Bitcoin Forum

Hi Everyone,

My name is Dylan, and I work in Mt.Gox's Compliance Division. Our division is responsible for handling the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) activities for Mt.Gox, and we thought some of our users and the wider community might be interested in having an insight into how the whole process works. For those who may not be aware, AML/KYC checks involve us collecting from our users one piece of photographic identification, and one proof of residence document to help us identify you. Once you've read through it all, feel free to post any questions you might have about the process, as I'd be more than willing to answer any you may have.

Why do AML/KYC?

We are often asked both by email and on the forum why Mt.Gox does these checks. To give a very basic explanation of this issue, Mt.Gox handles both Bitcoin and fiat currency (Dollars, Euros, etc.) As a result, we are bound by the laws of Japan and America, along with various international regulations which cover the fiat side of our business. Very similar to how a bank in most countries must be regulated to ensure they are not facilitating money laundering, terrorist financing or the like, we are obliged to follow the same rules.

Whilst we could simply ignore our legal obligations, as a number of smaller, successful exchanges have done in the past, we have found that this invariably causes problems for both us and our customers. By not performing adequate AML/KYC checks, the banks that we must operate through can and have shut down bank accounts, trapping customer funds and causing us a lot of headache. Therefore, we try to follow this process as best as we are able with as little impact to our users as possible.

What does the process involve?

First, we ask you to provide one piece of government issued photographic identification, which is usually either:

• A driver's license,
• A passport, or;
• A military identification card (surprisingly, we have a large number of customers in the armed forces of various countries.)

We then ask you provide some form of proof of residence document, which is an official document issued within the last three months bearing both your name and full street address. For obvious reasons, we cannot accept addresses with PO Boxes. Usually, we receive one of the following:

• A utility bill,
• An internet bill,
• A cell phone or mobile phone bill,
• A tax return,
• A residency certificate issued by your local government,
• A voting registration form, or;
• A medical insurance bill

Whilst many of our users submit bank statements as their proof of residence, we unfortunately cannot accept bank statements from our customers. This is because it is relatively easy for fraudsters to open an account at a less reputable banking service which does not check the accuracy of a person's stated address. It is then possible to use this bank's statement as a seed to open accounts at increasingly trustworthy establishments without ever having provided proof of residence in the first place.

What does your division do?

The main job of the Compliance Division is to check documents we receive from our customers, and make sure that all of the necessary documents have been submitted, and more importantly, that none of the submitted documents are forgeries. We check submitted documents against our database of received documents, against publicly available sources of information and also put them through advanced image analysis to identify forgeries. This is done to protect both Mt.Gox and our users from fraudulent activity.

What happens if my application is rejected?

If we reject your documents, we will always explain by email what went wrong in the verification process. The top 5 most common causes for rejection are:

• Not submitting all the documents. Many people only give us a driver's license or passport on their first attempt, without providing any proof of residence. This is the most common reason for rejection, and costs our customers the greatest amount of time in having their accounts verified.
• Submitting documents which are too dark or low-resolution to read. The second most common cause for rejection, illegible documents cannot be accepted. Usually this is the result of trying to take photos of documents using a webcam or camera phone, where poor low-light performance and grainy / low resolution images are the norm.
• Providing files in the wrong format. We have a specialised interface for reviewing documents and putting them through image analysis. At the moment, it can only handle files which are either JPEGs, PNGs or PDFs.
• Submitting a proof of residence document which has a different name on it to the photographic identification. This often happens when a user is still living with their parents, or if a spouse or room mate pays the utility bills. In these cases, a signed, notarised statement that you reside with whoever's name is on the proof of residence will be enough for us to verify you.
• Submitting documents in non-latin script. Unfortunately, the Compliance Division doesn't have any staff who can read Cyrillic, Korean, Arabic or Hebrew. As a result, when we receive documents in these languages we must ask our customers to provide English translations of them.

Please note that even if you are rejected the first time around, there is nothing wrong with this - we will keep working with you until we are able to get you verified.

Myths and rumours

I'd like to address some myths and rumours that have sprung up surrounding our AML/KYC process, just to allay any fears people might have about our mysterious need to harvest everyone's identity.

Mt.Gox sells personal information to the DEA

If we were going to sell your personal information to a law enforcement agency, it probably wouldn't be to the American Drug Enforcement Administration. We would make much more money selling it to our local Tokyo Metropolitan Police, since we wouldn't be losing any money on the currency conversion. This rumour probably sprung up because of an interview our CEO (MagicalTux for those on the forums) gave some time ago, where he mentioned sending a letter to the DEA explaining what Bitcoin was. This was back when a certain American Senator was investigating Bitcoin over the growing popularity of Silk Road.

