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I intend to file a complaint and have been in touch with the  Delaware Attorney Generals office and they refereed me to the Delaware investor protection agency which I got redirected to voicemail where I left my contact info to get the ball rolling.

There are many issues with Polo the last year but this one is the final straw. After sending out emails stating that they would be requiring KYC but the users would have a period to withdraw if unwilling or unable to provide KYC then they would be allowed to withdraw funds. Well to no ones surprise they have lied and have frozen accounts that do not comply to their demands of verification. Whether this is legal or not is not the basis for my complaint. although I am sure there is legal recourse in here as well.

My complaint, and where I believe Poloniex is liable, is in order to access your funds to withdraw and not use their service they are forcing their users to agree to waive their legal rights.

I am not a lawyer but as far as I understand that it is a form of extortion.

You must agree to their terms of service which states you waive the right to sue them in order to access your funds and withdraw. It also states that you also agree to waive your rights if you try to use their ticket support system as well which as far as I know is the only other way to remove funds.

So to all you lawyers out there is this Extortion or not?


I will keep this OP updated and all those that Poloniex is stealing funds from go ahead and post in this thread for future reference if this ends up in court.

Please do not clutter it up with worthless "polo sucks" posts.

Feel free to post any open tickets you have that they are ignoring and I will be posting a few tickets they closed on me in the past without addressing the issue nor even notifying me they had closed those tickets.

I am assuming this will end up being moved into the scam accusation section but for right now I am gathering information and advice with this post. As many of you are aware Poloniex is now owned by Circle which is backed by Goldman Sachs so it is now firmly in the grasp of the banking institutions. And will assuredly be firmly in the grasp of the judicial system as well as the regulatory system which is what I'm sure Goldman Sachs was waiting on to catch up before they made this move.

Poloniex froze my account on May 27. I sent documents for verification several times, but the status remain unchanged: Attention required. In technical support left two tickets, but no one answers them. On the balance remained a large sum for me. I also know that there are a lot of such people.
For now without further information. Depending on further events.

Sorry for my english, but, I think, is understandable.

since you pmed me with this thread I assume you know about my past issue with poloniex , yeah they don't respect their customers and they don't respect their TOS
they suddenly decided to stop accepting traders from my country without any warning , I ended getting my money stuck there for over two months waiting for them to reply
but they paid me after ignoring me for a little bit over 2 months , same thing happened with all the Syrians I know

the shadiest exchange at the moment is bittrex since they are still holding Syrians funds without paying them or even responding to their tickets

Please add bittrex to your complaint, they froze accounts without warning and changed terms of service requiring kyc for withdrawals without any grace period for existing customers.

poloniex and bittrex are both rogue exchanges now, and both should have their actions tested in court.

I once had a lot of problems with poloniex. But I have left the market a few months ago.

In December 2017 I experience pending withdrawal with SC (siacoin) after submitting ticket In 47 Days the case is complete. But after this, my verified account level 2 arrives "It was downgraded to unverified, and I spent about 30 days to get it done." I guess the customer support from poloniex is less responsive in handling the problems on the users.

Poloniex is definitely liable they are illegally holding you money without any reason relating to illegal or wrongful doing. They are just basically putting you in a bad position in order to waive your legal rights against them. First off all legal rights are always there it cannot be remove not unless you are involve in a criminal violations. Second any contract agreement related to a removal of rights just to withdraw your own money is basically voidable. So what I am saying is you have another choice. If you accept their terms now you can easily sue them about it after you receive your funds or even if there are any future problems you can't solve because they are bringing up there so-called "agreement" with you.

I believe you are correct as it falls under the "under duress" category. I was hoping an actual lawyer was on here that could site a precedent.


Thanks for the input. :)


Yes I pm'd you in case you had not gotten your issue resolved yet, glad you did. :)


I don't deal with bittrex but have heard about this also. I will mention it but since I doubt Delaware is where Bittrex is licensed out of I'm sure they will just say goto whatever jurisdiction bittrex falls under. But I will ask just the same.


Your English is fine. As far as the bolded, have them post in here with ticket numbers if they can. I'd like to have as much ammo as possible when I get a call back next week.

