Topic: HitBTC scam (Read 604 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

You have not faced any issues as you have provided all the perfect documents and you have no alternative accounts on there. But if you had multiple accounts and you could not provide real document and tried to provide fake document then you could understand about those who faces issues and issues.

My friend recommended me this exchange to trade but I wanted to KYC in advance to avoid any surprises. It may be strict, but I passed it, just followed the instructions and got verified in a couple of days. No complaints of any edited photos from them, the procedure is clear and straightforward. So far so good, hope it stays that way 

4 years later and you are still waiting. I wonder how much longer you have to wait before they decide to act and grant you access to your account. HitBTC is one of those notorious scam exchanges that keep blocking people's accounts and then force people to go on a never ending KYC verification journey.

Look at their feedback in the forum

Hi,

I am still waiting on removing my 2FA since I lost my phone back in 2018. Tried with photo and tons of email. It's that idiot Domingo Herrera. It's is a serious thief.

Success all.

Greetings,
A Dutch guy locked out for years from his account

Though other comment here say there has been this kind of discussion here before, I must say that this is the first scam allegation against Hitbtc am seeing here.
Though it never occurred to me to make a thread about it here, Hitbtc has always been a scam to me, and a kind of surprised(like I said before) this is the first time am seeing this kind of post against Hitbtc.
Worthy of note is that, Hitbtc used to be my favorite exchange along side latoken, cus my favorite coins were all listed there, but then, I discovered how Hitbtc never allowed me to sell or withdraw full amount of my coins no matter what, before I could sell all my coins, it has to be a round number like 100, 200 300, any think like 198, they allow me to sell only 100 and the remaining 98 will be in my account, unsellable as well as unwithdrawable, till I abandoned the exchange in 2017 or 2018, I had alot of different coins in the quantities of 89, 99, 56, 78, 98 etc that I can't sell or withdraw left on the exchange, imagine this coins hit $1 each in tht future, and also not forgetting the fact that am not the only customer they does this kind of dealing with, they do this to over a million other customers out there, so imagine the amount of coins they would gather from this when they combine all the coins from each account together, and if this coin hit $1 or even $0.50, that's alot of money for them.
This is what I call day light robbery.

The post has been created more than a year ago and no one could verify either Hitbtc sold any document (kyc info) or not so it is difficult to say either they are really selling kyc document or not. Also, it will not be helpful for you either they sell or not and the problem of you is verifying your identity. If your case was for selling kyc document then it could be helpful for you.

Knowing their methods will unfortunately not help you. I wish you had found that topic before you deposited any funds to HitBTC. I have read numerous accusations against this exchange even in the ICO days when it was relatively popular and you could trade some of those tokens on their platform. They weren't any better then, and they aren't looking to improve in the future either. I remember that it was always costly to withdraw from (s)HitBTC because of their high withdrawal fees.

I found this post https://www.reddit.com/r/hitbtc/comments/lxbhjc/hitbtc_is_a_scam_here_is_exactly_how_their_scam/

The man explains how HitBTC works.
This man suggested that the exchange might be selling your data on the darknet.

To date, the exchange still does not make contact, does not respond to inquiries.

Yeah, they have been operating for years. I have personally never been scammed by them but i noticed very high withdrawal fees and a very huge number of scam accusations which cannot be a coincidence. I occassionally used the exchange but citing so many scam accusation escpecially to do with KYC. I withdrew all my assets from there.

I think it will run a long way because all the people are not facing the same issue. Those who are not facing the issue they are not ware for their forthcoming problem. And the are being promoted on several way including by coinmarketcap. I think it is time to verify either they are doing wrong if they really do the wrong then coinmarketcap should take necessary steps to remove from their site.

I tend to agree with this, even though I wasn't personally have experienced scamming but one of my friends told me that he has an issue with using this exchange.  TBH, I have used this exchange platform before and I have never encountered a problem, but that was the there's no KYC process but when they implemented I never used this exchange anymore.