We invite our users to read our privacy policy and repeated posts on the forums where we state that we will only provide your personal documents when legally required to do so. This will usually involve law enforcement agencies issuing us a court order compelling us to release an individual's information and is a very rare event even in the fiat banking world.

Mt.Gox makes money from personal identification some other way, like selling it to advertisers

While it would be a great income stream for us, sadly we are not legally allowed to sell your personal information. This is both because of our privacy policy, and because we are based in Japan, a country with some of the strictest privacy laws in the world. In fact, hiring staff to fill our Compliance Division, hosting and securing an extremely large amount of image data and carrying out the AML/KYC process is one of our more significant company expenses.

So while we'd love to be able to offset the costs a little, if we were ever caught doing this as a company, we would face serious fines and even jail time. We hope that knowing that this threat to us exists gives you confidence that we're being kept honest.

Mt.Gox has stricter AML/KYC requirements than other companies

This is actually true, in some cases. For example, before Dwolla changed their terms of service they allowed some users to become verified with only a driver's license, or only a proof of residence document. While we truly regret that we must ask for as much documentation as we do at Mt.Gox, we are providing services to users internationally in Europe, America, Russia, South-East Asia and elsewhere, and as such have to meet the harshest requirements of all of the countries we operate in.

Many of our German and Polish users have probably experienced a great deal of frustration getting verified with Mt.Gox, as Germany and Poland both issue an identity card which includes a person's current address. Unfortunately, because we must also follow American and Japanese rules, we also have to ask for separate proof of residence documents.

Conclusion

I hope you found my post interesting, or at least informative. If you have any questions about our process, please feel free to either PM me or post here and I'll be sure to answer! If you have a question about your specific application to become verified, please email our AML email address so we can maintain the confidentiality of your application.

I suggest getting the mods to sticky this at the top of the forum.  The issue comes up repeatedly and this thread will quickly drop off the page if it's not stickied.

Good point, I'll contact them now.

Taking huge damage from the complaining posts lately, Gox?
When are you going to understand that we, the informed customers, demand a fair and professional service?

You taint coins? We leave your exchange. Is that simple.
You delay withdrawals? We continue using intersango. It's not so hard to understand.
You freeze customers money? We contact other users in Bitcoin-OTC

Action-reaction.

Hello Polvos,

As I work in the Compliance Division, I can really only comment on your last point - freezing money.

Unfortunately, we are legally obliged to occasionally hold customer funds pending the outcome of an investigation by the banks we work with. We don't have any control over this, it's simply one of the consequences of carrying out a large number of large bank transfers. Of course, transferring funds person to person carries much lower risk of needing to provide AML documents, as the size of the transfer is usually much smaller, and is usually either a once off or done only occasionally.

If you only need once off or occasional conversion of Bitcoins into currency in small amounts, and can find someone you trust on Bitcoin-OTC, you are probably better off going through them if you don't want to risk one day having to provide personal information.

I do apologise that you are not satisfied with our service.

Hi Goat,

For point 1 - We don't give, sell, offer or in any other way make available our documents to law enforcement agencies unless we are legally compelled to do so  ;)... With the following exception:

For point 2 - We only report customers to the police relevant financial regulator when we have actual proof that they are actively involved in severe financial crimes such as money laundering or terrorist financing as we are legally obliged to do so. With regards to your particular case, I'll have to ask MagicalTux and get back to you. Would you prefer a public answer or for me to PM you?

Edit - oops, edited for clarity.

This AML/KYC "Process explained" is nice to see.  However, this explanation does absolutely nothing to address customer service issues.

There have been literally dozens and dozens of complaints related to customer service, particularly with regards to frozen funds.  Usually, these complaints are of the following nature:  They either 1) scrutinize Mt. Gox for their lack of clarity of specificity in responses to customer complaints,  2) scrutinize Mt. Gox for their failure to respond in a timely manner, or 3) scrutinize Mt. Gox for relaying false information, usually pertaining to the amount of time in which the issue is assumed to be resolved.

I have a few questions:

1)  What is the exact number of customer service representatives employed by Mt. Gox?  

2)  What are the exact minimum and exact maximum number of customer service representatives working and available for support at any given time?  

3)  What is the average salary/wage paid to each customer service representative employed by Mt. Gox?

4)  How many hours does a typical customer service representative employed by Mt. Gox work each week?

5)  In what manner does Mt. Gox hold itself accountable for relaying false information to its customers?  I'm thinking of Inaba's recent- and ongoing thread as I type this question.  It appears that it has been a theme for Mt. Gox to respond to such accusations indirectly, for example by citing AML/KYC regulations, and not directly by responding to the specific accusation.