I am doing this because I can, I have no fear of the IRS or anyone else knocking on my door or hauling me into court because I have undeclared funds.




I'm surprised there are not more users here with funds locked under verification. One reason for this thread besides collecting advice on the legality of their move is also the gauge the extent of the seized accounts. Yes if the account has been frozen it is seized no matter what they call it. I understand there are people that cannot acknowledge funds on that exchange do to local laws and such and cannot post in an open forum so anyone that falls under that heading can pm me and I will provide a private email for you to converse with.

Nice thread, i think there will be more and more complaints comming in, hence my favorite exchange (bittrex) is also behaving kind ofshitty, and i am using XMR.to/shapeshift.io since i heard they are behaving like they do  ::) :o ;D :D ;)

That's their new politic, you may agree or go away, only this two options. At least they gave some period to all users during which they must to correct their profiles with private information. I think the thread is going to be successful, cause of now there will be a lot of people to complain.

Personally, I do not have anything against the KYC. But they did not give to take the money, breaking their own promise not to block the withdrawal of funds. Everything ended with the worst scenario on their part. But the most terrible thing is that they continue this scenario with their silence in keeping money to hostage.

Why is that?

This is some new cannibalistic policy.
Can not apply the rules of fiat money to cryptocurrencies. This will not work. They themselves set people against themselves. Or is it just such a scenario for earning money using someone else's finance under the guise of the law.

My funds are also currently locked away from me. The day I received an email letting me know I had a week long grace period to withdraw without going theough KYC, I tried to withdraw. Turns out poloniex lied to me and had already locked my account.

poloniex froze and my account ... after defrosting (if it succeeds), I will withdraw all funds and refuse to communicate with this exchange.  I passed verification last year and they all arranged, but now they do not act beautifully.

I was also noticing that with poloniex, having certain issues when you want to login to your account. I got frustrated and didn't make the type of investment I wanted. I had to take my investment somewhere that I'm now benefiting.

Same for me. I made the forced verification (shouldn't have), but the status unchanged.

Thanks for bringing this up for discussion... it has actually been pointed out before, especially during mid-2017 when Poloniex troubles began. To someone like me, that specific line that forces users to waive legal rights (which they later also amended to specifically include class action) just smacks of unfair consumer practice.

There is one case in the EU (almost similar) where a company forced users to waive their withdrawal rights to "lapse" if they agreed to buy in-game tokens (considered as digital content). Courts found that it was permissible, but on highly complex procedure. You can refer to this: http://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/court-decision-consumer-withdrawal-right-waiver-possible-for-virtual-currencies/

Now of course waiving legal rights is completely on another level. It's very common now between employer-employee, and unfortunately, the US Supreme Court has been extremely pro-business, considering legal waivers as legitimate in cases against Google, Facebook, in the past.

Thanks for that info, as you thought that case you cited is not applicable as the bolded shows. This is specific to a virtual currency in a game only and it is ruled as digital content.



I received the pm's guys and have saved the ticket numbers you've sent.

Since I am unable to access the tickets a type of complaint would be a good idea to send with the numbers. At a bare minimum I would need  something like this.

Ticket 12345678 1/01/2018 OPEN                   Verification : proof not accepted
Ticket 12345679 1/01/2018 Closed 5/01/2018   Deposit : Took months as price declined
Ticket 12345680 9/01/2017 Closed 1/01/2018   Margin  : cancelled my position when market moved in my direction

Obviously the more info I have the better I can categorized and correlate the complaints that are not being addressed. I do not need Personal info unless you feel comfortable with that and if you do then make sure to state whether I can share that info with the court system, otherwise I will assume not and protect your privacy.


And make sure to archive your tickets and download your history.

I have added this email to the op. Hueristic_AT_protonmail.com

My tickets is open and no answered.

Attempts to send a document have been exhausted.

Withdraw/deposit - locked.
Trade - locked.

I tried several times to send documents for verification. Formally, I agreed to their cannibalistic conditions. But they promised not to freeze the withdrawal from legacy accounts of the funds until the verification was completed. Verification is not complete, the accounts are frozen. Poloniex is a liar.

Yes, definitely, I think, there should be complaint if there become the issue.

