Topic: HitBTC scam (Read 511 times)

Is it really a he said, she said situation when you have an overwhelming amount of people complaining about the same thing!? -- endless KYC to keep funds hostage

Is it really, when the exchange has displayed other scummy behavior such as charging 20 bucks per month when a user has become inactive for a mere six months and without notifying them?


Should we just ignore that most major/somewhat popular altcoins are above average in fees?

I wonder why your bar is low when it comes to hitbtc. I saw people thinking of dabbling into obscure exchanges because of the cheap fees but hitbtc is known to be problematic and their withdrawal fees are even above average but yes, it is still the way to go 🥱


Being optimistic is perfectly fine but glossing over the overwhelming problematic stuff is just toxic positivity. There are far better exchanges than hitbtc, it's not like you have no choice.

When the exchange asks you to re-verify, it will raise a question as to what their intention is to force you to kyc a second time. Maybe you're new to the crypto world and don't know much about the horrendous workings of this exchange, so it might all seem normal to you.

This exchange has a very bad reputation on this forum, they are more interested in taking leave from this forum than solving users' problems! So it's not unusual for them to give you a hard time at re verify time, as they are very experienced at making excuses.

Being strict is one thing, every regulated exchange do that — to ask KYC. Dirty crypto are only plausible in deposits not on withdrawals where users usually getting problems. But with all the mentioned reasons, this exchange is built different. This is the worst, most shittiest exchange that is still up, the same thing on yobit that should be avoid of.

Welcome to crypto, where you have to teach yourself new things, especially exchanging aspect. I think you were a little impatient or uninterested in learning how these exchanges work. Even me, I was once a noob and exchange interfaces were so confusing, but today I see no problem after several trades.

Valid or not, you need to weigh and see which side has more points. As far as I can see, the negative outweighs the positive. If all exchanges behaved like HitBTC. The count of their scam accusations here would even be higher than HitBTC which is not as popular as coinbase, Binance, Kucoin today.

When I tried out Binance it was confusing as hell. Ofc I went there first, but it was too many options, confusing interface as soon as you switch out the newbie mode. Tried to go to support (they had 24/7), was met with a chatbot. Couldn't trigger a real agent. Never came back.

Also checked out the link you said, the poster themself withdrew their argument because of these comments:

(xtraelv) You might as well tag them all. Every exchange has user complaints. Those users don't delete complaints after they have been resolved. Every legal exchange is subject to KYC laws - but customers consider it a scam if their funds are frozen. Users that have broken the law and have their funds seized will scream as loud or louder than those who have not broken the law and had their funds seized. Often an exchange cannot legally disclose why it is frozen.
Exchanges that are not subject to KYC are not in jurisdictions that comply with SEC rules and based in dubious countries. (So usually also exclude US citizens).
A lot of exchanges have dubious ownership structures - either in tax havens or hidden through trusts or shelf companies.
The exchanges that do comply with laws of the jurisdiction that they are in can seize your funds if requested by a Government and can pass your information to Government agencies.
Then there is wash trading and US tether... Has the exchange got Tether listed ?

Some exchanges offer low or no fee trading to coin devs. This allows the coin devs to trade their own coin giving the ability to create (fake) high volume without costing anything or a lot.

(Lauda) by idiotic policies I refer to the policies related to: Trust ratings, flags, and scam accusations. You are free to damage any business and entity with false accusations ad-nauseum (proven by QS & co.). Therefore, without a third party that has insight into the customer-exchange disputes, you can always assume that the customer is at fault unless there is objective evidence (no, screenshots don't fall under this category and no funds being locked is not evidence of malpractice) claiming otherwise.

They have valid points actually.

 

Right now it's a "he said she said" situation. I myself made some mistakes during the process because I couldn't read with my own two eyes. As soon as I realized what was wrong, everything went smoothly. Maybe he's in the same situation, how can you tell?


Well, still a way to go? But still an improvement since $100 back when ETH blockchain went mad. And you can never go wrong with some Tron USDT, it's relatively cheap


Is it really wrong to hope for the best? I'm just trying to learn more and compare with my experience (genuinely flabbergasted by some of the things that are written here). Also, if they're so strict with KYC, I'm trying to understand why. That is all.

Why do you still want to use this shady exchange despite a lot of red flag on it while there’s a lot of user friendly exchange like Binance that you will not be worried to deposit any amount since they have a better liquidity and proof of reserves to back every user balance.

I remember using a drivers license when I verify my Hitbtc account before but I’m not sure how they upgrade the KYC system since they become stricter now compared before.

Their trust page https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=194708 as big warning to stay from this exchange. They are scammer even before until now.

It's honestly hard to believe that a $1000 can lead to so many questions. Maybe this is the case of dirty crypto, that's why they're so strict? I'd imagine they'd want to make sure that the money is clean before letting anyone trade with them.

If you're still able to access your account, perhaps they'd label it as such in your transaction history. Onto your question, it has been more than two years so more than enough to drain a couple hundreds as they said, they charge 20 bucks a month.


