An investment opportunity where you stand an 80% chance of losing everything you put in? Where losing your life savings to unregulated scammers can be par for the course, but the government does nothing?

If it sounds too bad to be true, that’s because it’s been extremely well disguised. In our latest story exploring the murky world of binary options trading, the Bureau reveals the reality of the risks so skilfully hidden by expert salespeople, the principal company behind the global industry, and the official inaction which allows fraudulent operators to go unchecked in the UK.

Sold as a quick and simple investment opportunity promising average returns of up to 90%, thousands of Brits are pouring money into binary options trading, which involves betting on whether the price of certain commodities will rise or fall over a specific time period. But industry data and legal documents seen by the Bureau show more than three quarters of those who sign up lose all their money - and as little as 3% of people make any profit at all.

Even when binary options trading is carried out by legitimate, regulated firms it is a hugely risky enterprise. But malpractice is rife in the sector, warn police, who say unregulated binary options trading has become the biggest fraud in the UK.

The average loss reported to police is £16,000. But while countries around the world enact regulation clamping down on the industry, the British government continues to sit on its hands.

A Treasury consultation was carried out last year, but the government has not published a response and will not release details of submissions. It recently announced another consultation would be held.

Responding to the Bureau’s investigation, Shadow City Minister Jonathan Reynolds called for the government to take action. "[Binary options] appears to be something they have forgotten about whereas other countries have acted swiftly to protect savers," he said.