I was discussing the same last week, precisely because I find it to be a new way of extortion. If they change their policies, then you should be able to say "I don't agree" and remove all your funds. If not, it definitely seems an extortion to me.
They are asking even for a personal photo of your face. This is against many policies, but, still, they require this new information, along with all the commonly asked one.
So if you do not agree with that, then they will kidnap your fund 'till you give them the information required. This is extortion, kidnapping and it must be illegal.

Besides, giving such kind of private data can be dangerous, for they haven't even spoken about their last hacking attempt: https://themerkle.com/poloniex-users-suffering-from-frozen-accounts-suspended-withdrawals-and-disabled-markets/

Have the data been stolen?
Do the hackers have all the personal information of their users now, including how they look?

I've asked some lawyers friends and they all answered me the same: if you agree with a site's policies and then they change, you should be allowed to stop any relation (commercial, etc) with them, as well as they are obligated to erase all the data they have from you by sending a copy first. Of course, the law system depends on the country they are, but it should work this way, since Poloniex is now under the US regulations.

Didn't expect that there are so many similar cases.

Wishing you all the best with your step forward.
Had a successful login attempt in spite of 2fa and go no reply from them about the details.
My account was frozen after my report. They unfroze it after 8 months.
To be clear I didn't have a lot of value on Poloniex, how they treat and ignore customers is just mind blowing.

I still wonder... If they keep a lot of user's money, where is all this money going? Are they just to keep all the money of all those users whose accounts have been kidnaped? How much money does it imply>?

My account is still frozen even after submitting the verification details .

Even the Poloniex support ticketing system sucks

Haven't even responded nor addressed it till now

service Ticket #962319

Its sheer disregard for human dignity for forcing someone to relinquish their rights in other to have access to their own hard earned money which was kept with them as a custodian. I even think its against human dignity to be subjected to that amount of ridiculous conditions. Poloniex is actually going beyond its reach and its doing it because they don't answer to anybody or regulatory agency that is why they can just wake up and think of a new way to subject their customers to another form of modern day slavery.

Banks today, are not as worse today. If I want to close an account, all I will be asked is to write a letter so also if I want to withdraw, I am not mandated to comply with any rules that does not comes from the Central Bank, if I am not comfortable with their services, I move on to another bank without any issue. Suing them to court is really good because they need to be held responsible for their action which can be likened to extortion and forceful denial of rightful resources and that should not be allowed to go away in a sane society. They further confirmed the argument of why there is need for regulatory intervention in this industry.

I have contacted Delaware investor protection agency again today and straight to voicemail. This is the second voicemail I have left so i got back in touch with Dlewares Attorney generals office and got past the intake person and got to a Tamika's (last name redacted) voicemail and will now give her some time to reply.

Upon further thought I believe this is actually federal as it is across state lines for me (which by definition makes it a federal case) and of course global for many of you which could make it a what, Interpol case? If of course it is in fact in the realm of criminal activity as opposed to civil which I'm assuming it currently is.

The support team of Poloniex are quiet not good but I've never experience this thing before so luckily I'm still using my Poloniex account. I hope that cases like this will be resolve as soon as possible so Poloniex can be a great crypto exchange again. Just keep on emailing their team, they might answer your problem if they see your email so many times.

That's all. You've put into words my thoughts. Regarding crypto, it was supposed to be in a direct competition with banks, in a way of making people far more free than we are with the banking system. That's why such kind of actions concern me the most, for they are breaking the crypto principles, supposedly based on anonymity and freedom.
Some people take the new regulations as a necessary evil, given the illegal activities surrounding the system. But is renouncing to freedom the price we all must pay? To anonymity? If not, they are going to rob us and it is going to be well-seen?

While I'm not a lawyer in the land of freedom (US of A), but I am qualified in my country of residence (therefore am not able to give this as legal advice so please note this is not that, just my quick thoughts). I've had a quick look and I wouldn't classify this as extortion. They are not asking for your property (the closest possible ground) they are asking for your personal information. This is really just a breach of contract issue. When you deposit money to Poloniex is is similar to depositing it with a bank, the money is no longer yours but the property of the bank. They essentially become a debtor to you and are answerable to repay the money.

