These are examples of why it is important to anticipate and expect to be verified BEFORE trading any fiat and coins on exchanges. There is a very real risk that your money will be blocked for a long time if not even indefinitely while they investigate you. The thing that is most worrying is that they don't usually say what's going on or what's wrong.
They will simply give you the silent treatment during the course of the investigation. It's probably how such investigations are done and it's standard procedure for them to remain silent. Why? I read about one bank's KYC procedure where the staff are supposed to not inform the customer when something suspicious about the account is detected. It allows them to investigate while at the same time preventing the customer from destroying evidence or "perverting the course of justice".
Assuming your coins or fiat are from clean sources, you shouldn't be worried about losing your money. Bitstamp is a regulated and properly licensed exchange. They will eventually resolve the matter. It just takes time.
Topic: FRAUD WARNING: Bitstamp is holding my money hostage and ignoring me for 14 days - page 2. (Read 2305 times)
August 29, 2017, 03:50:23 AM
August 29, 2017, 02:21:17 AM
I had the same issue, it has been a week with little progress.
This pattern is quite like the time when MTGOX had liquidity problem, the deposit or withdraw can take more than a week, simply because they don't have liquidity in their account to process it, so they are waiting for new customer's money come in to pay the queued previous deposit/withdraw
Once this happens, no matter the excuse they gave, I will stop the deposit to this exchange for at least a month to watch more carefully. This is in general a problem for all the centralized exchanges, there are so many hidden details happening behind that users are not aware of
This pattern is quite like the time when MTGOX had liquidity problem, the deposit or withdraw can take more than a week, simply because they don't have liquidity in their account to process it, so they are waiting for new customer's money come in to pay the queued previous deposit/withdraw
Once this happens, no matter the excuse they gave, I will stop the deposit to this exchange for at least a month to watch more carefully. This is in general a problem for all the centralized exchanges, there are so many hidden details happening behind that users are not aware of
August 23, 2017, 09:28:51 AM
I think my Subject Access Request that I sent last night might have triggered a response from Bitstamp.
Their Head of Legal & Compliance, emailed me today and then I spent 40 minutes with him on the phone.
He was was quite apologetic and told me that there was an investigation, where my name matched the name of another person involved in illegal activities, but that has been cleared.
Still I explained that this kind of compliance is damaging to their business if customers are subjected to such kind of silent treatment.
It is really ironic how such businesses strive to look all professional and compliant, but manage to damage the trust of their customers in the process.
Even though the resolution was positive for me I still feel that Bitstamp need to change their practices and balance their customers' interests with their compliance methods. I am not convinced this will not happen again to other people.
Bitstamp should should strive to be a transparent company that is accountable for its actions.
I will be contacting a lawyer tomorrow to see if I have any grounds to claim damages.
Their Head of Legal & Compliance, emailed me today and then I spent 40 minutes with him on the phone.
He was was quite apologetic and told me that there was an investigation, where my name matched the name of another person involved in illegal activities, but that has been cleared.
Still I explained that this kind of compliance is damaging to their business if customers are subjected to such kind of silent treatment.
It is really ironic how such businesses strive to look all professional and compliant, but manage to damage the trust of their customers in the process.
Even though the resolution was positive for me I still feel that Bitstamp need to change their practices and balance their customers' interests with their compliance methods. I am not convinced this will not happen again to other people.
Bitstamp should should strive to be a transparent company that is accountable for its actions.
I will be contacting a lawyer tomorrow to see if I have any grounds to claim damages.
Would you please send me the contact, the same thing happened to me they terminated my account and have my money for more than a month and they are ignoring my emails.
August 16, 2017, 09:43:00 PM
I still have faith in Bitstamp. Despite the damage they caused you, I believe their being licensed and regulated makes them one of the few exchanges one can trade on with peace of mind. The apology from the HEAD of compliance was the right thing to do. That certainly is a positive (even if not remedial, given the damage and losses caused) step in re-establishing confidence.
The investigation shows they are quite proactive and vigilant in their efforts to protect and preserve their license.
There are risks associated with taking legal action and I think a prime example of that would be Bitstamp defending their position as appropriate action in line with a legitimate investigation. Winning the case would help you recover losses, if any, but given the uncertainty of the outcome and the costs of engaging a lawyer qualified to litigate this type of case, you should probably carefully consider the task and challenges ahead.
The investigation shows they are quite proactive and vigilant in their efforts to protect and preserve their license.
