KYC and identity theft risk | Bitcointalksearch.org

bitcoinisbest

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Quote from: Netnox on March 27, 2019, 10:42:07 AM

Very valid point. I have already submitted the scanned copy of my passport to at least a dozen crypto-exchanges and this is something that I am not very comfortable with. I think I may have to depend on the decentralized exchanges to trade by tokens.

One has to be very careful while submitting the kyc documents to any exchanges or any ICO related stuff etc because if you are not sure who the team is how they will protect your documents better not to submit to the unknown ones .

hyunee

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It depends on the exchange if I will give my own identity to them. If it is Binance or Bittrex, I'll surely give my required personal information to comply with their requirements in opening an account. Since, I can recover my account much faster if it got hacked.

andulolika

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Quote from: _bitnux_ on February 20, 2018, 06:12:07 PM

Hello guys.
I'm very very far from making some kind of cash-out, but i was just wondering... How do you handle the thing of being forced to give your personal informations to exchanges to be able to convert your cryptos in fiat and transfer them on bank?
For how i see it there it's a very high possibility (if not certainty) that exchanges are selling the informations given by their costumers... and anyway there is alway the risk that they get hacked.

Knowing this, why you handled your ID and documents to exchanges? making some money it's enought to compesate the risks for you? do you use some alternative way to cash out your crypto?

For me, giving bank coordinates should be enough to allow people to cash out... The worst that can happen in that way is having your bank account hacked, but in these cases the banks give some warranties and some kind of protection/indemnity...
I don't see the necessity to provide an exchange with photos, ID, bills etc...

What do you think? do you think this system will change in the near future? what alternatives do you have?

Exchange KYC is almost acceptable or even necesary in some cases be it buyer or seller, but shitcoin shittoken shitico things are a completly different deal, you get simple graphic designing for your money and data that it is after sold on a dark market.

However some exchanges don't requiere KYC for smaller amounts and there is ways to avoid this, try localbitcoins, it's somewhat better and is user2user through escrow.
I personaly try to avoid exchanges that requiere payment for listing.

Netnox

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Quote from: enhu on March 29, 2019, 09:11:35 AM

Its too late to start closing exchange accounts when you already submitted KYC documents, even if you close those accounts, I think they may have to keep your details there. That is also the problem of the bounty hunters like me, I have submitted to these exchanges as I have to send to them the tokens listed on them.

You are right. Now I am left with very few options. It would have been much better if the bounty payments were made in ETH or BTC. But then, who cares about the bounty hunters? They are just pawns with no power.

o_e_l_e_o

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Quote from: enhu on March 29, 2019, 09:11:35 AM

That is also the problem of the bounty hunters like me, I have submitted to these exchanges as I have to send to them the tokens listed on them.

You don't have to send anything to anyone. Participating in bounties is your choice. No one is forcing you to, and certainly no one is forcing you do undergo KYC procedures. I would argue there there is no bounty campaign or any quantity of a useless token that is worth risking your identity for.

enhu

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Quote from: Netnox on March 29, 2019, 05:52:42 AM

Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on March 27, 2019, 01:28:29 PM

Quote from: Netnox on March 27, 2019, 10:42:07 AM

Very valid point. I have already submitted the scanned copy of my passport to at least a dozen crypto-exchanges and this is something that I am not very comfortable with. I think I may have to depend on the decentralized exchanges to trade by tokens.

A dozen?! Wow. Why do you even need an account on a dozen different exchanges, let alone need to go through KYC on all of them? You are trusting an awful lot of strangers and and awful lot of unknown security systems to keep your personal details safe. That seems ridiculous to me. If I were you, I would start by closing as many of those accounts as possible, and making it clear to the exchanges in question you wish for them to delete your details and copies of your documents. There is absolutely no guarantee they will, but I would at least try.

Yes... I was wrong with that decision. In the past, I used to participate in a lot of bounties. Here the problem is that these tokens are not listed in all the exchanges. At the most, they could be traded in 2 or 3 smaller platforms.

Its too late to start closing exchange accounts when you already submitted KYC documents, even if you close those accounts, I think they may have to keep your details there. That is also the problem of the bounty hunters like me, I have submitted to these exchanges as I have to send to them the tokens listed on them.

Netnox

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on March 27, 2019, 01:28:29 PM

Quote from: Netnox on March 27, 2019, 10:42:07 AM

Very valid point. I have already submitted the scanned copy of my passport to at least a dozen crypto-exchanges and this is something that I am not very comfortable with. I think I may have to depend on the decentralized exchanges to trade by tokens.