So in short this is not criminal behavior, it is a civil dispute. You may be able to file for breach of contract in your state of residence but i would recommend reading over Poloniex's terms on conditions (always a good idea when someone is being a pain) to see if they have contractually set the state of contract as their home state, which i believe is Delaware.

Another thing to look at could be around any fair trading/consumer guarantees legislation and regulatory bodies that could slap them over the wrist.

it's not extortion because there's no demand for money, property, services. it's a breach of terms/contract issue.

requiring customers to waive the right to sue (without recourse) won't be looked upon favorably by any court (https://www.quora.com/Legally-if-you-write-on-a-contract-that-someone-cannot-sue-and-they-sign-the-contract-can-they-still-sue). if poloniex willfully violated its terms (eg refusing to pay creditors in spite of good faith compliance with their terms), or did so with gross negligence, that waiver will be laughed out of any respectable court.

writing an absolute bar to a lawsuit into a contract is totally unenforceable, period. not a lawyer, but i know that for damn sure. the only reason poloniex includes this kind of waiver is to deter gullible people from legal action and discourage them from even talking to a lawyer. it's not built to hold up in court.


that's the breaks when you're a resident of a sanctioned country and dealing with an american company. i sympathize with syrians for sure, but the people running bittrex aren't brazen enough to violate sanctions. here's why (https://complyadvantage.com/knowledgebase/sanctions/ofac-sanctions-what-are-the-consequences-of-breaking-them/):

one of the things people don't get here, i think, is that poloniex and bittrex don't give a fuck about consumer affairs departments. they want to deter as much legal action as possible, sure. but they're probably much more worried about being accused of facilitating terrorism and money laundering, and i suspect federal law enforcement/regulators are in regular communication with them.

This is really interesting, thanks.
I don't know if personal information can be seen as a property (of course not) but, isn't it?
Of course, I agree with the point of poloniex just taking care of its own back, for they can be accused of many stuff. But, in every contract, when policies change, one of the implied parts should have the freedom to disagree and stop the commercial relationship at that very moment.
The property, in this case, is your money, which you no longer are able to use due to the change in their policies. Maybe this is not an extortion, but what is it then?
Just wondering, I don't totally understand how if a contract changes in its policies you are not able to say no and withdraw your funds, as well as stop all the relationship.
I feel that question has not been answered yet.

What is your ticket number?


I think you mis-read my complaint. I am not complaining they are requiring KYC.

I am complaining that in order to complete KYC you must AGREE to their Terms of Service which waives your civil rights to Sue them and I will not waive those rights.



No there is no demand for money but they HAVE actually seizing it and refusing to release it without you waiving your rights, how is that differant than them attempting to take your money?

Extortion Definition:
the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

The threat is the terms and conditions and they have obtained our funds by freezing the accounts so I believe this is correct terminology unless someone can give me a better definition for their actions?

That's my concern too, but it seems that nobody is willing to answer the central question: What happens when they cut-off my access to my own funds based on a change in their policies I don't agree with?
How shall we name it?
I've searched for even a tiny new about the poloniex issue but the internet remains in apparent silent with the matter.

Well it is obvious to me that they are working in conjunction with LEA but since I have nothing to hide (nor lose) so I am calling them out. It is plain as day that they got the laws they wanted into place and then the institutions moved in they got everyone they could mapped on the chain and now they are trying to use it to categorize us an monitor. This was always going to happen so it's no surprise that it has and I have no illusions about changing that but taking our rights away a little at a time just turns my stomach. The founding fathers of our country and those that have died defending it are turning in their graves watching the oligarchy strip away our inalienable rights (which apparently are not worth the paper they were written on).

The internet is silent because it's filled with sheeple.

BTW no return call today so monday I goto my own states attorney general.