There are risks associated with taking legal action and I think a prime example of that would be Bitstamp defending their position as appropriate action in line with a legitimate investigation. Winning the case would help you recover losses, if any, but given the uncertainty of the outcome and the costs of engaging a lawyer qualified to litigate this type of case, you should probably carefully consider the task and challenges ahead.
August 16, 2017, 08:47:45 PM
I think my Subject Access Request that I sent last night might have triggered a response from Bitstamp.
Their Head of Legal & Compliance, emailed me today and then I spent 40 minutes with him on the phone.
He was was quite apologetic and told me that there was an investigation, where my name matched the name of another person involved in illegal activities, but that has been cleared.
Still I explained that this kind of compliance is damaging to their business if customers are subjected to such kind of silent treatment.
It is really ironic how such businesses strive to look all professional and compliant, but manage to damage the trust of their customers in the process.
Even though the resolution was positive for me I still feel that Bitstamp need to change their practices and balance their customers' interests with their compliance methods. I am not convinced this will not happen again to other people.
Bitstamp should should strive to be a transparent company that is accountable for its actions.
I will be contacting a lawyer tomorrow to see if I have any grounds to claim damages.
Their Head of Legal & Compliance, emailed me today and then I spent 40 minutes with him on the phone.
He was was quite apologetic and told me that there was an investigation, where my name matched the name of another person involved in illegal activities, but that has been cleared.
Still I explained that this kind of compliance is damaging to their business if customers are subjected to such kind of silent treatment.
It is really ironic how such businesses strive to look all professional and compliant, but manage to damage the trust of their customers in the process.
Even though the resolution was positive for me I still feel that Bitstamp need to change their practices and balance their customers' interests with their compliance methods. I am not convinced this will not happen again to other people.
Bitstamp should should strive to be a transparent company that is accountable for its actions.
I will be contacting a lawyer tomorrow to see if I have any grounds to claim damages.
August 16, 2017, 06:50:48 PM
My deposit was credited and my withdrawals enabled.
I will explain everything a bit later, cause I have other thing to do now.
I will explain everything a bit later, cause I have other thing to do now.
Congratulations and thanks for the update. Looks like someone read your threats of legal action or someone at Pantera Capital must have given them an earful.
I still have a fully verified Bitstamp account from way back in 2013. Wondering if it's safe to use it or will I be asked to re-verify the account with my most current passport (the one I used in 2013 is now expired) and other documents.
I will probably try with small amounts, perhaps 500 euros worth of btc and test first if I can withdraw it to my bank account in Germany.
August 16, 2017, 05:56:56 PM
I got answer from support:
No clue what it was, and what was a reason for block account since it were unblocked without any questions. Proly some security trigger worked..
Quote
16.8.2017 11:26:16
We are happy to inform you that your withdrawals have been re-enabled.
We are happy to inform you that your withdrawals have been re-enabled.
No clue what it was, and what was a reason for block account since it were unblocked without any questions. Proly some security trigger worked..
My deposit was credited and my withdrawals enabled.
I will explain everything a bit later, cause I have other thing to do now.
I will explain everything a bit later, cause I have other thing to do now.
i'm really glad the situations were resolved. i had my doubts there for a minute. still, this experience indicates that bitstamp is getting very serious about regulatory compliance. i would be very careful about sending coins there, particularly coins that could be tainted.
even if i had a legit paper trail to show that funds are legitimate at all times, i wouldn't want to have funds tied up for days, weeks or months because of their AML compliance checks. the fact is that i can't necessarily show a good paper trail for a good deal of my funds (trading, gambling, giveaways, etc. all moved around from the same wallet), so those funds can't be deposited to stamp or GDAX...
August 16, 2017, 10:28:57 AM
hi guys, I have similar issues with Bitstamp- will read up here more closely, and post details if I can not get it resolved.
August 16, 2017, 08:45:00 AM
My deposit was credited and my withdrawals enabled.
I will explain everything a bit later, cause I have other thing to do now.
I will explain everything a bit later, cause I have other thing to do now.
Looks like person who supposed to deal with such cases came into work ?
August 16, 2017, 08:24:27 AM
My deposit was credited and my withdrawals enabled.
I will explain everything a bit later, cause I have other thing to do now.
I will explain everything a bit later, cause I have other thing to do now.
August 16, 2017, 07:41:12 AM
I suspect they have a team of AML staff going through withdrawal requests. And if that's a small team, then that might explain these delays (and silent treatments).
Re-enabling of withdrawals is a positive step forward. Always good to see a light at the end of a (very long and dark) tunnel. Don't store too much fiat and bitcoins in an exchange account. You might wake up one morning to find them blocked and frozen.