A dozen?! Wow. Why do you even need an account on a dozen different exchanges, let alone need to go through KYC on all of them? You are trusting an awful lot of strangers and and awful lot of unknown security systems to keep your personal details safe. That seems ridiculous to me. If I were you, I would start by closing as many of those accounts as possible, and making it clear to the exchanges in question you wish for them to delete your details and copies of your documents. There is absolutely no guarantee they will, but I would at least try.

Yes... I was wrong with that decision. In the past, I used to participate in a lot of bounties. Here the problem is that these tokens are not listed in all the exchanges. At the most, they could be traded in 2 or 3 smaller platforms.

ranman09

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on March 27, 2019, 01:28:29 PM

Quote from: Netnox on March 27, 2019, 10:42:07 AM

Very valid point. I have already submitted the scanned copy of my passport to at least a dozen crypto-exchanges and this is something that I am not very comfortable with. I think I may have to depend on the decentralized exchanges to trade by tokens.

A dozen?! Wow. Why do you even need an account on a dozen different exchanges, let alone need to go through KYC on all of them? You are trusting an awful lot of strangers and and awful lot of unknown security systems to keep your personal details safe. That seems ridiculous to me. If I were you, I would start by closing as many of those accounts as possible, and making it clear to the exchanges in question you wish for them to delete your details and copies of your documents. There is absolutely no guarantee they will, but I would at least try.

If the exchanges are not to be trusted I think it will be hard for us to think that they actually deleted the documents. But I agree a dozen exchanges is ridiculous, given that you handed all of them your privacy. This seems to be a permanent problem for you if those exchanges are fraudulent.

I think OTC selling and buying is the way to go but escrow services are too expensive.

adzino

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Well, if the exchange that is asking for KYC form fill up is well known, then there is a high chance your identity is safe. But you never know. Exchanges never fail to disappoint. They may be look all good from the front, but might be doing devious activity behind your back. Again, there is a chance they might get hacked like you said, and your identity documentation might get stolen.
If its not extreme necessity, then try to avoid those exchanges that look for KYC. Or just do face to face transactions.

o_e_l_e_o

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Quote from: Netnox on March 27, 2019, 10:42:07 AM

Very valid point. I have already submitted the scanned copy of my passport to at least a dozen crypto-exchanges and this is something that I am not very comfortable with. I think I may have to depend on the decentralized exchanges to trade by tokens.

A dozen?! Wow. Why do you even need an account on a dozen different exchanges, let alone need to go through KYC on all of them? You are trusting an awful lot of strangers and and awful lot of unknown security systems to keep your personal details safe. That seems ridiculous to me. If I were you, I would start by closing as many of those accounts as possible, and making it clear to the exchanges in question you wish for them to delete your details and copies of your documents. There is absolutely no guarantee they will, but I would at least try.

Netnox

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Very valid point. I have already submitted the scanned copy of my passport to at least a dozen crypto-exchanges and this is something that I am not very comfortable with. I think I may have to depend on the decentralized exchanges to trade by tokens.

Hamphser

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on March 26, 2019, 09:58:10 AM

Quote from: icalical on March 26, 2019, 08:21:46 AM

so if anything happened with my document I believe they will take full responsibility for it.

Unfortunately it's not simply a case of them taking responsibility and saying "Yup, we got hacked, our fault". Once your documents are in the wrong hands, nothing the exchange can say or do will make the situation any better. You are still the one who is going to have to file police reports, freeze all your accounts, freeze your credit, manually monitor your credit, speak to your tax agency, etc, and still be at risk of receiving debt or criminal charges against you for things you didn't do.

Whether or not the exchange will take responsibility is irrelevant.

I would say the same thing too that exchange tending to have the responsibility out of those documentation is really totally irrelevant and
i cant see a reason for them to obliged themselves about the insurance of those gathered informations.Once you sent out any info to them then expect
that you are already risking it.

o_e_l_e_o

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Quote from: icalical on March 26, 2019, 08:21:46 AM

so if anything happened with my document I believe they will take full responsibility for it.

Unfortunately it's not simply a case of them taking responsibility and saying "Yup, we got hacked, our fault". Once your documents are in the wrong hands, nothing the exchange can say or do will make the situation any better. You are still the one who is going to have to file police reports, freeze all your accounts, freeze your credit, manually monitor your credit, speak to your tax agency, etc, and still be at risk of receiving debt or criminal charges against you for things you didn't do.

Whether or not the exchange will take responsibility is irrelevant.

icalical

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I only send my document to one exchange and it is a local exchange in my country, their company is transparent and very clear, so if anything happened with my document I believe they will take full responsibility for it. However I also use some other exchange to trade my coins, but all of them does not require KYC or any personal document, like Binance, CoinExchange, and STEX.
And basically I don't think it is possible to trade your crypto and exchange it to Fiat money without sending any personal document, you just need to pick the exchange you can trust.

joniboini

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Quote from: carlfebz2 on March 25, 2019, 01:16:25 PM

I'm even surprised that this exchange is still breathing nowadays with their shitty service plus too high fees, I'm not expecting that there are still some certain
users who do engage with this one.Im really aware on Hitbtc issue and as you had described about those different questions, it always been part of the plan on where
to annoy people on complying the requirement until they got tired and leave the funds inside their account.What a very shady behavior of theirs.

