Banxso, AfriMarkets, Mixirite: The Same Forex Scam Wearing New Names

Last updated: June 2026

On 24 June 2026, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority provisionally withdrew Mixirite (Pty) Ltd's financial services provider licence. FSP number 50382. Done.

If that name doesn't ring a bell, the names hiding behind it will: UMarketPro, Protea Markets, and Randfox. And if those still don't land, try these: Banxso and AfriMarkets. Same people. Same playbook. Different company name on the door.

This is not a story about one rogue broker. This is a case study in how a single network operated multiple forex operations under rotating brand names, harvested South African retail traders, and kept going even after the FSCA started shutting them down.

What Mixirite Actually Was

Mixirite (Pty) Ltd held a Category I financial services provider licence from the FSCA. On paper, it was an intermediary — authorised to provide advice and intermediary services in derivative instruments.

In practice, Mixirite was the licence shell. It provided regulatory cover for three trading platforms that operated as its authorised representatives:

• UMarketPro — an online forex and CFD trading platform
• Protea Markets — another forex and CFD platform
• Randfox — yet another forex and CFD platform

All three operated under Mixirite's FSP licence. None of them held their own independent authorisation. When Mixirite's licence goes, all three lose their regulatory cover simultaneously.

This is important to understand: in South Africa, an authorised representative operates under the umbrella of a licence holder. If the licence holder is compromised, every entity operating under that licence is exposed. That is exactly what happened here.

The Man Connecting All Three: Harel Sekler

To understand why the FSCA moved against Mixirite, you need to follow the thread back to Banxso.

Banxso was a forex and CFD trading platform that became one of the FSCA's biggest enforcement targets. It used deepfake celebrity endorsements — fabricated videos of well-known South Africans appearing to promote the platform — and ran aggressive social media advertising campaigns promising extraordinary returns. The FSCA hit Banxso's parent company with a R2 billion fine, one of the largest penalties in the regulator's history. Banxso was subsequently liquidated.

AfriMarkets was another forex platform. The FSCA withdrew its FSP licence after finding similar patterns — unlicensed financial advice, misleading marketing, and inadequate risk disclosure to clients.

Here's the connection the FSCA identified: Harel Sekler was a key representative at both Banxso and AfriMarkets. The same individual, operating across multiple entities that the regulator had already taken action against, was now connected to Mixirite.

That alone would raise red flags. But the FSCA found something worse.

84 Out of 108: The AfriMarkets Migration

When the FSCA examined Mixirite's authorised representative register, they found that 84 of its 108 authorised representatives had previously been registered under AfriMarkets.

Read that again. Nearly 80% of Mixirite's sales force came directly from a company whose licence the FSCA had already withdrawn. The same people, doing the same work, under a new company name.

This is the pattern: when the FSCA shuts down one entity, the operation simply migrates — staff, systems, and sales tactics — to a new licence holder. The brand changes. The website changes. The FSP number changes. The actual operation does not.

For retail traders, this is nearly impossible to detect. You check the FSCA register, you see a valid FSP number, and you assume you're dealing with a legitimate, independently regulated broker. You're not. You're dealing with the same operation that just had its previous licence pulled.

The Sales Machine: How It Worked

The FSCA's concerns about Mixirite (and its underlying platforms) centred on a familiar set of practices that anyone following forex scams in South Africa will recognise immediately:

Aggressive Social Media Advertising

Fake advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok promising returns of R500,000 per month from a starting investment of just R4,300. These ads often featured fabricated testimonials or implied endorsements from public figures.

Let's do the maths on that claim. R500,000 per month from R4,300 is a return of approximately 11,527% per month. For reference, the best-performing hedge fund managers in the world average 20-30% per year. Not per month. Per year.

Anyone promising you five-figure percentage monthly returns from forex trading is lying. There is no polite way to say this.

Unlicensed Financial Advice

The FSCA found that representatives were providing personalised trading advice to clients — recommending specific trades, specific instruments, specific position sizes — without the proper authorisation to do so. Providing financial advice in South Africa requires specific FSCA licensing. Doing it without authorisation is a criminal offence under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act.

Guaranteed Returns and No Risk Disclosure

Clients were told they would make money. Not that they might make money. Not that trading involves significant risk of loss. They were told they would profit. This violates the most fundamental regulatory requirement for any financial services provider: you must disclose the risks. Forex and CFD trading is leveraged speculation. Most retail traders lose money. The FSCA requires that clients be told this clearly and upfront.

High-Pressure Sales Tactics

The classic boiler room approach: aggressive phone calls, urgency tactics ("this opportunity closes today"), and persistent follow-up designed to pressure people into depositing funds quickly, before they have time to research or reconsider.

What This Means If You Used UMarketPro, Protea Markets, or Randfox

If you have funds deposited with any of these platforms, here is what you need to know:

Your money is at risk. The provisional withdrawal of Mixirite's licence means these platforms no longer have regulatory authorisation to operate. The FSCA's action is provisional — meaning there will be a process where Mixirite can respond — but the regulator clearly considers the risk serious enough to act immediately.

File a complaint with the FSCA. If you believe you were misled, given unlicensed advice, or made promises of guaranteed returns, you should file a formal complaint. The FSCA's complaints process is available on their website at fsca.co.za. Document everything: screenshots of ads you responded to, communications with sales representatives, deposit receipts, and any promises that were made.