I'm not using poloniex because still i see maximum potential alt coin not include this exchange i don't know better about poloniex.
My friend use this & his feedback it more reliable.

ah, i see what you're saying. i was focusing on the "poloniex refusing to pay creditors according to their agreed upon terms" angle, which i see as a breach of contract, not a matter of extortion (civil or criminal).

that's an interesting take, at a time where personal data has such an obvious dollar value now.


i believe that poloniex willfully violated its terms---they breached contract, which is a civil tort worth your deposited money + possibly additional damages. they have refused to pay creditors in spite of good faith compliance with their terms. if they make the argument that they were overwhelmed by customer verification queues or other such nonsense, i would counter that they were grossly negligent in complying with their own stated terms.

like i said, i believe that waiver of your right to sue would be laughed out of court.

the irony here though, is that you would need to identify yourself (to poloniex and the courts) in order to sue poloniex. if the ultimate issue is shielding your identity, you can't get resolution from the courts at all IMO.


i think it's a breach of contract. it's something you can sue over (with the above catch-22).

not a lawyer by trade so take what i say with a grain of salt.......

Poloniex is scam !

My account is frozen one month now.

They asked for my identity papers and verification.
I sent them a dozen times.
NO RESPONSE!

I opened 2 weeks ago ticket. #964251
NO RESPONSE!

Im afraid I have lost my savings on poloniex.

BE AWARE... THEY SCAM A LOT!!

Great conclusion. I didn't think about that and you're are absolutely right. No matter what path you choose, either they keep blocked your account (and your money) or you will be obligated to provide your data... This is a sad situation, badly managed. I don't know if the people are going to suit them (I don't have any money in Poloniex, so I won't take any action), but maybe public pressure can be a tool.


Let's see what happens, and best of luck.
actualize us if you can, please, this is a big issue and, under my point of view, how it is going to be seen and resolved matters a lot in the crypto world.
I hope you have your funds back soon.

I have been trying to withdraw from Polo over 4 weeks now, and threads like this make my heart sink. They asked for KYC, which was duly submitted. But still I cannot withdraw my assets. It is beyond a joke now, and for me a big lesson learnt.

Are they a scam? I cannot tell, the reviews are mixed, it seems like they hold on to funds for as long as they can get away with it.


This is clearly an extortion attempt. Even if you waived your right to sue them, it will not stand in court, I tell you.

As I've posted earlier it's not about the funds.


If you submitted and they are still not unlocking your account then you need to contact a lawyer. Go ahead and shoot me an email at the address I posted in the OP.

Hi, I understood your complaint and i apologise if my response was too compact and open to interpretation. I was stating that they are not extorting anything because they are not asking for your property they are asking for your personal information (which is not your property) or a waiver of contractual remedy. As noted they are looking to change the contractual relationship between yourself and them and this cannot be done unilaterally and you have the right to refuse and enforce the contract to receive the money you have deposited with them (which is THEIR property at this point). They are not required to continue to provide the same services however and so you cant enforce continuation of trading with previous terms.

No, they are not asking for my property they are holding it and not releasing it without me agreeing to their new contract. they have made it impossible for me to withdraw without agreeing to their new contract. I am not requiring them to provide any service other than release of my property which as you sated is their property ATM.

I finally got through to the Delaware investor protection agency, previously the Delaware office of securities and they have directed me to file a complaint with this form.

https://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2017/03/invetorprotectioncomplaintform-3.pdf

But in speaking with them I do not think they will do a damn thing. The spokesman from them specifically just because a company is registered in Delaware does not mean that it is located in Delaware and that they will only investigate companies physically located in deleware. So they want me to do the footwork for them and I have no clue where circle is. I'll have to look this shit up later and get Circle's address and probably file there or I should probably just file where goldmann sachs is located at  200 West Street in Lower Manhattan.

I think NY attorney Generals office should be my next call, I haven't heard back from my local AG's office. They are a bunch of tards that have no clue who has jurisdiction over what and where. By the time this gets rolling I'll end up being the target mark my words thats american justice.

I think that part of the blame for this situation lies with you. The signals that Poloniex is acting dishonourably with its customers have been coming for a long time. The response time of the support service was more than 30 days. I have left the stock market for this reason. It seems to me that it will soon go bankrupt and such as you will be many. I feel sorry for you but I think that you will not return your money.

Attempts to send the document have been exhausted.
My tickets are open and do not answer.
Account is blocked.
Withdrawal / deposit - blocked.
Trade is blocked.

Have you considered filing an application in dispute tribunal/small claims court/justice of the peace court or what ever it is called in your area? They usually deal with disputes up to a certain value and do not generally require legal representation for. This kind of action may spur Poloniex into repaying the funds you deposited with them.

