Bitcoin Forum

Hello,

Poloniex said that they credited/deposited my account with coins by mistake   ???

Lets say Poloniex credited my account with over 1000 Bitcoins and a day later I withdrew them and liquidated them elsewhere and bought other coins with it because I assumed it was a free airdrop or reward in my account or whatever promotion I see all the time on exchanges because I see free air drops of new coins in my other exchange accounts few times a year so I assumed these new coins in my Poloniex account are legally mine.

I'm from UK and Poloniex is in USA I believe.

Poloniex saying they will get authorities involved  >:(

What is Poloniex Terms of service/User Agreement regarding coin deposits and legally speaking who is liable for what if this turns into a civil legal matter?

Why would you trade on scam exchange?
They are long gone and become scam exchange.

Look at these threads below.

- Threatening EXIT SCAM on POLONIEX or just worst service? *** WARNING *** (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5196029.0)
- poloniex.com scam (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5132143.0)
- Poloniex SCAM !!! warning (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3009259.0)
- Poloniex scammed me!!! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3503375.0)

And there are more reports from this exchange.

So that's not a mistake I believe they have a bad intention about giving you 1000BTC. Have you tried to withdraw them?
If they ask something about your identity or ask to deposit be careful they are going to scam you or stole your identity that they can use for scamming purposes.

They already said that they deposited an amount by mistake so what's your point? Do you really want to trade the funds knowing you received them by mistake and Poloniex in this case admitted their mistake right away?

Only spend it if no one claimed it or the notice by Poloniex is late before you withdrew it.

About your example, give us some examples of airdrops that you can use an exchange address to participate in. Mostly, an address needed in airdrop should be control by you.


I think that's just an example and OP didn't mention exactly the coin he received.

I fully verified on there back in 2017.

Yes coins have been withdrawn.

What can they do to me? What power they have?

If its their mistake then its a loss for them since its just normal for you to pull off those coins as it should be and now asking to give it back?

Its up to you if you would really follow it through but how in the world would you consider such stuff? Cherish those coins you do had.  ;D

Yes they asking for them back threatening me.

Several days ago Citigroup loses bid to recover $500m sent to funds by mistake^[1].

Generally, unless you withdraw currencies from your account, according to terms of use, they can freeze your account and stop the payments.
Withdrawing huge sums from a hot wallet is not easy, your account will be frozen and make sure that all payments are correct, so the probability of withdrawing 1000BTC that was sent to you by mistake is zero.

Also, many platforms tighten withdrawals to ensure that your account has not been hacked.


So hypothesis for a huge amount has 0% odds.
As for the small sums, they can hire a lawyer and take it back. :P :P

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/de433d55-5cea-4929-9954-c08e5b98f004

Its not bitcoins but an altcoin that is worth about around $5k now. I was giving bitcoins as an example.

Have I violated Poloniex User Agreement in their User Agreement?

Can a exchange reverse transactions with cryptocurrency? For example if I withdrawn coins to Bittrex from Poloniex, can poloniex reverse the transaction a couple of weeks later after withdrawal or do they have the legal right to liaise with Bittrex exchange to get them to recover or liquidate my assets on Bittrex to cover their mistake? Can a exchange find out which wallet or exchange it went to by looking at the blockchain explorer?

If I was you I'd use their own dirt against them, perhaps this a gift from God but not unconditional, when they come asking for the money back refer them to one of their clients who's money the have stolen and ask them if the case has been resolved.

Wrong.
Poloniex is not from USA and I think Justin Sun better known for tron, owns it now after ownership change or he is surely heavily invested in it.
I don't think they are scam, but  they are not fully regulated and I don't fully trust any centralized exchange so I am not surprised with anything involved with them.

You should prove here with some screenshots how they made threats to you, but in theory they can always play the terms card if they want.
Few days ago one exchange PDAX sold customer Bitcoin for 6k by mistake and now they are asking it back just because they can, and there is nobody to stop them.
That is the risk of using exchanges.

If it's a huge amount they can try to use authorities to track you down with the help of your KYC details you have with them. I don't know which kind of coin/token you are talking about here. Tokens like USDT can be frozen in whatever address they have been sent to. It's just a matter of contacting the USDT team.

They can also contact exchanges to which you sent tokens to and request them to block your accounts

On what grounds did Citigroup lose on?

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Where is Polo based?

You mean the customer is asking for the bitcoins back?

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Is around $5k a huge amount for them?

When you say authorities do you mean something illegal has been committed? I don't see how this becomes a criminal law matter unless they can prove the coins were stolen or something right?

