Topic: BEWARE of POLONIEX BTC WITHDRAWS - page 7. (Read 27223 times)

I have been using Poloniex for years, and only ran in to trouble with them once.


Last year, OUT OF NOWHERE, my account was locked.  Couldn't trade or withdraw my funds.  I filed a support ticket (through my email that I log in to Poloniex with) and they claimed my account had suspicious activity, as if someone was trying to get into my account (despite me not sharing my details with anyone).

What still bugs me, is that they would only unlock my account if I submitted my personal information to them - as if this would prove the account was mine.  I had given them nothing prior to this, so there was no information they could cross-check my requested information against.  Which means if I really was a hacker, using my compromised account, I could have just submitted fake information to them, and they'd hand over my entire account without batting an eyelash.

They wouldn't give me any information about why they locked my account, nor a response to what I posted above.  NO logic behind their actions whatsoever...

...I still trade (lightly, obviously) there, but it should be general knowledge by now that if you can store your funds off exchanges, STORE YOUR FUNDS OFF EXCHANGES.  Cold wallets, paper wallets, trezors, anything.  You never know when a 'reputable' exchange will screw you over, when they'll get 'hacked' and run to China with your money, or the like...stay safe

I Have been there around 1 Years. Anythings withdrawal doing smoothly even small amount withdarawal or huge amount. I realy never got problem like you. This are policy I think, So this are comfort between the two parties. Keep yours ticket to Poloniex, may poloniex will be explain for that all.

iam not hear about problem poliniex after poloniex can the big exchanger with big volume transaction
your account frozen maybe your acount problem, this problem verified or another problem

you can solution send ticket or chat with troolbox or you can inbox owner account poloniex in bitcointalk

poloniex hack before 2013 is poloniex in new exchanger and few volume transaction and not big exchanger
your write with new account newbie and write bad about poloniex
not solved problem, maybe your problem can incrase is big

i am on poloniex for a while and i don't see any problem when i want to withdraw or make deposit bitcoin in my account. maybe when you make a withdraw on that site, poloniex has just doing maintenance so this can make any problem. but i don't know what is happen actually. if we have this situations, better to ask the support, if they don't give the answer, try to ask again and again until our problem resolve.

I have never used Poloniex before.
But isn't the accusation of 'staging a false hack' with loss of identities a little too outrageous?

might be case to case basis mate im with polo as well and never experienced so far hope not, lets wait if there's an explanation with your case OP but thanks for letting us know for us to be alarm.

I have been with Poloniex from the beginning and never had a problem with them up to this point.

I haven't had an issue with Poloniex so far. Hopefully they don't pull some sort of scheme

Is it true?

I'm here to share my experience with Poloniex with the rest of the altcoin community. May this be a warning for future traders who are thinking about using this exchange.

I've had a small BTC withdraw frozen by Poloniex staff for upwards 24 hours and might persist for possibly longer. As of the time of this writing there is no warning on their website about withdraws being frozen for 24-48 hours. In the years of trading I've never ran into this situation.

When I opened a trading account with Poloniex, I did so despite my reservations relating to their previous hacks[1] resulting in coin theft. To my surprise, I noticed a red flag upon signup that Poloniex requires first name, last name, country and so forth just to trade coins. I could understand if I was signing up for a fiat trading or lending account, but this is just for trading coins. Poloniex has stated this is because they are federally compliant yet, Seattle-based Bittrex.com is also a US federally compliant exchange and it allows users to signup with just an e-mail address like most exchanges that deal with crypto trades.

Any time an exchange user wants to trade in fiat currency he is required to verify ID and that is understandable given the AML/KYC laws relating to electronic money transfer. I've looked around to find any information relating to ID requirements in regards to cryptocurrency and I can't find a single US law or statue which requires businesses to demand this of users unless they are dealing with fiat currency i.e. USD or GBP. This is because the IRS defines cryptocurrency as property[2], not currency. So why are FINCEN laws relating to currency being applied by Poloniex staff?

Futhermore, Poloniex has implemented currency controls for withdraws of cryptocurrency greater than $2000. If a Poloniex user would like to withdraw more than this, they are required to verify their ID, address and more revealing information. Again, what concerns me here is that there is no law requiring them to do this that I can find yet they are doing this regardless. This goes against everything that cryptocurrency stands for - the protection of privacy and avoidance of global currency controls tied to fiat currency. Bittrex requires no ID for any amount of coin withdraw.

What is surprising about all of this is that XMR, which is supposed to be a privacy oriented coin has had its own pairing on Poloniex for a few years. One would assume that the operators of Poloniex would respect user privacy like Bittrex or other exchanges that deal in crypto to crypto exchanges. But, unfortunately that is just not the case here.

I do have a gut feeling that Poloniex might be acting as a honeypot to establish a database of crypto traders for some government entity thereby deanonymizing any technology built into respective privacy coins. I also wouldn't be surprised if the two darknet markets that added XMR as a currency are operated by the same team as part of an operation to funnel users into their database. Poloniex had no logical business related reason for giving XMR it's own pairing years ago unless they were planning something big in the distant future. It's quite obvious that they aren't privacy advocates.  

A word of advice from a trader who has had their coins frozen for no reason. Move your coins off Poloniex and into a secure wallet environment. If you're going to trade coin-to-coin do so on a reputable exchange like Bittrex or the decentralized exchange Bitsquare [3]. I do not work for Bittrex, I'm only using them as an example due to both exchanges being based in the US. Richie Lai, the owner is Bittrex is also in charge of Amazon's Security Operations Center [4] and probably the reason why they've never been hacked.

Don't be lured into trading on Poloniex because of the large volume. The only reason why it has a large volume is because they have currency controls that limit users withdrawing funds. To reiterate, I have suspicions that Poloniex might be gearing up to stage a false flag hack which will result in a compromise of user's identities, locations, phone numbers and most importantly funds to bad actors. This could result in identity theft if large trader info were leaked. Personal security would also be a risk as whales would become the target of criminals.

The ramifications would be numerous and only time will tell if I am correct. Be smart, take a precaution and minimize risk by switching exchanges.

TL:DR  Poloniex froze my coin withdraw for no reason and without any disclaimer on their deposit or withdraw. It might be gearing up for a false flag hack resulting in the theft of user identities and funds.

[1] http://www.bitcoinx.com/poloniex-hacked-12-3-bitcoin-supply-withdraws-difference-user-accounts/

[2] https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/irs-virtual-currency-guidance

[3] https://bitsquare.io/

[4] https://www.bittrex.com/Home/About