Topic: SCAM EXCHANGE MONITOR: BestChange - page 4. (Read 1446 times)

The jurisdiction to which the exchanger is subject is currently completely independent of the international legal AML rules (due to sanctions).

We don’t have a notion of a “negative review” on our website, the red marks unsolved financial claims to the service. Maybe it’s not the most obvious UX-design, but our service is over 15 years old, out of which for 13 years it has been exactly in this design and loyal users know about this feature.


The icon is obligatory only if KYC is obligatory for every (or for the absolute majority) of transactions. It there are random KYC-check for transactions with high level of AML-risk, we don’t make exchangers set this icon. However, we always urge users to get acquainted with the exchange rules before the operation, after coming to the exchanger’s website.



Please understand that AML does not threaten the integrity of bitcoin ecosystem as such, but it only limits the work with gateways between the traditional financial system and the crypto world. Whether you want it or not, but if you wish to exchanger bitcoin to dollars or rubles, you have to be so kind as to comply with the rules for handling fiat currencies, and they imply a tough policy of AML legislation in many countries of the world. With that, if you make deals within the crypto community nobody and never will censor your operations, this is the essence of decentralization.

Meanwhile, you want to shift the principles of decentralization to centralized services, such as exchanges, exchangers and simple shops operating in KYC-enabled jurisdictions. This position is quite popular and understandable, but it is fundamentally wrong and contrary to the laws of many countries.
Use bitcoin within cryptocurrency ecosystem, and don’t try to exchange it to fiat currency, then you won’t have to complaint at “AML-discrimination”.


When funds are frozen on an AML basis, the jurisdiction of the exchanger itself rarely plays a role, because they often follow instructions from the custodial service that they use to receive and store cryptocurrency. Such services are subject to all international AML legislation of the countries in which they operate (in fact, all world). Therefore, your references and hints are inappropriate.



Thank you for having paid attention to this problem. But we would like to remind you that we don’t have “negative reviews”, we only have “financial claims”. This is why we have an automatic system that switches the exchanger off when it has several active claims. We understand that this is a somewhat old-fashioned scheme of work with financial claims, but it was implemented for the sake of protection from "consumer terrorism" in the absence of our moderators.

Currently, our staff number has increased sufficiently to process the majority of these cases manually, that’s why we are already working on changing this system — soon exchangers will have a very limited number of attempts to lift a claim on their own, without our interference. Please wait for this update, we are already thinking about all the details.

Yep, this is most probably correct.


Indeed, let's see what happens in the next few days. If they still keep the funds, the situation becomes clear.


This is indeed a system that can be abused by the exchanges. Not good.

Knowing the mentality of the country in whose jurisdiction such a legal exchanger is opened, I can say with 100% probability that not a single confiscated amount will be transferred to the authorities under any circumstances. Those legal legal clippings they refer to are a formality, as the letter of the law requires them to do so. Not to mention the nominee directors of this exchanger (as is often the case).

Therefore, if the funds are not returned to the user at the address from which they came, I will consider this precedent as a fraud. This is even quite ironic and somewhat similar to the fact that a gray office confiscates the user's supposedly gray money, referring to the law.

Well said

Unfortunately Bitcoin is not fungible. Unfortunately, since the history of each and every input is viewable by anybody, various businesses can easily become picky in where your coins are coming from or what you are doing with them.

BestChange's case is not unique. Afaik some bigger exchanges may be doing the same. BestChange could mark these exchanges they redirect to, in a way or another, but... there will still be some who fail to read the signs and such classification may also not be great for the business.
What has happened to OP is pretty much not unique also.

I don't understand why people don't read everything thoroughly before sending their money here and there.
I don't understand why people don't test new services with smaller amounts of money, which don't have the potential to "hurt the budget" much in case things go wrong.


Since the service OP was using has stated that it uses KYC/AML, it's somewhat at the limit between scam/stealing and not (although I guess that there's a bigger chance they keep those funds instead of sending them to the authorities). I would certainly avoid them, but I'm hesitant in calling them scammers.
OP should have been taking more precautions and avoid them earlier.

Bad business practices and horrible morals is not what constitutes a scam, although we sometimes wish it did. So basically there is no ground for a scam accusation nor will anyone do anything about this. Sorry to have to tell you that.

The best thing you can do is spread your message about their bad practices and hope that people stop using their services. They have social media channels, I presume? Thats where you can show their userbase what they really are.

But be careful not to go too far and give them an excuse to accuse you of something like libel....

I don't see much future for this scam accusation from what the OP says, You can question the way they operate, but they are not a scam.

Looking at the other thread, I see that what happens is that the exchange freezed the funds that passed via Chip Mixer, which brings us to the central issue that is being discussed lately in the forum:


Leaving aside the unfairness of this, do you see much future for a business model that is dedicated to obscure the origin of funds for "privacy"? I see it as having the same future as crypto ATMs that let you withdraw tens of thousands of non-kyc Euros in a relatively short time "for privacy".

Comprare/Vendere Bitcoin senza KYC: Bancomat Bitcoin rispettosi della Privacy

Translated: Buying/Selling Bitcoin without KYC: Privacy-Friendly Bitcoin ATMs.

As of today they require KYC for any transaction, any amount.

I believe that politicians are not aware of what mixers are, otherwise they would be banned or forced to operate differently, like ATMs.

Unfortunately, BestChange supports the anti-Bitcoin idea of "taint", and like most (or all) companies that do so, they don't state that on their website.
It was brought up here:

My stance:

BestChange's stance:

BestChange supports the (crazy) idea that 1BTC≠1BTC, which is a huge threat to Bitcoin and it's users.

They promote themselves as:


And they state this:


Actually, they list only exchangers with referral program and all they care are their referral earnings. If you take a look at exchangers list, most of them are with 0 (ZERO!) negative reviews, because if you post negative review they invite the exchanger to comment and all that exchanger have to to is to click "cancel claim" and your negative review becomes a comment.

Today I have found that there are many exchangers listed there with more "comments" then positive reviews, but they are still listed.

Some exchangers, like Changelly, next to it's name have icon which shows:"This exchanger can require verification of client's documents", meaning that they might ask for KYC.

But when other exchangers who does not have this icon ask for KYC, freeze the money, like in MY CASE, they won't do anything and they will take exchangers side because they are the ones who are paying them.

They have multiple domains:
bestchange.com
bestchange.ru and mirror bestchange.net



Profile links:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/bestchange-1073450
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/bestchange-1978649

Threads on Bitcointalk:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/forget-about-exchanger-search-use-bestchange-3309245
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bestchangeru-5179115

Signature campaign:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/cfnp-bestchange-signature-campaign-sr-member-5217201