answer these questions and present our findings below.

Does DLSM Show Any Risk Factors?

The company is clearly making every effort to convince traders of the full legality of its operations and its strict compliance with regulations designed to protect clients’ rights and interests. To this end, it publishes an entire block of “official” information on its website, intended to demonstrate its honesty and transparency.

Specifically, we see the following:

• A license number issued by the financial regulator of the Republic of Vanuatu (VFSC).
• A link confirming the broker’s inclusion in the register of The Financial Commission (FINACOM PLC LTD), a non-governmental and independent (in practice, self-proclaimed) self-regulatory organization that considers disputes between traders and Forex/CFD brokers.
• A statement claiming that client funds are held in safeguarded accounts with National Australia Bank (NAB).

Does this look impressive? Perhaps to beginners. For experienced traders, however, the picture looks quite different. Still, let us first verify how accurate the published information actually is. Above all, we are interested in the company’s registration and licensing details.

A search in the register of the Vanuatu financial regulator shows that DLS MARKETS LIMITED is indeed registered in this jurisdiction under number 700455, effective since October 20, 2020. The company is regulated by the VFSC and periodically submits financial reports (the most recent filing was in October 2025). At present, the license is valid and includes categories A, B, and C, which allow trading in currency pairs and CFD contracts, excluding cryptocurrencies. In other words, the broker’s legal operation within the framework of Vanuatu legislation has been formally confirmed.

The only point we would like to draw our readers’ attention to is that DLS Markets is the company’s current, but not its first, name. Previously, it was listed in the register under the names FOO GLOBAL MARKETS (V) LIMITED, FOO GLOBAL MARKETS LIMITED, and FOOFX GLOBAL LIMITED. Rebranding among Forex/CFD brokers is not uncommon, but the reasons behind such changes are always worth examining. We will try to clarify this issue later on.

As for DLSM’s membership in The Financial Commission, the certificate link provided by the broker does confirm it. This means that the platform regularly pays contributions to the organization’s compensation fund, and in return, the Commission is prepared to consider client complaints against the broker. The maximum compensation a trader can receive if a claim is признed justified is €20,000. It should be noted, however, that The Financial Commission is not authorized by any government or financial regulator to carry out such activities. Consequently, its decisions are not legally binding, and a company’s inclusion in or removal from its register does not in itself indicate either honest business practices or fraudulent behavior.

The placement of client funds in accounts with NAB is merely a declaration on the part of DLSM. The company has not published any supporting documents, such as an agreement with the bank. Accordingly, we have no factual basis either to trust or to distrust these statements made by the project’s owners, nor to draw conclusions about potential issues between the broker and its clients.

That said, the latter remained true only until we decided to take a closer look at the company’s history. Official documents indicate that it has been registered in Vanuatu since 2020, but the timeline of its online presence is far less straightforward.

According to WHOIS data, the domain used by the broker was originally registered in 2001. However, for most of the period between its registration and the publication of our dlsm.com review, the domain did not belong to this platform. Web Archive snapshots show that in 2023 the domain was listed for sale and was only acquired in 2024. The website itself was launched in the summer of 2024 and acquired its current, fully developed appearance only after the last major update in October 2024.

Naturally, inquisitive traders will have questions about the four-year gap starting from 2020. To address them, we need to return to the names under which, according to the Vanuatu regulator, the company was previously known.

As a result of our online research, we found that the companies FOO Global Markets (V) Limited (registered in Vanuatu), FOO Global Markets Limited (registered in the United Kingdom, and FOOFX Global Limited (another UK registration were presented online as the broker Foo Markets. At the same time, only the first of these entities operated under a license — the license number 700455 remained unchanged. The other two companies clearly failed to obtain FCA authorization and were dissolved in 2022 and 2023.

Apparently realizing that a VFSC license does not impress traders, the broker attempted to add credibility on its website (as seen in Web Archive snapshots) by referring to MSB registration in the United States and Canada. However, it is well known that MSB status is not a license but merely a registration, and it does not grant the right to provide brokerage services in those countries.

According to Web Archive data, Foo Markets ceased operations in 2023, following the dissolution of its last UK-based company. However, we were unable to find a definitive explanation for the reasons behind this closure. That said, we can note that WikiFX rated the broker very poorly, and user reviews on that platform explicitly state that the company had serious problems with trader withdrawals.