This should be a civil legal matter if Polo wants to chase it up legally so what is this authorities tracking me down like a criminal for a mistake they admitted they done?

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

I don't work for them, so I don't know what is a huge or small amount for them.

Well if you feel there was nothing bad about withdrawing something that was not initially in your account, then I don't see why you are worried/scared.

Legally they can do almost nothing and the fact they're located in abcd country is not going to change something.

You acquired the coin legally, and I mean without interfering with the system illegally, abusing the engine, an attack, exploit, or whatever you can think about. You also didn't violate their user agreement. You literally did nothing wrong. it's just a question of morality to refund the coins.

They are solely responsible for the loss since it was a mistake on their part and legally it is up to them to repair the damage caused. The message they sent you is to scare you and put pressure on you. It's like the bailiffs

Just don't get scared with that authorities bluff as they can't do anything to force you return the coin you already have withdrawn, you assume it's an airdrop before you knew it was mistakenly credited and the coin has already been spent, so it's not anymore possible to return the who amount of bitcoin you get.

That's what happen when a site has a lot of glitch sometimes it does not favor the traders sometimes it does, you are lucky to in your situation.
However, it's up to your conscience if you think what you do is wrong, then you have to correct but legally, there's no obligation.

Poloniex froze my account threatening they will liquidate my coins if I don't return the tokens.

I got about 2000 MAID tokens still on there and also about 1000 USDT. They cant liquidate a stable coin but can they take it?

Can they legally do this and get away with it?

Well legally or not, Poloniex has blocked a user's access to his/her coins in the past and I wouldn't be surprised if they do so in the future as well. If the money you withdrew is larger than what you currently have on poloniex, you have the bigger hand. If you want to get that money, there is one way: legal methods.

My advice: not worth it. There will immortality for humans before poloniex unfreezes your account. Lost cause.

P.S. Your title is funny.

In practice they can, just how you can get away with not returning the $5k worth of altcoins. $5k – 1k USDT – 2000 MAID > 0. Legally, depends on your country's laws. Probably just a civil matter if it occurred as you're describing it, so probably not worth it to them unless maybe you're not the only person they 'airdropped' to, especially from the same country.

First and foremost, I am not a lawyer. Neither have I studied criminal law. But I am almost 100% certain that you are criminally liable if you are spending money which is not yours. In your case, you are very much aware that the funds are not yours. You have been sufficiently informed that a certain amount is erroneously deposited to your account and that you should send it back to the sender. Knowing all this, you still decided to ignore all of it and, worse, withdrew the said funds to another wallet. That, my friend, is theft!

Now, whether Poloniex will run after you on the basis of that relatively small amount or not, I can't tell. If you abandon your Poloniex account for the sake of the funds wrongly sent to you, you are still a net positive. But if you are a verified user of Poloniex, I'm afraid they can easily make a move against you, so be wise and weigh the risks.

That still counted as theft on how you proceeded with the mistaken deposit to your account. No matter how you twist the story as long as the deposit credited to you is not done by yourself or with your money it will be considered as theft it is as simple as that even if you made up excuses that you thought you won something from a promo you didn't know you participated in you will be charged with theft as the action is what they are basing it with. So if you go into the route of making an excuse you must show some good faith by returning the money you thought you have won and this is the only solution I am seeing right now for you to get out of any possible criminal charges.

So you can't access your funds there right? Yes, the coins you withdrawn was not your so its a violation for sure and you have to return them back if you want 1000USDT and there tokens left in there, they may take your coins if you never return those coins which was sent by a mistake to you because the exchange have the keys for your wallet so they can move them from your wallet without your authorization.

I have altcoins holdings on my Poloniex and assumed the deposit was a free airdrop because I get airdrops a few times on my other exchanges accounts. On Yobit exchange few years ago if I correctly recall I received airdrop of 500 Tron coins!

Why Poloniex exchange notifying me weeks later after their admission of mistake!?

I understand if Polo notified me within 24hrs of the deposit mistake I would have known and would have not withdrawn the coins but they notified me weeks later  ???

When you say criminal you mean breaking the law, how did I break the law on someone else mistake? This is civil legal matter not criminal unless Polo has indisputable evidence or conspiracy that I was involved in that mistake to benefit or fraud from it!

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But I cant return the coins because I sold them as I said in my 1st post on this thread! Sold them way before Polo notified me weeks later.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

You do not use the YoBit and "my other exchanges accounts" argument as an attempt to support your assumptions on Poloniex. Have you been receiving similar free airdrops on Poloniex? If no, there's no point assuming it was an airdrop. If yes, were there official announcements made prior to or while the airdrops were ongoing?


