Topic: Intersango Exchange - page 14. (Read 82085 times)

I'm on the IRC channel and these boards.  My deposit was delayed about 12 days, and an order of magnitude larger than any of the noise I've read so far.  I'm not a shill, know no one working there, and didn't even file a ticket.  Although I think they could communicate better, everything they have said makes sense and I haven't felt any concern at all.

Remember our current financial system sucks, and is burdened with insane regulations where if you don't escalate issues, even those that seem trivial, you can run afoul of AML regulations and be prosecuted as a criminal.

People should just chill out a bit and stop assuming everything is a scam.

(If it wasn't clear my deposit cleared fine, on Wednesday)

actually I get ya now

Filing returns late doesn't necessarily wave a massive red flag. I'm late with mine

Regarding Intersango... well I'm an FPGA miner and trade mined BTC for GBP, then send directly to a dedicated account in the UK. No KYC issues as it's easy to find out who I am, plus I live in the UK most of the time.

Currently the three previous trades went through OK and the three previous 'withdrawals' have not. Some of the withdrawals were made during the 'lockdown' period, however I was expecting the GBP (not much, only around £300-odd) to be transferred starting the 31st July.

Now I can't access https://intersango.com at all - I just get 'down for maintenance be back shortly' - rather terse and hasn't changed since I chucked a trade in around 3am.

I've been using Intersango since it was britcoin.co.uk... so not some recent customer. Think it's been over a year now.

Any other long-term UK customers getting no joy at their website? Can't even post the obvious support ticket... and I'm familiar enough with corporate banking AML procedures (having designed a global bank's KYC / CAAML procedure in the past) to know that firing emails off to Bitcoin Consultancy directors is an over-reaction until there's more info.

Hell, I've given it a few days before even checking these forums for news. The trouble is that there are people with personal agendas, grudges, confusion and also those attributing all bitcoinica losses to Intersango here - a load of FUD mixed up with genuine info.

I did think there was only *so* long Intersango could operate without a proper KYC policy - I seem to recall emailing them about this a long time ago hawking my experience (heh) but it's a lot easier to repaper existing clients than shut down in a scam and re-open... the reputation of the directors will be forever besmirched by such an action. There's nothing in it for them - given the size of Intersango's book, keeping the business open with their withdrawal and trading fees, whilst engendering the sort of positive responses seen much earlier in the thread, will be more profitable than stealing from a bunch of people that include professional traders, financial pros, lawyers, and other sorts that will give them a *seriously* hard time if stolen from.

These guys aren't anonymous. And nobody is stealing my BTC (which are legally dubious) - I traded them as soon as I transferred them... so they'd be directly stealing my GBP balance. This is different, and if Intersango wash their hands of GBP withdrawals that 'got lost', then pressure could be applied to Metro Bank, under the pretext of doing business without adequate KYC (aka criminal charges against bank's head of compliance). This wouldn't end well for the well-known directors. So I'd be surprised if the entire gig was a scam.

Comparisons with Bitcoinica are not helpful here - it sounds much more like a compliance issue with their chosen UK bank partner than large losses due to hacked wallets or accounts. And the Intersango back end is Consultancy's code... whereas AFAIK Bitcoinica's *original* source wasn't.

I must say that it's bloody unhelpful because all it does is concentrate the BTC economy's FX to the 'outside world' at one well known exchange... i.e. a single point of failure or attack by governments opposed to Bitcoin. We need multiple, secure exchanges for Bitcoin to flourish.

And as I finish writing this, their website is back up. My withdrawals, however, are still waiting. Just a backlog?

What does that mean to a noob like me ?

I would feel more refreshed and helped if the money i gave intersango about 3 weeks ago was credited to my account istead of lies ,excuses and more lies 

thats a very refreshing and helpful reply.

 

I'm pretty sure everyone here is too cheap to do that, so here you go: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1306522/Intersango.zip

Read my post on the previous page. I wouldn't touch Intersango with a 10-foot pole.

It took me 8 days to recieve funds from MTGox via Euro Bank Transfer. Can you promise me you will do it faster? Because then I will change to you.

This means that they have failed to file "annual return" on time with companies house and pay filing fee of 25£ or so. This often happens with limited companies that have no accountant or have amateurish directors. It takes about 10 minutes to file that return online. Sometimes it is a red flag rising suspicion that they do not intend to continue trading. But more often than not it is just a minor oversight that is easy to fix.