This may well be the reason why the project’s owners decided to carry out a rebranding. Another possible scenario is that the Vanuatu-registered company was sold together with its license to new owners willing to try their luck in the brokerage/dealing services market. Either way, the new broker has inherited the murky history of its predecessor, which certainly does not add to its credibility.

At the same time, DLSM itself currently has a neutral reputation. On Trustpilot, it has only four reviews (as of June 2025): three positive and one negative. On WikiFX, it received a slightly above-average score of 6.47 out of 10; of the four comments, one is negative, two are neutral, and one is positive. Social media feedback is also split almost evenly.

Let’s Break Down the Jurisdiction

The Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) license for Forex brokers is one of the most common offshore authorizations. Until 2021, obtaining it was extremely easy, and during that period the number of platforms holding local licenses amounted to dozens, if not hundreds. In 2021, a reform process began, and the current Financial Dealers Licensing Consolidation Act introduced numerous changes, which led to a sharp decline in the number of applicants seeking authorization from the local regulator.

Nevertheless, obtaining a VFSC license is still significantly easier than securing approval from top-tier regulators. The document review period is much shorter (only 2–4 months), and the requirements are considerably less stringent.

For example, the regulator:

• Does not impose limits on maximum leverage or traders’ risk exposure.
• Does not require brokers to hold client funds in segregated accounts.
• Does not operate a compensation fund and does not oblige companies to participate in similar schemes.

Overall, a Vanuatu license today is a standard offshore regulatory document. It does have certain specifics, for example, in relation to crypto-asset activities. Semi-legal companies and outright scammers increasingly prefer not to renew it, opting instead for even more lenient (that is, largely uncontrolled) jurisdictions, such as licenses issued by autonomous islands within the Union of the Comoros. Even so, holders of VFSC licenses still retain ample opportunities for manipulation and for maintaining non-transparent relationships with traders.

What Does the Dlsm.com Website Reveal?

The official DLSM website did not impress us either. Some might argue that the fragmented blocks on the homepage, resembling frames from a poorly thought-out presentation, are an attempt to showcase the broker’s activities to potential clients as comprehensively as possible. We might even agree with that, if browsing the site allowed us to form a coherent and complete impression of the company. However, it did not. Everything we saw remained at the level of disconnected visuals, further undermined by poorly chosen colors and thematically questionable illustrations. The only thing we can say with certainty is that the web designers did make an effort.

That said, we consider content far more important, and if it were in good shape, the design shortcomings could perhaps be overlooked. Unfortunately, DLSM has plenty of issues here as well:

• On the Markets pages, there is not even a brief description of the available asset classes or their specific features. Instead, the pages contain tables with contract-related data, including average spreads, minimum trade sizes, margin requirements, and swap rates for long and short positions. This information is certainly useful for traders, but in our view, it is insufficient on its own.
• In the Insights section, users are offered the company’s blog and market news. However, the blog contains only a few educational articles for beginners, while the “news” section provides nothing more than data on market interest across various assets, without a single actual news item. Moreover, the section lacks analytics and additional trader tools, such as an economic calendar. These are also absent from other parts of the site, which is quite unusual for a broker operating under an official license.
• The Deposits & Withdrawals page initially made a positive impression. Among the global funding and withdrawal methods, it includes transactions in the USDT and USDC stablecoins. However, to work with crypto assets, financial service providers in the Republic of Vanuatu must hold a Class D license (VASP – Virtual Assets Service Provider), which requires authorized capital ranging from USD 500,000 to USD 1,600,000. DLSM does not hold such a license and therefore has no legal right not only to offer crypto trading, but even to accept cryptocurrencies.
• Among the legal documents, we did not find the full set that has effectively become standard for Forex/CFD brokers today. For example, one of the most important documents, the AML Policy, is missing entirely.
• There is virtually no detailed information about the company itself on the website. The only data we managed to find relates to regulation, which we discussed earlier. The broker does not present its team, achievements (although industry awards are mentioned on the homepage, we were unable to find DLSM listed among award recipients at the referenced events), financial statements, payment details, etc. While the Vanuatu regulator may not require such extensive disclosure, genuinely licensed companies usually provide it.

In short, the company’s website looks more like that of a semi-legal broker willing to disclose only the bare minimum of information and not always fully complying with regulatory requirements. We can openly say that this approach on the part of DLSM was a clear disappointment for us.