Re-enabling of withdrawals is a positive step forward. Always good to see a light at the end of a (very long and dark) tunnel. Don't store too much fiat and bitcoins in an exchange account. You might wake up one morning to find them blocked and frozen.
August 16, 2017, 06:44:25 AM
Still no update on this one? Have you been able to resolve the issue?
I have never had any problems talking to them and their support s been quite fast. Now you made me uncomfortable dealing with them.
I have never had any problems talking to them and their support s been quite fast. Now you made me uncomfortable dealing with them.
I got answer from support:
Quote
16.8.2017 11:26:16
We are happy to inform you that your withdrawals have been re-enabled.
We are happy to inform you that your withdrawals have been re-enabled.
No clue what it was, and what was a reason for block account since it were unblocked without any questions. Proly some security trigger worked..
August 16, 2017, 02:33:40 AM
Still no update on this one? Have you been able to resolve the issue?
I have never had any problems talking to them and their support s been quite fast. Now you made me uncomfortable dealing with them.
I have never had any problems talking to them and their support s been quite fast. Now you made me uncomfortable dealing with them.
August 16, 2017, 02:24:37 AM
Bitstamp doesn't really have a reputation for having a terrible support system, when compared to an exchange like Yobit. So this is a little surprisingly to me especially when all the other exchanges have constantly been in trouble but i haven't seen much complaints regarding bitstamp.
I can tell why you're disgruntled, since the price of bitcoin has gone up subsatntially in the 9 days that you have deposited.
As far as i know they do not have any sort of communication outside of email, support tickets, or contacting admin via linkedin which you have all tried. All you can do is wait, and hope that a temporary dip in price can come. Unfortunately this is how it works, and they probably won't compensate for the losses. Why didn't you complete KYC before you deposited such a large amount? Or are they just asking you again and again?
I can tell why you're disgruntled, since the price of bitcoin has gone up subsatntially in the 9 days that you have deposited.
As far as i know they do not have any sort of communication outside of email, support tickets, or contacting admin via linkedin which you have all tried. All you can do is wait, and hope that a temporary dip in price can come. Unfortunately this is how it works, and they probably won't compensate for the losses. Why didn't you complete KYC before you deposited such a large amount? Or are they just asking you again and again?
Actually the main reason I am furious is the fact they are ignoring me.
The blocked deposit is not a big issue, because it is for less than 10K eur.
But my trading volume for the last month is close to 400K usd and I got close to 100K in fiat, so you can appreciate how I feel when the company I am trusting with my money is not replying to my tickets.
I have been verified for a long time and only when I made this deposit they asked these questions. I wasn't even aware they do that.
So instead of having a healthy business relationship I am being ignored.
I see. It's really odd that they would pick up on this small deposit instead of the big ones that i assume you've had in the past with them. BTW, why did they ask you KYC questions if you were already fully verified and able to deposit and withdraw using fiat? Doesn't make sense to me.
It seems like you got a response from someone that is at least somewhat related to the company who said that he'll refer you to some other random guy who just ignored you earlier, is this correct? And have they given you any sort of official response yet?
It's clearly rude to ignore your customer, let alone a pretty big customer too. I would not use Bitstamp solely for this reason, they don't respect you when an issue arises, and this issue is not even caused by you.
August 15, 2017, 11:53:07 PM
After the shutdown of BTC-e and bitmixer.io, this looks like some of the other exchanges are now being paranoid. You have to understand that they are protecting themselves from the slightest mistake they could make and have Uncle Sam come after them next.
You have to be patient. They are a licensed exchange and because of that you have to understand that they have to take a few extra steps to make sure that everything is legal. But yes they are slow.
You have to be patient. They are a licensed exchange and because of that you have to understand that they have to take a few extra steps to make sure that everything is legal. But yes they are slow.
August 15, 2017, 09:03:52 PM
I'm curious how you would approach the post-resolution phase of this case. If they do resolve this and give you access to your funds again, would you continue using your Bitstamp account? Or would that be the end of your relationship with them?
It's always a tricky thing when a business (or even personal) relationship is scarred by even one traumatic event. Issues solved and peace ensues but how about the aftermath of that event? Continuing to trade on their platform might seem palatable but won't you feel being watched or checked?
It's always a tricky thing when a business (or even personal) relationship is scarred by even one traumatic event. Issues solved and peace ensues but how about the aftermath of that event? Continuing to trade on their platform might seem palatable but won't you feel being watched or checked?
Honestly I don't know. It all depends on how this ends and what kind of service I would need in the future.