Contact the FAIS Ombud. If your complaint relates to financial advice you received (or should have received but didn't), the Office of the FAIS Ombud handles disputes between financial services providers and their clients. Their website is faisombud.co.za.

Do not deposit more money. This should go without saying, but the pressure tactics used by these operations are designed to keep you depositing. Stop.

How to Check If YOUR Broker Is Connected

The Mixirite case illustrates exactly why you cannot take a broker's word at face value. Here is how to verify independently:

Step 1: Get the FSP Number

Every legitimately licensed broker or financial services provider in South Africa must have an FSP number issued by the FSCA. If a platform cannot or will not provide this number, stop immediately.

Step 2: Check the FSCA Register

Go to the FSCA's Financial Services Providers register. Search for the FSP number. Verify that:

• The licence is active (not suspended, withdrawn, or lapsed)
• The entity name matches the platform you're using
• The licence categories cover the services being offered (derivative instruments for forex/CFD trading)

Step 3: Check the Authorised Representatives

This is the step most people skip, and it's the one that matters most in cases like Mixirite. Click into the FSP's profile on the FSCA register and look at who their authorised representatives are. If you see large numbers of reps who were previously at companies that have been sanctioned, that is a major red flag.

Step 4: Cross-Reference Against FSCA Warnings

The FSCA maintains a list of entities it has warned the public about. Search for the platform name, the FSP holder's name, and the names of any individuals associated with the operation.

Step 5: Use BrokerToolsHub's Verification Tools

We built our Scam Tracker and Regulation Guide specifically because this verification process is harder than it should be. Our broker comparison tool only lists brokers with verified, active regulation. If a broker isn't on our list, that doesn't automatically make them a scam — but it means they haven't passed our verification checks. You can also use our Find My Broker quiz to get matched with brokers that are properly regulated for South African traders.

The Bigger Pattern: Why This Keeps Happening

The Banxso to AfriMarkets to Mixirite pipeline reveals a structural problem in how forex regulation works in South Africa.

The FSCA is doing its job. It identified Banxso, fined it R2 billion, and had it liquidated. It withdrew AfriMarkets' licence. It has now moved against Mixirite. The enforcement actions are real and they are significant.

But the cycle continues because:

• Licence migration is too easy. When one entity is shut down, the people behind it can move to another licence holder — or acquire a new one — and resume operations. The FSCA is fighting this with faster enforcement, but the lag between detection and action gives scam operations a window to operate.
• Social media platforms don't police financial advertising effectively. Facebook and Instagram are the primary distribution channels for these scams. Despite platform policies against misleading financial advertising, the ads keep running. The platforms profit from the ad spend. Enforcement is reactive and slow.
• South African retail traders remain vulnerable. High unemployment, rising cost of living, and the very human desire for financial security make people susceptible to promises of easy money. The scammers know this. Their advertising is precision-targeted at economically vulnerable South Africans.
• The operations are sophisticated. These are not amateur operations. They run professional-looking websites, branded trading platforms, and trained sales teams. The fact that Mixirite had 108 authorised representatives tells you this was a scaled, organised operation — not a one-person WhatsApp group.

How to Protect Yourself: The Non-Negotiable Rules

Every article we publish on BrokerToolsHub comes back to the same fundamentals, because the fundamentals are what actually protect you:

1. No legitimate broker promises guaranteed returns. Ever. If someone tells you that you will make R500,000 per month, or any specific amount, they are either lying or breaking the law. Usually both.

2. Check the FSCA register yourself. Don't trust a logo on a website. Don't trust an FSP number printed on a brochure. Go to the FSCA register and verify it independently. Our Regulation Guide walks you through exactly how to do this.

3. If you can't withdraw your money, you're in a scam. Legitimate brokers process withdrawals within a few business days. If you're being asked to pay fees, taxes, or upgrade charges before you can access your own money, the money is already gone.

4. Pressure is a red flag, not a feature. Legitimate financial services providers don't call you repeatedly, don't create artificial urgency, and don't pressure you to deposit more. If someone is pushing you to act fast, they're pushing you away from thinking clearly. That's the point.

5. Research the people, not just the company. The Mixirite case proves that company names change but the people behind them don't. Search for the names of directors, key individuals, and representatives. If they have a trail of FSCA warnings, enforcement actions, or associations with sanctioned entities, walk away.

The Bottom Line

Banxso, AfriMarkets, and Mixirite are not three separate stories. They are one story — the story of a network that operated under rotating brand names, moved its sales force from one licence to the next, and targeted South African retail traders with promises that were mathematically impossible.

The FSCA is acting. But regulation is always playing catch-up with fraud. Your best defence is not the regulator — it's your own willingness to verify before you deposit.

Check the Scam Tracker. Read the Regulation Guide. Use the Find My Broker tool to find brokers with verified, active regulation. And if something sounds too good to be true, it is not a missed opportunity. It is a trap.

Have you been affected by Mixirite, UMarketPro, Protea Markets, Randfox, or any related platform? You can file a complaint with the FSCA at fsca.co.za or contact the FAIS Ombud at faisombud.co.za.