Bitcoin Forum

Hello!

It looks the localbitcoins is choosing some old accounts where are some Bitcoins on it and suspending the accounts. I didn't use localbitcoins for a longer time, yesterday I have decided to login and noticed I am unable to do anything.

Wrote the support, they told there are some unresolved cases, but they weren't. Support provided these trades, but there were successfuly done for both sides. What's more they have been done in... 2017! I have asked to point me what the problem is, they stopped responding me.

Proofs (censored):
Support: https://i.imgur.com/1dD8QA1.png
Trade1: https://i.imgur.com/39KgpXt.png
Trade2: https://i.imgur.com/AcyPZU0.png

For me, it looks like (I do not say it is: just looks like), the support of Localbitcoins wants to steal my Bitcoins. So please login your old accounts and take a look.

What guys do you think?

PS. I have posted the same on reddit/localbitcoins, but seems they have control and did not allow my post there (yet?). Also they have disabled their forums.

I am not getting it right? Why they need to need to freeze your account now when you have issues on the trades which happened 2017?  You are just now logging in after that trade?

For me I am using LBC for long time and without making any issues while the trades so I can open or do trades or whatever I want and also I have some bitcoins in it.

The thing is there were not (and there are no) any issues with that trades and any other. I am here since years, traded many times with 100% success and positives.

That's why I have posted it here to beware you guys. Seems localbitcoins going to shady one.Maybe they have been sold and new investor changed policy. As you have noticed some new regulations are coming to localbitcoins, maybe that's why.

Obviously it looks the Localbitcoins want to steal my bitcoins. Better take off your Bitcoins for sometime, until it is resolved.

It still seems to be an isolated case. I'm not sure what's the problem from their side if you didn't get a problem with the trades. Perhaps just a glitch? Even the trade status are showing "bitcoins released, trade finished"
BTW, I don't think Localbitcoins would "suspend" users account for the sake of to get bitcoins by using questionable methods that could lead the company in a justice court.

Looks like glitch, but support didn't even look on trades? I have wrote to support there were not issues. What's funny, the partner I have traded is known for me, we have contact outside Localbitcoins, however he is offline for weeks.

For me, Localbitcoins (do not know it's their global policy or just some moderators/support/admin) smells and looks they doing something dirty...

Just friendly beware: take off your Bitcoins if you think that's serious case. For me it is, obviously.

Dont conclude directly yet i dont have any problems with LBC even i do have bitcoins inside.This might be just a glitch same as said above.Its just really odd for their support responses.

Your LBC account has balance of about 0.01BTC which is not such a huge amount for them to take it away from you,there are lot of people who is holding 100+BTC or even more who are doing day trading in it.So I never have doubt on LBC and after this thread I visited my LBC and never any issue happened and balance is also there. :)

I hope you will restore your account once you solve the issue,just keep contacting the support team.

Very strange if true, but I get the feeling we don't have the full picture here. I'd have to ask, you said first that this was an old account you didn't use for a time and logged in only recently. This can generally be a trigger for verification requests (dormant account suddenly becomes active). They do owe you a proper explanation though.

My other question here is, why on earth did you leave coins on LBC? I only have any there when leaving offers open.

How many months or year that you did not open or log in your account? If you open the account for more than 1 year maybe they need some verification to check if their clients are the real owner or not.

Since you already talk to the support can you try to ask them if what you need to do to solve the issue?

Maybe they are still in an investigation if they are not replying yet.

I didn't have Bitcoins there (just a beer money), I've just got Bitcoins yesterday to my wallet. Yes, deposit of Bitcoins is working. All other functions are not. That's quite sketchy, isn't it?

Around half month ago. Also login history (https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/security/login_history/) doesn't show any other persons accessed my account.

I will keep you guys updated.

Come on now, it has just been less than 24 hours since they first messaged you. Definitely a premature public complaint from you, as it might simply just be an error on their side. I'd personally wait a couple of days or a week and when their replies gets too repetitive and rubbish before I publicize the issue. But keep us updated anyway.

I also stopped using localbiticoin after they had been complicating me for days. they have some strange things. they asked me ID, screen shot of me and my computer and then they asked me for a sreen shot holding my ID and with date paper, it was annoying and I did not use my account anymore

Slow death, the thing is I am verified already with my ID years ago. I really wonder what is going on and why they do not reply. It's really simple and takes 15 seconds to check all things are clear here. Seems they have bad intentions and/or they are not professional.

LB has a reputation to keep at a certain hight, and while they haven't been as good as they were like a year or two ago, they still have to deliver, and they aren't purposely ignoring you. They either have other tickets to work through with more priority to them, or they are being spammed and need 24-48 hours to even look at your ticket.