BTW, anyone can pay 1£ to companies house and receive more information on the company, i.e. directors, shareholders, adresses etc...

Companies House :- http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/3f8049e72bed9f5af8c463183822a2f9/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

And you're doing it again. Members of the forum are doing the job that should be done by Intersango. "They" have made no announcement/update here. Why do we have to search for our own updates all the time. Again, fail. As to the contents of their website announcement: Who knows.

I am losing hope by the hour it's just all too much uncertainty at once, the excuses just don't add up and considering they've been supposedly clearing the backlog for the last 2 days there seems very few people posting in these threads about having actually received any funds into their account....

Where did you find this information?

All publicly avalible info :-

Accounting Reference Date: 30/06
Last Accounts Made Up To:  (NO ACCOUNTS FILED)
Next Accounts Due: 27/03/2013
Last Return Made Up To:
Next Return Due: 25/07/2012 OVERDUE

 

This needs remembering all the time. We've got so used to digital "tokens" being virtual and worthless that we forget that Bitcoin is neither "real world" money nor "virtual tokens".

Up until now, money has been subject to a gargantuan amount of legal backing (aka regulation). Bitcoin is (currently) free of all that, but more out of obscurity than design. We're all still working out just how it works, and how it fits in. The issues with banks is the same as the issues around hacking thefts and even companies adopting Bitcoin (or not) - integration of something entirely new - or at least hybrid.

As an Intersango user, do I like the disruption? Of course not. Do I understand it? Absolutely. Will I go somewhere else? Maybe, maybe not.

For now, I still find it better to get excited by Bitcoin as an idea, and by people willing to build systems I never could, than to get annoyed by the rifts caused by this massive new system settling into place.

YMMV.

HSBC investigating bitcoin transactions, while terrorist funding and narco money goes trough like hot knife in butter. LOL.

sounds like scammers buying more time
this is about the 7th excuse ive had in 3 weeks
they are criminals and i will also make a police report if i dont get my cash (its GBP (not btc ) so i imagine the report will be taken as seriously as any other fraud case

Bitcoin exchanges have been experiencing harassment from investigations now for years.

I remember we had the exact same thing happen a couple of years ago and it kept happening with various banks since then. I think we've gone through LloydsTSB and HSBC and Metrobank now and that's just in the UK.

Yet still idiots use banks, get your funds frozen during a silent investigation... and blame the exchange. When that fails the the ego kicks in and you blame the support ticket, because the Intersango guys picked up a wrongun with the Bitcoinica shananagans. Your mistake suckers!

If this does teach people the need for decentralised exchange I don't know what does.

Metrobank is in a long line of banks that we've gone through. They are touted as a new bank that doesn't shaft people like most banks. For consumer banking they're doing alright on that front.
But the fact remains that they are obliged by law to carry out these silent investigations. Lots of transactions that one gets in an exchange triggers exactly that. It looks exactly like laundering.

I think there is merit in owning a number of accounts if not only to show that it's the bank rather than the exchange.

So tell me, now that you've got burnt, how would you do it differently next time?

I Will believe it when I have my money........
 
The IRC Channel Intersango is full of people "sideing"  with them which believes me to think they have people in the channel trying to down talk people's arguments.
 
Phatomcircuit will speak for a bit but just copy and pastes the same info to me time and time again. 
 
I don't understand how they have access to the account but cant make deposits to our Intersango account ? Technical errors are usually fixed ASAP for customers, especially a company thats constantly having deposits made to there account. Is it that they have access but have a load of payments with no Payee ref that we put and there just going through the backlog then when they match our lost or sorry "in Limbo" (as I was quoted) money with date/time ac number etc it will appear....
 
I appreciate the update but is it really THAT helpful ? They should be taking this VERY seriously and updating the status at least daily/half daily ? 
 
This is my first experience of Intersango and its been a very off putting one. I wont be advising anyone I know to buy/invest in BTC from Intersango as this has been a COMPLETE fiasco. I work for one of the biggest companies in the world and we officially have one of the highest customer satisfaction rates in the UK. I couldnt talk about my companies and Intersango's customer support on the same day its that bad.
 
If its not in my account by Saturday I WILL be seeking legal advice.
 
*rant over*