But I fully intend to follow the legal route and go to court with these guys, who thankfully are registered in the UK.
I was the claimant in a year long trial, which ended recently with a very satisfactory result for me, so I am prepared to go down that route again. Unfortunately cannot share much information due to a non-disclosure agreement.
There will always be the bad aftertaste of their treatment, so unless I receive a personal over the phone or in person apology from the owners I will most probably not use them in the same way as before.
At this point I am furious as they are holding my money hostage and completely ignoring me.
Just found that BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT, which means all my fiat is held hostage too.
Oh, i have exactly the same problem. I have 2 years old fully verified account. I traded on bitstamp without any problem, last action i did i withdrawed all my btc before 1 august btc fork, then i didn't use exchange and 8 august i deposited btc back (exactly from same home wallet i withdrawed to) to continue trading when suddently i found that all my withdraw were dissabled.
Quote
BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
LITECOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
LITECOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
one person lodging this complaint, i could maybe write off. now two old hands are complaining of withdrawals blocked and complete radio silence from stamp. i hate to say it, but i think this is the case:
Honestly, after reading through your entire thread, the only plausible reason for them to not reply to you is that they are waiting for answers as they most likely passed your information to the authorities for investigation.
this is the most reasonable explanation for the silence. what i'm worried to find out ... aside from Kn_os with the withdrawal out and directly back in due to the august 1 fork, have you guys deposited bitcoins into your account before? or only fiat?
between the regulated exchanges like stamp and GDAX being super compliant, and blockchain analysis companies getting more and more sophisticated, i don't like the direction we are heading in.
I initially deposited 33BTC to trade with, then deposited further 15BTC, which I bought with fiat at Kraken.
All the Bitcoins have been obtained legitimately by me and have not been involved in any illegal activities while owning them.
August 15, 2017, 08:23:13 PM
At this point I am furious as they are holding my money hostage and completely ignoring me.
Just found that BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT, which means all my fiat is held hostage too.
Oh, i have exactly the same problem. I have 2 years old fully verified account. I traded on bitstamp without any problem, last action i did i withdrawed all my btc before 1 august btc fork, then i didn't use exchange and 8 august i deposited btc back (exactly from same home wallet i withdrawed to) to continue trading when suddently i found that all my withdraw were dissabled.
Quote
BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
LITECOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
LITECOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
one person lodging this complaint, i could maybe write off. now two old hands are complaining of withdrawals blocked and complete radio silence from stamp. i hate to say it, but i think this is the case:
Honestly, after reading through your entire thread, the only plausible reason for them to not reply to you is that they are waiting for answers as they most likely passed your information to the authorities for investigation.
this is the most reasonable explanation for the silence. what i'm worried to find out ... aside from Kn_os with the withdrawal out and directly back in due to the august 1 fork, have you guys deposited bitcoins into your account before? or only fiat?
between the regulated exchanges like stamp and GDAX being super compliant, and blockchain analysis companies getting more and more sophisticated, i don't like the direction we are heading in.
August 15, 2017, 07:13:36 PM
I'm curious how you would approach the post-resolution phase of this case. If they do resolve this and give you access to your funds again, would you continue using your Bitstamp account? Or would that be the end of your relationship with them?
It's always a tricky thing when a business (or even personal) relationship is scarred by even one traumatic event. Issues solved and peace ensues but how about the aftermath of that event? Continuing to trade on their platform might seem palatable but won't you feel being watched or checked?
It's always a tricky thing when a business (or even personal) relationship is scarred by even one traumatic event. Issues solved and peace ensues but how about the aftermath of that event? Continuing to trade on their platform might seem palatable but won't you feel being watched or checked?
August 15, 2017, 06:44:23 PM
Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital was the first person involved with the company to respond to my emails today, but just said he has asked Bitstamp's COO Miha Grcar to investigate - the same guy that read 3 of my emails and ignored me.
So I am not quite enthusiastic. Will wait a few more days and contact lawers.
Found these guys: https://www.selachii.co.uk/bitcoin-law-firm-solicitor.html
So I am not quite enthusiastic. Will wait a few more days and contact lawers.
Found these guys: https://www.selachii.co.uk/bitcoin-law-firm-solicitor.html
August 14, 2017, 03:40:47 PM
Just found that BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT, which means all my fiat is held hostage too.
I think the host is more liable for it and it should need a serious actions so that withdrawals will be back to normal transactions. Furthermore the hostage fiat can be fixed if everything will become stable and transactions will be fine and no any other circumstances will going to happen like this situation, because it might create confusions to the users who had their holdings specially money is really needed for personal expenses.
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