Topic: Scam called ''INACTIVITY FEES'' - HitBTC (Read 319 times)

Before registering on an exchange you must read the regulation carefully and in full. If they inserted this clause after registration they had to communicate it promptly and make sure that all users are aware of it before its application, however if the altcoins you are interested in are present even on other exchanges simply stop using it and close the account

I second that.

Yesterday I experienced the same problems. No more moving coins to my wallet and the “inactivity fee”.
Currently my 133k dogecoin are locked, and 4k of inactivity fee are gone.

I joined the exchange in 2017 and have been doing some trading there, moving btc in and out, all went well at the time.
The last 3 years I’ve been holding my Doge at HitBtc.

I never received an email about their new inactivity and fee mechanism.
Neither about my doge being stuck.


 Unable to move my coins to a personal wallet.


Yesterdays 1 doge value in btc was : 0.0000029BTC
The rate offered : 0.00000017986 btc

I have not received any notification in this regard, and no one in my situation has. And yet, it is not normal to seize a man's property at will.
Regarding the accepted terms and conditions, I repeat, when I agreed and accepted, these abusive clauses, called inactivity fees, were not introduced, but were introduced later, without being announced in any way.

if the deposit and withdrawal are still open when you can't withdraw the exchanger is wrong. but if the coin is delisted and you have been given a long time to withdraw but you don't do it. and the market has been closed for a long time and then you can't withdraw anymore. the fault is not the exchanger but yourself.
and from your writing the exchanger has given an announcement that withdrawals are served until October 2023 and it is your fault for not withdrawing.

With all the fact given, it's obvious you are wrong about them stealing you money. At least you should have taken your time to read their terms of use and conditions, that would have saved you the stress of using such exchange. However next time I recommend you read carefully and understand their terms before agreeing to them. On the other hand, exchange are not good place for us to store our coins and this is enough reason to back my point. They are working on platform and paying their bills from the little commissions they get from things like this and others. So keeping your coins in a non custodial wallet is the best for long term holding.

Thank you for your support.
Besides the fact that they charged me abusively, they don't even allow me to withdraw my coins.
I think that by publicly exposing and making the truth come out about their theft techniques, it is possible to achieve something. Together.

Sorry to know the ordeal you have been through but try reaching out to their support channels if that can help but we cannot expect much positive from this exchange as I have too many complaints in regards to this exchange.

But you will not be able to prove them wrong because these sort of details will be mentioned somewhere in the lengthy terms and conditions which you agree which signing up for it.

And yet what can we do legally in this situation?
There are many others like me...

Thank you for your answer and support.
I contacted them from my personal email, from which I created the hit btc account, and they answered me the following:


Dear Trader,

Thank you for your reply.

I am sorry to tell you that additional time is needed to research your case. I have escalated your request to our team, and we are already looking into this for you.
​
We will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!
--
Best regards,
Diana Vargas
HitBTC Support Team

I have seen so many SCAM accusation about HitBTC for the last a few year, they stolen funds for many users, so why you still using this worst exchange, i think they have rules to charges fees for inactive account, So you should read their rules before opening an account here. Whatever you can contact in their support but i think they will never refund it as they're SCAM.

This is really bad and it's the reason why new investors that comes into the crypto market and stumbles on these scam exchanges and projects will label the entire crypto space as scam. I wonder why scam exchanges like Hitbtc, are still in business after it's been proven over the years that they're not a reputable exchange, your experience and the OP present predicament says a lot about them. I hope he gets justice and recover his coins.

The lesson here is that we need to verify the reputation of exchanges before using their services, and research new projects before deciding to invest in any, because frankly it's not everybody that has the patience to read every details of terms and conditions.

I guess even if they don't do that charging due to inactivity I still doubt that you can get your funds stuck their since Hitbtc is a shady exchange and I believe that they are already done offering their exchange then the only thing they wait is for people to come on their exchange and scam them.

Best to move on since hunting then and ask for payment since somehow its not really worth on the attention yoy spend on then since they are scam and might doesn't gave plan to pay those people who trust this fund on their organization.

You already have a thread that is similar to this thread on the scam section

SCAMMED by HitBTC

So I recommend that you close this thread and update us of any development on the thread you created in the scam section.

On the time that you have an account and trading here on HitBtc did you made dilligent research on the status of HitBTC, there's a lot of scam reports and there are scam reports way back 2017 that until now were not resolve and the HitBtc owners don't care to resolved.

If you Google HitBtc you will see a lot of platforms like Reddit and Quora discussing HitBtc manipulative behavior to scam their users.

I don't think they will address your issue as they are not responsive to complaints, but its good that you posted your bad experience here, this will become a reference on their behavior and status. 

Have you checked if they're available for trading? if so, trade them with a working coin and get out off hitbtc.

edit: or did you mean withdrawals for every coin is blocked?