Try reading the thread you posted on? TLDR: the OP is open to KYC, the problem is, scam hitbtc keeps the whole thing in circles, ultimately making people give up. You will find multiple stories like this in various platforms such as this forum, reddit, twitter, etc.


Their withdrawal fees are above average and expensive still, see: https://withdrawalfees.com/exchanges/hitbtc


You situation is different as you have verified in advance. If you actually read the multiple scam threads about them particularly the actual thread you posted on, you'll know, these people have already spend a good amount of time with the exchange and have some money stuck in there before they were requested to be placed in an endless KYC BS.

I'm really doubting you're just a regular user. You sound more like a shill with the way you defend them so much.

Well, depositing of withdrawal of funds may vary but sometimes even it's just $1000 deposit/withdrawal could end up like the others. With other's experience this exchange ask aside from KYC, proof of address, source of funds, documents of other people who give/send you the funds like their ID, take note all transaction hashes are required too and etc.

It's all in google how they scam their users asking documents after another.

Not a whale, so here is hoping this won't be a problem. Just in case, what amount of cash is considered "large"? Their site says 1 BTC, in European banks they frown upon 2000-3000 EUR transactions, so I'm at a loss.

And what are the documents they can ask? They asked me the id, a selfie and a bank statement to check address, that's fine I guess? Same as with Wirex for example

idc if they ask me to re-verify, just another jumping through the hoops as with any other exchange. Not that my face will change amirite?
It seems rather user friendly now and from what i read online it improved with the withdrawal fees and the speed of support (from what i can see now). They verified me fast, not like in some months as someone wrote on reddit, I tried trading already. Sometimes execution may be slow, but if you trade shitcoins, it's understandable. Also margin is a big plus.

But thanks for the heads-up, we'll see how it goes. If something happens, this friend's head will roll 

Why would you provide fake document tho? For what reason? I guess this is the root of the problem, but honestly, nothing surprising. They say "fool me once..." you get it. Also as i can see, they provide subaccounts (same KYC, different email), why create many?

Do this rule has been around since years ago? That could explain why my balance hit zero.

At one point in the past, I got a warning email from hitbtc that someone tried to access my account. Driven by curiosity rather than wanting to secure my account, I logged in and saw that my balance is zero --or if not zero, then it was negligible to be withdrawn-- I might be wrong [and this time, the chance is quite big that my memory served me wrong] but I think I used to had some balance there, not sure which currency was it, but I pretty much sure I left something there. At that time, I thought I must have moved the remaining balance and forgot about it. With this added info, though, I became quite sure I did left something there and got deducted by "inactive account fee". Ahh, well, what's done is done.

Good for you, you will then experienced it later on once you withdraw larger amount. As for all of those victims, they were asked not just personal info including ID but with different documents too. And not having multiple account is not the only way you will encounter such BS verdict from HitBTC. Still good luck, lol.

You have done advance KYC so you don't face any problem, but completing KYC doesn't mean you won't face any problem in future, they can force you to re-verify anytime because the reputation of this exchange is very bad. As many complaints have come against this exchange, they have not yet resolved any of those complaints, so what service do you expect from them? Your friend made a bad choice for you, this exchange is not a good exchange to trade.

You have account in this exchange and KYC verification of that account is not a problem, my advice would be if you don't want to face any kind of big problem in future don't deposit funds in this exchange. They can block your account anytime with any excuse and force you to re-kyc and even reject your documents. So be careful.

That's indeed quite possible.

The funny thing is, the post just backfired as it only made people remember how bad the exchange is lol.


Another tactic from HitBTC to lure users into their KYC trap. They did not email so you're more likely to miss it.

Were you able to view the balance in your account? cause they may have zero'd it as well. Afaik, HitBTC has a predatory scheme of charging a monthly fee if you've been inactive for 6 months.

I can not remember when last I accessed my hitbtc account, coming across this thread, I remembered I have an account on this exchange and even left some small amount of funds there which I couldn't withdraw at the time, I think I have like 30 xrp there plus other smaller amount of coins, I just opened the website now and tried logging in since I still remember my login details, I was told that my account have been disabled due to inactivity and now requesting doe the impossible for kyc verification before they can restate my account again ..

How can they disable a users account without a single warning or notification via email messages, this is so unbelievably..

Call me cynical, but I don't think the main purpose of their story is to share their "KYC experience" from HitBTC. They created an account, minutes later hit --pun intended-- this specific thread that's been buried under several other accusation threads about how their KYC procedure is clear and easy, and then went under right after.

KYC-ing in advance does not mean you'd avoid any surprises. Any centralized and custodial exchange can request you to reverify and/or request further personal information. I suggest at least skimming their terms of service.

Further, HitBTC is known for its shady practices -- selective scamming and problem/s typically arise once a user has deposited money to them particularly relatively significant amounts where they get the surprise invasive KYC.

You still have time to get out