I am not certain whether or not it matters that the attempt by the owner to reclaim what was erroneously sent was made several hours or days later. I don't think it excuses you to make use of someone else's funds simply because the original owner did not immediately inform you of the said mistake.

I am curious, though, from the moment you received the funds, how long did it take before you withdrew it?


Spending another person or entity's funds wrongfully deposited into your account is breaking the law. As such, it is generally a criminal act, although it might not reach to that point if the receiver admitted the wrongful act of spending another's money and shows good faith by returning the exact amount.

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However, at the end of the day, we are both discussing here as armchair lawyers. I am not in any way competent to provide legal advice or anything legal. Everything is purely my opinion.

It doesn't matter whether you sold it or not since you will have the money you have earned from that illegal sale. Now the problem you will have is either you don't have the money you earned from those crypto or you will come up short because it has appreciated from the point when you have sold it either way you need to come up with the same quantity of Bitcoin you have received mistakenly and return it back to them as what you did is illegal and Poloniex has the right to file criminal charges against you. There is no excuses for your liability even if this was Poloniex's mistake.

Contact them and tell them that you've sold the tokens and can't return them. Maybe you will reach an agreement.
I don't think you've done anything wrong here since you sold the tokens before their notification but it's always better to resolve such issues amicably.

I received Dai airdrop from Poloniex before in the past and had no advanced email notification on that.

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I did reply to them and told them the truth that I sold them. Now they threatening to liquidate my assets on their exchange if I don't return the coins back but I cant!

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Hows it illegal? Was there any criminal association behind the transaction, like money laundering, terrorism or drugs, hacks?

It even states in Poloniex user agreement responsibility cannot be held if coins are sent to the wrong address and the risk of it of not getting coins back.

So this comes down to a moral or legal issue, how's it criminal? What criminal law did I break or violate? Theft? Did I had intention to steal or hack coins from another address from the beginning?

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Im just confused ???

Im getting replies in this thread that its Poloniex fault and replies saying its my fault.

I just leave it to Poloniex customer reviews for you to read to make up your judgements and decision.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

You are justifying yourself as right here and its like when someone dropped there wallet and you took all the money there but the actual owner found that you are the one who found the lost wallet but you are claiming that it's your fault to drop your wallet so I can't give you the money back! ::)

Yes its their fault to credit wrong coins but you are not supposed to claim its yours.

They haven't told me who's the original owner of the coins yet.

Or the exchange are the real owners of the coins?

If exchange are real owners then I thought exchanges are only there to provide buy & sell service for buyers and sellers and the exchange are just the custody of the coins only not real owners so after weeks still I don't even know who the original owner is ???


Or exchanges are involved in buyer and seller trading activity like us retail investors on their own platforms and isn't this classed as insider trading that is illegal?

The $64,000 question:

If I send coins to a wrong address that ends up randomly at Poloniex for example, then few questions:

- What are the chances that blockchain wallet addresses that is made up of so many characters just can be randomly guessed where someone by no coincidence just randomly guesses my deposit address to send there to cause the mistake? This sounds impossible or has the same chances of winning the lottery $millions right?

- Finally if it is a mistake that ends up at the exchange randomly that sounds impossible then do exchanges are legally oblige to reimburse the original/owner of the coins?

- Are blockchain wallet addresses limited where all addresses are similar with only 1 or 2 character differences between them to be efficient or to save space, or less computing/networking resources used or whatever?

As long as you send the coins to exchanges they are responsible for everything happening in their platform because its their platform and they can choose whatever they want to do, as a customer we agree that while sign in.

If the coins came from another address then exchanges may not ask you to return it but in this case it was wrongly credited from their own wallets which is supposed to be someone's or just happening due to bug?

So you guys think its like this where exchange blockfi giving away millions in bitcoins?:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/cryptocurrency-company-blockfi-accidentally-sends-users-millions-in-bitcoin-%e2%80%93-and-now-it-wants-it-back/ar-AAKcIA1?li=AAnZ9Ug

How many bitcoins BlockFi have in its reserves?

The user who got 700 BTC must be very happy. I'm not a member but if he had withdrawn them already then blockfi might just use authorities to track him. They can't let that 700BTC worth of money going to just lose.

Ultimately it's all about having a good conscience. If you know its not yours, then give it back. You having $5k worth of coins from poloniex which they said is a mistake means its not yours too.