Is the Broker Offering Fair or Risky Terms for Traders?

One area where DLSM compares somewhat favorably to many similar projects is the publication of its trading conditions. As mentioned earlier, the broker has placed detailed tables for each trading instrument in the Markets section, with information closely resembling full contract specifications. Some data points are missing there, but as it turned out, they can be found in the Accounts section.

The company offers only three account types:

• ECN.
• Standard.
• Standard Cent (available only to traders from Southeast Asian countries).

The account currency for ECN and Standard accounts is the US dollar, while the Standard Cent account uses US cents. The minimum deposit requirements also differ: $100 for the first two accounts and $10 for the latter.

Each tariff plan has its own specific parameters:

• Maximum leverage: 1:1000 for ECN, 1:500 for Standard. On the Cent account, leverage depends on the balance: if it is below $2,000, trading is conducted with a maximum leverage of 1:1000; if it exceeds that amount, the leverage is reduced to 1:500.
• Minimum spreads: on Standard accounts they start from 1.2 pips, while on the ECN account they are 0.0.
• Trading commissions: on the ECN account, the commission is $4 per standard lot; on all other accounts, commissions are zero.

All other parameters are the same across all plans. For example, the Stop Out level is set at 40%, and there are no restrictions on placing Stop Loss or Take Profit orders.

Overall, the information on trading conditions is almost exhaustive and allows traders to assess their costs, potential profitability, and risk levels. The latter, as you may have already guessed, is extremely high. Leverage of 1:500 or 1:1000 is so excessive that even professional investors can lose their entire deposit within the first few trades. Even solid knowledge of capital and risk management rules does not help here, as losses become unacceptable even with price movements within so-called market noise.

Why does the broker put traders in such conditions? The motives are quite simple. Operating under an official license, the company avoids using outright scam tactics, such as blocking accounts without explanation. Instead, user losses driven by excessive leverage, while remaining within the bounds of the law, are no less effective at transferring funds from client accounts into the broker’s revenue.

Moreover, DLSM leaves nothing to chance. Even traders who apply ultra-conservative strategies and the strictest risk management will not be able to avoid losses. The reason lies in the size of spreads and swaps. For example, for the EUR/USD pair, the long swap is -8.06 pips, which is effectively just under half of the average daily price range. Add to this the spread, the inability to enter a trade exactly at the start of an impulse and exit precisely at its end (trading systems with such predictive accuracy do not yet exist), and you will end up with losses in the vast majority of positions. And, as we know, a trader’s losses are the broker’s profits.

The conclusion is unequivocal: the platform appears ready to do everything possible to appropriate clients’ funds, even if by methods that look legally compliant. Resisting such conditions is quite difficult, especially for inexperienced traders. So the question remains, does it make sense to take the risk at all?

Technical Support Analysis of DLSM

What the broker’s website definitely lacks is comprehensive information about customer support contact details. It seems the company has decided that the following would be sufficient for resolving traders’ issues:

• An email address.
• A postal address in Vanuatu.
• An online chat available on the official website pages.

As for the office address, it is well-known as a location used by dozens of Forex/CFD brokers and companies from other industries. It is typically employed for registration in the Republic of Vanuatu through intermediaries. In practice, it is impossible to find the company there; at best, you may encounter a local representative who is unlikely to resolve any issues beyond basic interactions with the country’s authorities.

The online chat, based on Zendesk, uses AI-driven solutions and is capable of answering the simplest user questions without involving human operators. However, this is precisely where the problem lies: traders rarely contact support with basic questions, while staff members, relying on the neural network’s performance, appear to review requests quite infrequently. In our case, we had to wait more than six hours to be connected to a support specialist. It seems unlikely that urgent issues can be resolved here.

The same applies to email inquiries. In practice, responses can be expected within one business day, and if a request is submitted toward the end of the working day, only after the start of the next one. Why the broker has not bothered to provide phone support remains unclear.

Links to social media pages are available, but they have raised some concerns as well. For example, the YouTube channel was launched only in July 2025, at the same time the first online reviews appeared. It currently contains just seven videos, which have accumulated 365 views and 14 subscribers. Not exactly impressive results for five months of activity.

The Telegram channel was created back in October 2024, yet it has attracted only 50 regular followers. This suggests that DLSM may be experiencing difficulties in attracting and retaining clients.

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