I can compare the HitBTC exchange to the Blockchain.com we wallet, it seems like they don't have support because as I have heard, it will take time before the CS will respond.  Next time, find a better exchange that doesn't have shady behavior.

HitBTC has been selectively scamming people for years using their KYC process, and I don't know how long people will come into realizing this so that they immediately cease to use the exchange. Their KYC verification process is endless, and they will frustrate the victim who will eventually give up on claiming the money thinking he can not pass KYC verification.

Do you know the countless number of scam exchanges that are operating in the cryptocurrency market? The fundamental advice of everything you want within the crypto investment is to always "do your own research".
If it happens that the HitBTC exchange that scammed you is delisted on CMC what guarantees that you won't be a victim of another scam exchange when you cant follow the fundamental tips that will save you from scam exchange?

I tried. If i use phone camera they send me this:

If I use a Canon camera and scanner they say "photos were modified".

Have you tried with your phone instead of using camera as well as scanner? If you already checked then nothing to say but if you have not yet checked then better check and I think it will be helpful for you. If you cant verify by this way then I don't think they will allow you to verify your identity.

Even if it is, they could let me take my coins and not work with them. They just stole my coins.

Its racist action for them to block russian citizens on their platform without giving a notice since if that's the only reason on why he's been block then this is totally bullshit on their part. Hitbtc has lot of issue before so I will not surprise on this if they do this without clear reason and if they join those sanction impose to Russia maybe they should give a notice to their user for them to take action on their departure to their platform.

Wondering why HitBtc blocked you if you already submitted the KYC, maybe since you’re a Russian they restrict users from your country. I hear a lot of allegation before about HitBtc, you might be already one of the victim of this scheme. Anyway, better to still protect your privacy, since no one really knows here if that is your real identity or not, exposing such details can be a big risk.

Even if that's true, I wouldn't advise going out of your way to worsen your situation because the scale of how widespread such information makes a difference in terms of potential damages. It's like saying large data breach victims should stop caring about the security of their personal information because it has already spread far and wide when the situation could always get worse.

Although there is no 100% security and we're basically just minimizing threats in a manner that is comfortable for us. I think everyone who has a life on the internet should still do the bare minimum of improving their cybersecurity and one of that is to not share their selfie + passport on a public online community accessible by everyone.

As for the hitbtc case, they are famous for that. Try looking up hitbtc threads and you'll see the pattern. I've long convinced myself it's just hitbtc trying to make their users rage quit so they can bag their funds.

I'am from Russia. Here government sites sell our information to scammers for money. I'm not afraid of anything anymore.

Well, this is not the first time of reading this type of scam report regarding Hitbtc. Even few fellow users from my community faced depositing/KYC related issues. Although i suggested them not to use that shady exchange, however he wanna sold a token which was only available on hitbtc. Talking about coinmarketcap or coingecko or other data aggregator sites, they would only lower the rank for hitbtc or giving warning, not more than this as they don't wanna lose traffic. 

It's bad for both of your privacy and security to share such personal information on a public community. Please remove them OP!!!

Unfortunately, it's been more than 2 hours since you posted this, it wouldn't be weird if someone has already saved them in hopes to steal your identity... If I were you I'd start reporting for a possible identity theft to relevant authorities/companies.

Well, they have a good history of being shady. I haven’t checked their fake volume or not, it's something most of the exchanges practice these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are doing that too. It’s quite common regardless of how shady it is.
However, they have something beyond this too. We all know how Dogecoin has been pumped in last year. Sadly, hitbtc was one of them who censored the price DOGE a lot in their exchange and forced everyone to sell their coin at a lower price.
When DOGE pumped significantly, they had DOGE withdrawal off, which caused people not be able to withdraw their DOGE and sell on other exchanges.
On the other hand, the price of DOGE was half of the actual price on other exchanges. For example, when DOGE was at ATH of $0.73 on other exchanges, it was around $0.40 on hitbtc. It’s because they had off the withdrawal and censored the price of DOGE, as a result, users were forced to sell their DOGE at lower price (market price in hitbtc) which I have mentioned already, was half of the actual price.
This proves how stupid they are, how shady they are.

