Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

Many years ago i deposit some bitcoins in my localbitcoin.com account. i waited till the price raised and login to try to sell my btc. I never made any trade and when i tried to opened a trade there was an error message: you are on forced holiday.
I contacted the support and ask them to unlock my account, At the beginning i thought its just because i have not used it for a long time, but then i found out its a scam. The costumer support answered my account is locked for ever because of their TOS.
I was shocked and asked why its like that, and the chat support just answer they cant give any details.

My question is where I can report them if I am from abroad?
I already send an email to fiva.fi, but they dont reply.

Maybe you can include the screenshot of the message logs between you and their support.
Also screenshots of your account having such amount of btc or transaction URL/screenshot.

I don't know the website you mentioned but you need to find a lawyer that has knowledge of crypto industry or international lawyer of such niche or whatever you call it. And tell them to summon such order once filed.

Also found this on LBC terms
Which is the shittiest I have ever read for today. This mean they can just randomly suspend any account without telling you the reasons why they were suspended because of this TOS.

Additional: You should follow this format^[1] for scam accusation

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260073.0

There is one thing I am not clear about. How long ago did this happen? It's like you're talking about last year, when we were in the bull market.


I doubt if that is legal, although I assume they will have been legally advised to write their TOS. But just because there is a clause in the TOS and you accept it doesn't automatically make it legally valid. They could also put that you have to give them a kidney if they feel like it and that would be null and void.

No, it's legal, termination of a contract without reason is not an "unfair" contract as long as it gives the other party the same chance of doing so.
Basically, a bank or a merchant or any kind of provider as long as it offers you the opportunity to cancel your contract with them at any given time without previous notice can demand the same from you. There is absolutely no law in Europe where somebody is forced to serve you when it comes to financial services, the only exception is that every EU citizen must be able to open a single bank account in the EU, and that's it.

That doesn't, of course, stop you to file a case for unfair treatment or for damages that have resulted from such but it doesn't prevent them from not wanting you as a customer, and of course, you would have to return all the funds the customer has.

But, speaking of this thread, I got used to those topics about LB with no proofs and especially from users with interesting usernames  ;)

this is why you never use an exchange site or a custodial wallet to hold your coins. it's probably one of the worst things you can do if you are planning on holding. there are hardware wallets or non-custodial wallets that could have helped you avoid this kind of trouble. perhaps next time if you decided to hold again, use a proper wallet to secure your coins.

That is clear. I was referring to what is in bold. To cancel the contract, fine. But the fact that they don't give you explanations for it has a component of abitrariety that is what makes me doubt.

LBC changed their terms multiple times in the last few years especially implemented forced KYC on all the users with different levels of documentation for different tiers of trade limits and also they offered very long time period to complete this or just terminate and withdraw everything left in the wallet but its no more available that is the reason you can't access your funds and I guess you'll never be able to.

It doesn't mean they are scammed, the whole mess happened due to your negligence.

What is written on the TOS is irrelevant: they cant keep your money without presenting a very good reason. Suspending and terminating an account is one thing. Keeping the balance is another. You wrote you deposited years ago. You are talking about real bitcoins or just fractions of 1 bitcoin? If you have there some bitcoins you will have reason and ground to move this to a finish court. But you can try first finish financial regulators.
https://www.finanssivalvonta.fi/en
As another member posted you also should post evidence hiding any sensitive information.

They can suspend or terminate the accounts which doesn't accept their terms after the time period given for them to decide, as most common I am not storing more than a bitcoin in any of the exchange no matter what and OP may also fall onto category from my assumption. Even if the amount worth millions now still its hard to retrieve but he can know the reasons via support ticket, the same kind of scenarios happen even when the user violates their terms and another user reported to support with proper evidence.

Because making it mandatory for a part to inform the other of the reasons for the termination of a contract would also cause customers to be forced to disclose why they would cancel a contract,  since it's a contractual agreement this means clients could end being punished if they lie in it and offer a way for the company to file a lawsuit and ask for damages. And all of this would mean the law would have to supersede the previous one about each side having the right to unilaterally terminate an account opening a complete can of worms with it.

Just because the company doesn't have to inform you why it has canceled your account this doesn't mean you can't file a complaint with your customer protection agency in case you feel you have been wrongfully done or you have suffered material losses which basically offers you the same way to protest against the decision.

Anyhow, as usual with those complaints, OP has thrown an accusation, not a single screenshot and gone he is...

OP probably won’t answer the question honestly but is there any foul play here. Are the coins he has lost access to stolen/hacked? I’ve used localbitcoins sporadically for a very long time & not experienced anything like this. I do not really believe localbitcoins would terminate an account & subsequently confiscate a users bitcoin if they have not done anything wrong.

Only the OP will be able to respond with all the facts. Something seems off here though. Regardless, there is no evidence of any type of scam here other than the OP’s word which I, personally am not convinced of.

Yet another person coming in with a complaint against LBC and then never coming back to give proof / follow up.
I am starting to think there are a lot of hacked LBC accounts being sold to people who think they can just log in make a trade and keep the money.

That or people who think larger financial places don't have a list of IPs used by VPN providers and that they can get around sanctions / blocks by using them. FYI people there are accurate lists updated frequently that you can buy from well known and trusted security firms.

-Dave

Lately this becoming a trend in the scam accusation board. For some reason many users are just thinking to post some lines against a business X and expecting the forum members are going to help them.

Reading OP I have a feeling that he did not login in his account for very long time. With Google if you do not use their service for more than 6 months they send you emails to notify you to check in. If you do not then they ban the service due to inactivity. Not only in Google, but in almost all service there are some x amount of months or years for the user to be using it at least once, or they ban the account. This could be the case with OP if he is not lying.