HitBTC still exist because shit tokens can get listed there, and attract crazy speculators to buy them after they dumped to -1000x. Not really a good thing for the ecosystem, but at the same time it shows that the market is filled with ignorance and foolishness.

I believe they'll still exist for the next few years at least.

carlfebz2

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Quote from: 1Referee on March 24, 2019, 08:05:00 PM

Quote from: magneto on March 24, 2019, 06:32:33 PM

Just look at previous cases with respect to HitBTC KYC, and the lengths that they ask you to answer questions at, that relevant legislation probably doesn't even cover.

Hitbtc is an exchange known to ask 1001 different questions, all an attempt to annoy people long enough so that they drop their account with the funds inside. It's horrible that people have to go through this, but they chose to register there and deposit funds, and that while Hitbtc has been a shitcoin exchange with tons of problems since the very beginning.

In most cases, people (luckily) hold very little funds in their account there, so the loss isn't all that significant, but if you have tens of thousands of people dropping their account with a few hundred $$ worth of funds in it, then it adds up to a solid amount after a while for Hitbtc.

Another thing is that due to their withdrawal problems, it might even be an exchange that operates a fractional reserve system. Horrible exchange this is.

I'm even surprised that this exchange is still breathing nowadays with their shitty service plus too high fees, I'm not expecting that there are still some certain
users who do engage with this one.Im really aware on Hitbtc issue and as you had described about those different questions, it always been part of the plan on where
to annoy people on complying the requirement until they got tired and leave the funds inside their account.What a very shady behavior of theirs.

1Referee

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Quote from: magneto on March 24, 2019, 06:32:33 PM

Just look at previous cases with respect to HitBTC KYC, and the lengths that they ask you to answer questions at, that relevant legislation probably doesn't even cover.

Hitbtc is an exchange known to ask 1001 different questions, all an attempt to annoy people long enough so that they drop their account with the funds inside. It's horrible that people have to go through this, but they chose to register there and deposit funds, and that while Hitbtc has been a shitcoin exchange with tons of problems since the very beginning.

In most cases, people (luckily) hold very little funds in their account there, so the loss isn't all that significant, but if you have tens of thousands of people dropping their account with a few hundred $$ worth of funds in it, then it adds up to a solid amount after a while for Hitbtc.

Another thing is that due to their withdrawal problems, it might even be an exchange that operates a fractional reserve system. Horrible exchange this is.

magneto

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Quote from: Samarkand on February 21, 2018, 05:33:22 AM

Quote from: magneto on February 21, 2018, 03:27:20 AM

...

AFAIK, exchanges will actually try to bypass verification as far as possible and allowed. Because they know that they'll get a much larger following and user base by doing that instead of requiring strict identification.
...

In my opinion only the less legitimate exchanges (Bitfinex, CEX and similar exchanges) will try
to bypass verification as far as possible.

The licensed and regulated exchanges are actually pretty eager to conform to the expectations
of the regulatory bodies. E.g. exchanges like Bitstamp take KYC pretty seriously as anyone, who ever
had to fill out one of their KYC forms can confirm.

Besides, some exchanges are even acting in advance of passed legislation:
Japanese Crypto Exchanges Unite to Form Self-Regulatory Group

What about exchanges such as Binance, and poloniex/bittrex before they were pressured into adding KYC?

Exchanges have a significant benefit to gain if they do not implement KYC.

If they do implement KYC, it is either because of regulatory pressure that force them into doing so, or, they are most likely doing it with some malicious intent to hold customer funds with KYC being somewhat of an excuse. That's the two most likely reasons, no one wants to be compliant just for the sake of it.

Just look at previous cases with respect to HitBTC KYC, and the lengths that they ask you to answer questions at, that relevant legislation probably doesn't even cover.

countryfree

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This is just another reason to stick to the big and oldest exchanges, and avoid their newbies competitors. The same rules apply to some EMIs which only accept remote account opening. Better go out to the high street, and open an account at the bank which has the largest building. This is a XIX° century rule, but it's still valid today.

Melo20

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An important warning to those of us in the crypto space. Its funny, we're so protective of our Private Keys yet have no problem sending such sensitive documents across the internet for KYC/AML. Its Identity Theft waiting to happen and we as a community need to address the problem before hacks become commonplace.

let's just be very careful... Especially where we have loads of scam projects requesting for kyc.

Topic: KYC and identity theft risk (Read 358 times)