Don't forget that LB use is exploding in certain countries, which very likely means that they have to allocate most of their resources to provide the support they need.

I have no idea why they've done this. Seems like support keeps giving you the same old answer as well without actually looking into what has happened or how to resolve it.

Localbitcoins in my opinion has certainly become less usable after they started forcing KYC onto members who wanted to advertise on their platform and/or held a significant trade volume (which by the way, is completely undefined and the message of KYC can come at any time).

Shouldn't there be a timeframe to dispute transactions? It could certainly be possible that it's some bug in their system, or the counterparty you were dealing with simply decided to dispute after 2 years for whatever reason. But mechanisms should be in place to stop this from happening, because this certainly doesn't look like a legitimate dispute by any means.

All you can do right now is be patient and continue to message their support, though.

Hey this statement is more useful than you think.
It seems like the problem was (accidentally?) brought by the Seller (Your trade partner for those particular trades),
If you can ask him to contact support regarding these transactions, you might solve the issue without contacting the customer support yourself.

And for Christ's sake, it's not "that" long since the last reply, I know a few exchange support where it always took weeks for the CS to respond.
But it's pretty obvious that the one you've contacted doesn't really know what he's doing (advised to use the chat to a suspended account  ::)).

Did the other people have the same thing as you? I am curious why only you get the experience? Or maybe you miss something, and you don't realize about that.

My suggestion is to wait for a while until they answer you, and if you do not receive any answer, you can try to send a message to them again. But still, I am curious about your case. I am sure that LBC doesn't want to steal any bitcoin from the customer and if they take bitcoin, why only you who only have less than 1 bitcoin while in the other account, I am sure that they have much bitcoin and it's ready to steal.

The reason might be somewhat unnatural behaviour happened on OPs account that is why they blocked the account and want to resolve it,but on the screenshot he provided there is something problem with the trade so it also might be a reason.But I can sure that not everyone is facing this situation you can use LBC as always.

Update.

Got the answer from support: https://i.imgur.com/hgKSbrE.png

So... we have traded in 2017 and now in 2019 he marked trade as fraudlent. But he left the localbitcoins and there's no contact with him and he didn't contact me before. I am stucked, but there's solution: I have to find some 2 years old invoices, which might be hard. I have asked some questions LBC support, waiting their reply, mainly how can I contact him, as they have disabled chat.

I see that's a method to block all accounts on LBC. I mean I can mark payment as fraudlent from any other random trades I have done years ago, then the partner is stucked and sometimes it's not possible to provide few years old documents (depends what was traded). In my case, maybe it would be possible, thanks God.

Contacting seller is not the only option for you,you can even show the proof that you send legit codes.I think you didn't complete that trade which causes all these problem,the seller might contacted the support team and provided all the proof that he was scammed that is why they blocked you account,this is not going to happen with everyone.

Well, to be fair, of course LBC can't prevent you from depositing coins to the address. They have no control over that. The US government recently sanctioned 2 btc addresses and people just kept sending funds to them to prove the point.

Anyway, I still feel no one is getting the right picture or the full picture here. Allow them time to respond. If you did nothing wrong, there's nothing to worry about. Patience is the only thing to have now. Give LBC won't forfeit their reputation for 0.01 BTC.

Edit: now you have the response, and now it's clear, "your friend" is the one who's caused you the problem. It is highly abnormal that both you and he became active again at the same time and he marked you as fraudulent. Definitely can't blame LBC for the freeze now with this info come to light. Good luck recovering.

That's what I said yesterday (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5118335.msg50080898#msg50080898), even before OP's reply about the response.

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@agagam don't your have any other method of communication to that friend of yours?
He himself forfeiting the flag is more easier than rummaging through old documents.

I do not believe LBT would start scamming users. Its up and running for a very long time now and has allways been trusted from their part of trading.
Also its one of the base services BTC is built on.

Agree with you because the Localbitcoins has been running from years now and nothing of such has been heard. Though in my opinion this could not be the end of Localbitcoins because of the trust given in the past years.

I have never had a problem with Localbitcoin, and I don’t think they want to steal your 0.01 BTC. In this case, if this is proved, they will lose much more - reputation. I am not all clear in your situation, but I hope that your problem will be solved.

That's why I prefer instant services, which don't store my funds. I hope you'll succeed in this issue.

The consequences that will erupt if the Localbitcoins are found guilty of these offenses toward their esteem customers|customer will be disastrous. Although there has not be update from OP, nevertheless, hope the issue be trash out accordingly by both parties and reconcile. I strongly believe that, Localbitcoin will do everything possible to save their reputation as we know them to be in the frontline. 

There is no point on accusing localbitcoin here,

OP and the seller has issues while doing trades and it gets incomplete so after year he came and found that account was frozen so he need to complete the trade to make the account usable,thats it.