6)  Is Mt. Gox willing to implement a 'guarantee' policy related to statements made to its customers (e.g. a time-frame wherein Mt. Gox has indicated that it will release frozen funds, wherein a transfer of funds will take place, etc.)?

I'll sticky it for now, but I'd much rather that there be a more general AML sticky that discusses the issue as well as this one does and then links to company-specific AML information, such as this thread.

@Goat, I'm having a hard time catching MagicalTux, if I can't catch him by COB today I'll have an answer for you on Monday. I'm very sorry for the delay.

@The Joint, I'm aware that there have been a lot of complaints recently about how customer service has been handled by us. I'm only authorised to talk about the activities of my division at the moment (AML/KYC), but I'll see if I can get an answer for you on each of your points. I should warn you ahead of time that I probably won't be allowed to discuss specific staff salaries for obvious reasons, but I'll see.

Sorry that I can't give better answers than this right now, but please be patient and I'll see what I can do.

Thanks Maged. Perhaps repentance would be willing to put together something more generalised? I'd be more than happy for this thread to be cannibalised for information.

Thanks for the post MTGox_Dylan.  I think most everyone was already aware of these FAQ points, though.  That has never really been the issue, so I'm not sure what is hoped to have been accomplished by making this post, other than as a distracting measure (This would have been perhaps more effective: NSFW (http://chanarchive.org/content/1_b/378881354/1328366326840.jpg)).

The real problem here is, as has already been at least partially mentioned:

1. The lack of transparency in the process.
2. The lack of communication.
3. The lies and false promises made by MTGox Support Staff with regards to AML/KYC.
4. Delay after delay, ostensibly under the guise of AML.
5. The just plain ludicrous decisions (Goat as an example).  Perhaps transparency would clear these up.
6. The fact that most decisions made by MTGox seem completely arbitrary, and nothing... NOTHING pisses off customers more than arbitrary decision making.  When your actions are not predictable in a given situation, you are wrong.  Period.

So while this post is nice and all, I'm not sure what you're hoping to accomplish other than to distract from the real issues surrounding MTGox.  My situation, that has been on going since April, is still unresolved.  I am not the only one in this situation and there are plenty of others in similar situations.  

Again, this does not seem to be an AML issue, it seems to be an insolvency issue.  MTGox is unable to fund even moderate sized fiat conversions, which leads many of us to believe you guys are basically bankrupt and a disaster waiting to happen.  The fact that no one has publicly denied this (not that we'd believe you at this point anyway, given MTGox track record of lies and falsehoods) certainly does not bolster confidence in MTGox at all.

Maybe this is the wrong thread to bring any of this up, but I don't want people to be distracted by this kind of thread from the real issue of MTGox being unable to meet their obligations to even moderate sized customers, especially when you are trying to gain new customers who will end up completely screwed when the Gox house of cards comes crashing down.  

subbed.

EDIT: i failed there are two threads...

Hi, nice to meet you, my name is Alex


I actually have a question regarding one of your statements, which i quote:


Do you have a list with such non-permitted services ? Please point me in the right direction so i can be able to find the regulations regarding this issue.

so, now you accept outside USA resident as verified users? cause 1 week ago i got a funny answer on a claim ticket for gox telling me "WE SORRY BUT YOUR DWOLLA ACCOUNT CANNOT BE VERIFIED CAUSE DWOLLA DONT ACCEPT OUTSIDE USA VERIFIED USERS"  ... guess dwolla thinks im a world citizen cause i got verified months ago and I EVEN WITHDRAW money from gox to dwolla before they come up with all this bullshit. Agree the proccess of this guy on MTGOX are so shady, you dont even know if the personal data the you send them is ok until 3 days later when they came with a NO aswer. Get more staff to work on your request people.

And this is exactly where I would start in creating a fake ID to satisfy the TOS of Mt. Gox.

~Bruno~

Now thats a good service you can setup for bitcoin  :D

I wrapped my text incorrectly. I was in the processing of fixing it while you were in the process of quoting.

~Bruno~

You forgot to mention when you freeze accounts based on "tainted" coins (the definition of which is left entirely to your discretion) as seen here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=73385.0

Of course after I made a big fuss about it your "legal obligations" were magically lifted and you released funds.

Notice that Dylan did not once comment on that thread of yours, 556j. In fact, the following was his first post (sans company hat) after getting out of Newbie on May 31, a place he asked to get whitelisted back in November of last year. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80173.msg932321#msg932321 I'm beginning to believe that Mt. Gox is run by a bunch of turtles, and I'm not talking about the Ninja kind.