Inactivity fees? This is the first time I heard of this being implemented on an exchange, but if it's on their TOS, I guess you agreed with it since you created an account without reading their TOS, and just clicked on that small box at the bottom. Their exchange, their rules. TBH, I didn't expect that this exchange would still be operating despite its popularity going down for years already because of new exchanges getting that limelight.

As for your "stolen" funds, you said that you can't withdraw them right? You have the chance to exchange it into a coin that you can withdraw on their exchange, but choose to hold that token that you can't even withdraw (possible shitcoin). Maybe your inactivity is the reason why you didn't exchange that token into another coin, but in the end, it's your fault because you know that you have tokens on that exchange and yet, you choose to be inactive.

"You paid them," you said. Paid what? You only deposit your coins to them, and basically, you can withdraw them anytime they want. Paying = giving money to them, and not getting it back.
With regards to help, nobody can help you here because only the exchange owners are the ones that will help you. Don't have high hopes TBH, because there's a chance that they will not give it back to you. Sad truth, but that's the reality.

considering what other have mentioned they have written such term and conditions so therefore they are just following the previously agreed term and conditions accordingly but in your case you can't withdraw because they disabled withdrawal, if i remember correctly usually any normal exchange will give time windows when they are disabling withdrawal (excluding sudden maintenances which eventually gonna be enabled again) until people can't withdraw anymore. im no expert at law here though, you can try directly just contact their service.
this is also good example why its never a good idea dealing with these kind of exchange, really if anyone out there want to use the service of an exchange find the most legit ones.
we are talking about real money here.
try to contact them directly with your account or at least same email to withdraw your coin, try your luck there.

I did not believe when I read your story that there are still people using this platform, and that the platform is still active at all. Hitbtc was one of the most famous platforms and was known for its suspicious activities without any interest from its management in establishing a good reputation. I remember once reading that they could list any new currency for a fee for a certain period without verifying the integrity conditions of its project, meaning that Hitbtc was benefiting from scammers' help in listing worthless currencies.
I am sorry to inform you that your chances of recovering your savings are very weak because no one has the authority to influence Hitbtc if support stops communicating with you. You should have done your research before choosing where to put your savings.

That's sad but you have to check every update where you are depositing your coins. This is the reason why it's always said that "not your keys, not your coins". With that, they can charge and suck your coins until you ran out of zero. And that's the reason why many just pull out their funds on these exchanges when they don't even have plans of visiting it once in a while. That inactivity fee is part of their rules and you can't do anything with that and as for that withdrawals that are blocked for that coin, contact and ask them to allow you to withdraw the remaining amount that you have there.

The problem is that even now I can not withdraw what I have left because the withdrawals are blocked.

I'm shocked that there are people that still use exchanges like HitBTC when much better alternatives are available. I was a HITBTC user in the early days because they used to some of the good ones. Then they fell off hard. HitBTC is in the same category of exchanges like cryptopia (we all know how that one turned out).


I can assure you, as long as that condition was in their terms of service and you confirmed your agreement at registration, you are never getting the money back. My advice is withdraw your funds from them and stop using it indefinitely.

First, let me point out that this thread is not supposed to be on this board, but in the exchange board, which the link is https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=223.0, so, @op, if you can move it this thread to that board, would be nice.

Anyways, hitbtc is still one of the most scam cryptocurrency exchanges around till date, I personally stopped using them a long time ago, I still have some of my coins trapped there which I was unable to withdraw until I decide to leave it with them, I am not surprised that they have introduced a inactivity fees, this they did so that they can finally have the legal right to withdraw and keep for themselves, funds their users left on the exchange and may possibly come back for.

Avoid Hitbtc at all cost, they are a known scam cryptocurrency exchange.

I created my account long before these clauses were introduced, so I know exactly what I accepted.
Considering the amount I lost, it is quite big for me and I will not allow it to stay like this. At the same time, I want others to know this and not go through what I am going through.

I chose this exchange because it was the only place where my currency was listed and I could trade it, not for any promise of "huge profits", as was hinted to me in a previous post.

They implemented the inactive account fee condition in 2021, as shown in the attached image containing the terms of use for the HitBTC platform. So, if you created your account after 2021 and read what they mentioned carefully, you should know this.


[SOURCE]

This [article], written on October 18, 2021, mentioned that HitBTC had suspended the BTX currency due to the very low market volume of BTX pairs. But the good news is that you can submit a manual withdrawal request and fill out the form using this [link] to withdraw the disintegrated BTX currency from HitBTC. I advise you to read also the following article: “[What happens if a coin is disintegrated.]”

I hope that I have been helpful to you and that you can withdraw the BTX coins you wish to withdraw. Frankly, I have not used HitBTC before, and I do not know the extent of their credibility. Still, again, when using any CEX, you must fully review their terms of use as they can change them at any time, even if you do not get a notification from them or are away from the Internet; it will be a mistake on one part. Again, do not leave your assets on any centralized exchange platforms for the long term because they are unsafe, and use the top CEX platforms when trading.