I think you don't quite understand this thread or my posts. They are owned by goldman sachs, they will not be going bankrupt. I actually left them months ago and only started dealing with them again when circle bought them. Now they have to follow the laws and regulations which makes them liable. They are now licensed and regulated. It is a double edged sword.

I am not complaining about them taking my money, if you read what  wrote I plainly stated that I can do the verification any time I want.

BTW they know exactly who I am, I've sent funds between them and coinbase many times and the email they sent me had my name on it. So there is no reason for me not to get verified except that I refuse to waive my rights to sue them.


ticket #?

If you don't want to put it here you can email me at the email I put in the OP.


I am still in the gathering info phase.

lease add bittrex to your complaint, they froze accounts without warning and changed terms of service requiring kyc for withdrawals without any grace period for existing customers.

Poloniex and bittrex are both rogue exchanges now, and both should have their actions tested in court. 8)

I think Poloniex is not accepting Govt issued IDs other then Passport.

I submitted Govt issued Voter ID card but My Verification was rejected stating that its not supported ID type , where as its clearly stated in verification process Note that it accepts Govt issued ID proofs

https://ibb.co/gCOEfJ


Acceptable ID Types

Use a valid, non-expired passport, drive's license, or other government-issued ID, if using a passport ID card, select "identity card"option when seleting an ID type.

Poloniex has to address this issue, what if user doesn't has passport Id proof?

POLONIEX you are doing all wrong.

I do not participate in Poloniex exchanges. But I heard the exchange Poloniex had frozen a lot of accounts and support staff of Poloniex very seldom help solve the problem of many people.

I have no problem using bittrex. I have been using this exchange for a long time. Perhaps your problem is due to the fact that bittrex added to the auction dollar? Support on this exchange really works bad but it is a problem of all exchanges. Poloniex really has a lot of complaints from users for a long time so I left this exchange and I'm not interested in its future. I hope all users will pay attention to these signals and leave it without loss.

Im on the same boat here, account frozen for almost 2 months now.
No answer from support tickets, tried sending my ID a few times (passport, selfie, etc.).
No reply from them :(
Ticket #985980

Please tell me what do you think about it? It's my post

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/911mv8/poloniex_ignores_the_user_rights/

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OK guys, sorry about the slow update but I have been getting no where and banging my head on a wall. Thanks for the PM reminder.

After spending weeks leaving messages and getting no replies from the Deleware Enforcement division I stated trying to get in touch with the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20581

202-418-5000

As they had a investigation already open on polo (i'm not sure if it is still open) but have had no return calls after leaving numerous messages and waiting about a week in between.

I think since Goldman sucks owns polo now they are protected by the US gov.

My next alternative I think is the attorney generals office unless you guys have abetter Idea?

Also they had the balls to send me an email to not forget to verify my account.

I also had a long back and forth with their support and the support staff refused to acknowledge the fact that they force the acceptance of terms of service in order to get verified and get access to your own funds.

This along with tons of other things in my life has become a time sink and for the amount of funds I have on there it is not becoming worth the effort.

It is owned by goldman ball sacks now.

And that is why I'm afraid my friends it will be very difficult to open, let alone win a case against these guys. They've got their bases covered in case of an "upset" that would be out of their hands, and they've got Goldman holding them up. They will claim that if you don't verify your account, you won't be able to prove that the money is yours, and therefore have no standing against them. Then they will say that they gave you adequate warning and failed to abide to their terms of service. And then they'll point to their disclaimer.

What a shame these exchanges are turning into.

It's a shame because I used both of them in 2017 equaly much and didn't even require the KYC to operate withdrawals and deposits.

 I even think its against human dignity to be subjected to that amount of ridiculous conditions.I actually left them months ago and only started dealing with them again when circle bought them.

Has anything changed since Circle bought them? I see the same complaints as always. I suppose it would be naive to think things would improve overnight. :-\


Indeed, it seems like we got out at the right time. I used both Polo and Bittrex a lot through late 2017 and never had longstanding problems with either. I saw the writing on the wall, though, after the account lockings started piling up.

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