Topic: Internal CEX transfer question (Read 143 times)

What i mentioned are all the options when sending internally on CEX. Now if you never shared one of those (wallet address, email, uid or phone) that's weird and suspicious.

That's too risky for the scammers to do so, sending such amount for not too sure "profit" for their end. Plus i never heard anything like this for any scam or scam attempt before, although the possibility that this will happen is not zero but i could only think that its rare.

They don't need to know my wallet because UID is automatically connected to my wallet address. Sender doesn't even see my full address or my full email after sending.

To my knowledge i haven't shared my UID, or the fact that i have an account in said CEX, or with what my insanely rare email i would have used for it.
I haven't even used this exchange to anything else then sending some of my alts to sell early when they weren't listed in anywhere else.

Also i am starting to think, that most likely there wouldn't ne anything but ethical consequences for me, if i chose to keep the money, because no one is interested about ~$20 bucks, and i could always argue that it was payment from something and now the sender has the sold product and wants to scam me by requesting the money back.

If i would run an exchange, i would definitely charge money to deal with things like these, and sending email to all the participants would take valuable time.

I have thought trough some possibilities on what has happened and can't figure out any scams that would work this way. Most plausible idea is typo, and other one is that my account is rather old and my UID could have one less digits then new accounts. So that someone accidentally copied one less digit from an UID and ended up pasting mine. But that would be lottery jackpot level of probability.

It still required wallet address. Some exchange withdrawal page, if you put a wallet address it will detect automatically if the wallet came from the same exchange, there's a note that the transfer will internal transfer, thus probably this user have already met you online for transaction.
Although there are withdrawal page for internal transfer that requires either phone, email and uid, now if you never shared this info before probably the wallet address option was used to send.

Also, it should be noted that theres always a note that exchange will not refund it if you send to a wrong address or have wrong info. So if the sender contacts the CS they will probably has lower chance to send it backs to them. Although, for you, contacting CS is probably the best choice you can do to avoid possible future problems either on the platform or on your mind.
On the other hand I'll consider it as a gift, until someone sends you a notice to return it them within a week.

yes it's true it could be a donation but it could simply be that someone wanted to send you money (maybe they are distributing for free)

honestly I don't know of any centralized exchange that allows this, also because for AML purposes it could be a little suspicious (example batches of money sent to many people).

The best solution is to ask CEX what he thinks and if he has more details.

Yeah $20 isn’t a huge amount, but it’s still the sender’s money, and like you said, morally, it feels right to try and return it. If it were me, I’d probably go ahead and contact the helpdesk too, just to cover all bases and avoid any possible issues down the road. It’s possible they might reverse the transaction, but at least you’ll have done your part by informing them. Sometimes these things happen due to simple mistakes like typing the wrong ID, but addressing it is better than leaving it to chance.

I don’t know what exchange you are using, but I checked binance internal transfer faq page and it says that transfers "cannot be recovered if you enter the incorrect details" and on the Send page they say "refunds are not supported". So, I don’t think customer support will intervene in this situation especially that we are talking about a small amount.
I believe all other exchanges have the same policy.

Anyway, Z-tight might be right that this is someone you have interacted with before. Check your transactions history to find out who it is.

Could it be someone you have done business with in the past, and the person still has your user ID saved somewhere. I don't know how centralized exchanges assign user ID's to customers, but when sending funds internally, will a mistake in one of the ID numbers mean you are sending it to a different user or will it show an error of 'invalid ID'? Like you have been advised, better to contact support and get it sorted out.

Certainly, the best solution is to contact support and report the most likely mistake in question. In the end, the funds can be from a hacked account or anything illegal that can only complicate things later.
Also, if he reports it, it can make it easier for the sender to prove the mistake and enable refunds.

For this reason, I would contact customer support and ask about it. The amount is too small to risk potential hassles later, which could even result in your account being blocked if you have already used the money.


You can contact customer support anonymously, from a different device and IP address so that they cannot directly link your question to your account. You can also ask a hypothetical question without giving any specific information.

Can't you remember if you happen to post your user ID or email from your account in an open or public forum like bitcointalk? To be safe, I'd also contact the support on this matter since it's a small amount and not yours. It's improbable that internal transactions could go wrong with how you input emails/user #(ID). I guess that the sender of it just made an honest mistake so, you're doing the right thing on Monday. If so, the sender will also do the same thing of contacting the support about such but it depends on the policy of that exchange about return and/or mistaken sent funds.

If this would be bank, and with large amount, i would have already contacted them, because that has happened before in my country and it's a huge criminal offence in here to spend it. But this amount is peanuts.

I was wondering that myself, but apparently only thing you need is user id. And for what ever reason, sender must typed it and made mistake rather then copy pasting it. Because i am certain that my email is just too rare for anyone using by mistake, especially if they are not living in my country.

I am probably contacting the helpdesk next monday. I want to believe that sender might put a good deed forward later on.

If it is me, I will prefer to contact the customer care and tell them what happened. This reminds lme of huge amount of money sent to my bank account last year, I contacted the customer care because I do not want to put myself in trouble. Although, the person that sent the money contacted me and I sent her back the money which I think is more appropriate but I make sure that the customer care knows about it.

It depends what exchange exactly you are using and their reputation, but record of this internal transaction will stay forever so I wouldn't spend this money.
I don't understand how someone can send you coins by mistake internally if they don't know your account username or email address.
If you ask me it's better contact support and explain your situation.

Hi,

As i know CEXes have policies to handle mistaken internal transactions, but it varies by platform.

If the sender reports the error, the exchange might reverse the transaction if they can verify the mistake. However, if you withdraw or trade it, the exchange could still reclaim the funds later from you, possibly leading to complications with your account.

Yhr honorable thing to do is to contact support to k ow the source of the money, because at  times exchange give free money to the customers in this form also as internal deposits, I am not saying that is the case in this situation, but it's a possibility and only support can tell the true nature and origin of the money.

Don't expect to be charged a fee for either sending back or reversal thing and in fact since it internal deposit, it make it easier since there will be zero fee tendency on internal transactions.

The policy will depend on the exchange it happened on and will likely be one they make up for this particular case. Most policies are made between the service and a user, usually does not extend to 3rd parties like someone else mistakenly sending you funds.

I doubt the exchange will reverse the payment. The sender will take a lot to prove the transaction was a mistake and the should still have to contact you to corroborate that story. If it were that easy anyone can send a payment, only to complain latter it was done erroneously.

An internal transaction does not incur any fees, so the sender can receive the money back as it is. Contacting the help desk may be your best action, you do not know the source of the funds, so it's better to have a documented inquiry into why you received it, showing you're not aware of the source.

Someone who i don't know just send me ~$20 worth of cryptos via internal transaction in a popular cex. i haven't contacted helpdesk to ask what's happened yet, because obviously this was just a mistake.

Now what i would like to know that what's the policy in such cases? Will they eventually reverse the transaction if the sender wants that? Will they try to charge me later on if i withdraw or trade that with a leverage?

I mean the amount is peanuts and from what i understand helpdesks ask way more money to deal with transactions to wrong chain for example. But i don't know what's the case with internal transaction mistakes.

Morally i know that i should send it back, even though i don't know the sender's account, but if i ask about that from helpdesk, i am not sure how they would even react. Would they just confiscate it and charge the fee from sender to recover the money, which will probably be more then the money i recived.