Op you can still move the thread to this Scam Accusations Board here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0. I also have some few questions to ask you before also making my little comment. Did you read their Terms and  Conditions before proceeding for the registration? Or did you make small research on the exchange to know if it was Decentralized Exchange or Centralized Exchange. Because the way you sounded and the reply conversation between you guys look like a centralized exchange and if it is centralized exchange the you supposed know that, there is popular saying that, "not your key and not you coins".

Probably you join the exchange because of their juicy promises and finally you fill for it and your were trapped down and today you complain. You have to pm their customer service support team to know your faith because I don't think anyone here can help unless you suie the company in the law court.

As said above you might missed them to read because these kind of information will be buried under documents that we don't give attention to and even if you're strong that you have been cheated by the platform it's not going to be easy to take legal actions against such entity. So if the amount charged is manageable then accept and move on, withdraw any balance left in their and pick the right platform in future and always remember exchanges are not meant for long term holding.

Your feelings are valid. I do not know all of the details but it would seem to me like they did not really tell you anything about why would they have blocked withdrawals from your account. Usually, people are told by exchanges that they have done something suspicious or alarming that the exchange tries to block any way of withdrawal and from then the exchange and the customer would work hand in hand to resolve any sort of misunderstandings.

In this case, they are not even trying to hide anything. I hope you get your money back and no other customer goes through this.

I hate to defend hitbtc but I don't think so. Inactivity fee was actually introduced couple of years ago so if you have been charged for the first time on 10-10-2023, it would mean, the clauses for inactivity fee were already present the moment you registered because accounts are considered inactive after 6 months.

On a different note, hitbtc has been displaying shady practices for years and they remain fine up to this day lol. They have also been ignoring multitude of scam accusations posted about them on different places. So honestly, even if you have a case on this one, it's likely you won't get your money back.

You're wrong, sir!
I read them carefully and I know exactly what I accepted.
There were no such taxes, but they were introduced later "illegally".

Not informing about changes is illegal. In 11.3 they guarantee to do so and by the way they violate the law in countries where they offer their service. That's how a thieve justifies his theft.

First of all, thank you for your support, I have already complained to the site's support team, and they left me on hold.
I will open a topic and where you indicated. Thank you once again!
I want my coins back because I paid them a lot and they valued them for nothing, they were taken from me illegally, without having the possibility to withdraw them (THEFT). And at the same time I want to sound the alarm so that no one else will suffer what I suffered!
It is certain that I will not leave until I recover my coins that they stole from me.
I WILL DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY. FROM THE BEGINNING!!!!!

First of all, we should have been informed somehow about these fees and changes to the regulation.
When I gave my consent and accepted the terms and conditions of registration on hitbtc, there was no such problem of inactivity fees. They were introduced later without being announced in any way.
According to the legislation of many countries, this is a type of theft.
And in the second place, charging me and not giving me the opportunity to withdraw my coins seems like THEFT again!!!!

1. Exchange have their term for their service
2. The user it's also at fault in these case.

People should know, (Exchange) it's not a wallet. It's not recommended to hold your asset and leave it without monitoring them, because (not your key, not your crypto). There always have some potential, the exchange getting hacked & asset you are hold in their exchange is getting delisted and you don't know these.

      I know that hitbtc has had a lot of issues because of withdrawal issues and so on, in that matter op I don't think I can help you in that matter. But have you tried sending a message
to their support about that? Because when the concern issue is like that, the chances of getting your funds back from the platform that you didn't release are usually low.

      Maybe try to make a scam accusation in this section op https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0 this is if you have evidence that is held outside of hitbtc, good luck to you
and sorry for your loss.

HitBTC reputation was tainted a long time ago that was enough for users to avoid the exchange since then. its withdrawal fee was very high as well even back in 2017, a lot of people already sense they will become a scam exchange one day and it did.

you can already tell there are less users in the exchange that they are not making enough money so deciding to collect fees from inactive users i guess is another way to make money. is logging in at least considered an activity in the exchange?

Exchanges have their own terms and conditions which you agreed to while creating your account, probably you didn't even read anything in TOS, just clicked agree and created it that's why it comes to your knowledge only after it happens.

The reputation of the exchange is not great either and the coin you're talking about is traded on any other exchange or just on HitBTC?

I greet you,
I want to point out the following problem I am having with the HitBtc website.
As a result of this "inactivity fees" about which I was not informed in any way, and when I agreed to create my account on this exchange there was no such problem, I was left without more than half of the only coins I had on the exchange, namely BitCore BTX.
The problem is the following, on 10-10-2023 I was charged for the first time with this inactivity fee and a considerable number of coins were practically STOLEN FROM MY WALLET.
WHY STOLEN??? BECAUSE THE SITE HAS BLOCKED WITHDRAWALS for BTX long before 10-10-2023. Practically, my coins were STOLEN considering that I was not given the opportunity to withdraw them from the exchange that was stealing from me.
Thank you and I hope you will help me in solving the problem and that I can recover my STOLEN coins.
I paid them a lot and now they were evaluated to me close to zero.

GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK !!!

I am sorry if I post in a wrong place!