- Snip

I hide some for this link, but I send it to HitBTC without any modifications and 7-8 another selfies and scans of my passport. I never had any problem with KYC with other exchanges.
The scan or selfie not enough quality?

I use that scan for any KYC, and I have no problem with Binance, Bittrex, or other exchanges.
I tried taking photos on a phone camera (Samsung S10) and Canon camera - HitBTC canceled all my attempts.
I just want to take my coins and never work with them again, but they even blocked the withdrawal.

I have no idea about HITBTC as probably I have never used this exchange site. If I have done any, I cant remember that yet.

I am not sure either they are legit or scammer. But I have a suggestion which you may follow. For your passport ( do not scan your passport), just take a image/picture of your passport by your mobile. And  for selfie or other matter please use your mobile phone's camera. I think it may help you.

I've done KYC to hitbtc without encountering this issue but I don't really like exchange especially there volume is so low and they also have a flat rate withdrawal fee. Even though they have a lot of bad reputation, There customer support keeps in touch whenever you ask an update.

In case OP, Maybe there's a difference on the details you provide on your Hitbtc account and to your passport because they will not tell you that you modify something in your picture if your passport is really authentic or match with the details you provide to them. How much money we are talking about here?

I have nothing against KYC and I pass it on all exchanges. The problem is with HitBTC. They specifically do not allow you to pass the KYC in order to prevent the withdrawal of money.

I post the correspondence with HitBTC support:

That's why decentralized exchange exist e.g. bisq and hodl hodl, there's nothing to be worried when use DEX. The main problem DEX is lack of liquidity and so underrated due to less advertisement, if you search like best exchange on browser you'll find many articles only promoting CEX especially if they have paid ads.

---

HITBTC is shady exchanges and have fake volume trading, there's no reason why someone need to use this exchange.

I think there have been quite a number of fraud allegations for HitBTC exchange in the past and I don't think this is the first case to be found.

I don't have much experience trading with that exchange but I quite often find someone accusing them of being a scam exchange before. Maybe it's true and maybe it's not both of which really depends on the evidence and case finding. If you are willing, then it seems that the search option will help you find the many charges for them so far.

Like this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=search

Most platforms ask nowadays for KYC. Some are legit, some are scam. Some of the legit ones have badly configured system for handling KYC and in most cases the support answers slow (if at all).
I don't know which is the case for HitBTC. They are pretty old on the market and I don't think that they could have been surviving if would scam for so many years.

My advises would be:
1. If you indeed want to use a (any!) KYC platform, you better ensure you have passed the minimum KYC for withdrawing funds before depositing anything.
2. If you have problems with them, learn to have patience. It's nice that you've warned us (and I do appreciate that), but only their support can help you for real.

If you've used only their chat, you should try to open a ticket. If you've got automated answers on tickets ask farther until you get clear answers on what to do next. And keep in mind that unfortunately not all support employees are smart and helpful.


If indeed it's getting proven that they withhold user funds without good reason, then they'll get - sooner or later - delisted from the various platforms. But for now (and sorry if it sounds harsh) your only "proof" can be read as "your papers are not 100% right and you don't have the patience needed for this".


PS. I've had account on HitBTC many years ago, I didn't like the platform to stay, but I've withdrawn my money easily. Just it was before the KYC days.

How many exchange site you will block? And if you block all the exchange site who asks to verify your identity, then how you will trade? Regarding this robotic answer, many exchange site even on facebook frequently questions answered by the robot but robot cant answer all the question. Robot can only answer those question which has been set by the site admin.

Scammers disguise themselves as a stock exchange. When you deposit your money, they block your account, ostensibly to check documents, while any documents sent are answered with "photo changed".
In the support service, there are most likely robots who always answer either "you still need to wait" or "you sent the modified photos." I believe that such an "exchange" should be blocked on all resources, such as Coinmarketcap.