~Bruno~

A client of mine gave me cash for a load of barn wood the other day. I now hold in my hands actual proof that he deals in cocaine, therefore I'm obligated to turn over the cash to my bank so that they can inform the proper authorities about this drug dealer. With that, I ask: At what point do you stop acting as an exchange and become policemen?

~Bruno~

This is so fucked up! I just now got to this post at the other thread.

~Bruno~

+1 for taking the time to post this.

Okay, three questions:

1) Why not move MtGox somewhere with no or lax AML laws? Isn't Japan expensive anyway?
2) While I understand Korean/Arabic/Hebrew may be difficult, learning to read Cyrillic script is by no means an impossible task, took me a week after studying for... 5 minutes a day. Unless you don't mind covering translation costs which you should be doing I don't see how that should be a problem for you.
3) Proof of residence - what about those who do not have a fixed place of residence? I know this is probably not very common but I have a friend without an ''official'' place of residence (meaning most govt. officials here think he is homeless) who is interested in Bitcoin, what would he have to submit to comply with your rules?

So basically this:

https://mtgox.com/terms_of_service


And well I'm on that page:


Therefore, if I read this correctly, if the long-arm of some US governmental agency is in the process of completing a dossier on me and asked Mt. Gox to close my account as well as provide everything in your database related to me, they would comply?

~Bruno~

I have an idea. Why don't you and I start a third one, then hopefully the Goons over at SA can start a forth.

If they can't even use a forum correctly, how the hell are they able to keep track of other people's money? I now wouldn't be surprise to learn that both bathrooms at their office--men and women--have urinals installed in each.

~Bruno~

Two things I'd like address:


1.) if a person transfers fiat from Dwolla or other entity to you and only then becomes aware of your AML/KYC requirements, you NEED an avenue available to reverse the funds or return the funds to the origin if they do not wish to comply.

The fact that my funds were frozen until I complied felt like being bullied...big time.  By holding my funds and demanding my driver's license or passport, you basically stole my funds and refused to give them back since I had no avenue of reversal or refund.

2.) You stated "While it would be a great income stream for us, sadly we are not legally allowed to sell your personal information."....

SADLY?  WTH???

Should I read "sadly" and "it would be a great income stream" to mean that the second you find a legal loophole, out the door goes my personal information? These aren't just email addresses and names and physical addresses. These are SS#s, DL #s, etc.

That was a pretty unnerving thing to hear.

It is kind of sad to be forced to the expense of insisting on having the information, and of checking it, and of having to store it, securely at that, and after all that expense not even be permitted to sell it so it would pay for itself.

Its not as if the powers that be pay for all that work they insist be done for them.

Maybe said powers should simply provide a signed-statement-of-identity site where Gox et all can just paste a signed message and get back a yes or no as to whether it is signed by person it claims to be from, without the Gox et all even knowing who it is that it is claiming to be, only that whoever it is, it is?

-MarkM-

You're not bound by AML/KYC requirements unless you're a reporting entity providing a financial service as defined by the relevant legislation in your country or a non-financial service to which those requirements apply (lawyers, accountants and jewellers have recently become "reporting entities providing a non-financial service" in Australia).

While you don't have any AML/KYC obligations, your bank does and they could actually freeze your account pending verification of your identity and proof of the source of funds if they have reason to believe the transaction is "suspicious".

Thanks, I appreciate it.

By the way, the reason I am asking about wage/salary in addition to asking about the number of employed service representatives is so that I can get some idea of whether or not Mt. Gox can afford to hire additional personnel.  I would be more interested in the average salary/wage paid to its customer service reps than specific salaries/wages.

Well, it seems I've found Mt. Gox's server and, I believe, Dylan (standing next to server). No wonder Bruce didn't show any video of the servers during his stay in Japan last year, for the server was a lot smaller back in the day.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8158/7354783790_2098d7c831_z.jpg

LOL


That server couldn't even run a tenth of mtgox's trading engine load.

They did publish their financials in January.  It's a bit of a pain to work out because they list some items in Yen, some in BTC and some in USD but they listed their monthly operational costs as JYen 5,000,000 (USD 62,900).  They listed their monthly server costs including back ups as USD 5,000.

https://mtgox.com/press_release_20120201.html

If you think Mt Gox is bad wait till you use kalyhost  :D

Hi All,

Unfortunately I can't reply to everyone individually due to the volume of responses this thread.

First to cover some general points:

I apologise for creating two threads for the same issue, but was attempting to make this information as widely available as possible. Most new users will look at the Bitcoin Discussion page before they come here, and AML information is more useful for new users. I will of course reply to questions in this thread here, and questions in that thread there.

I apologise for perhaps taking too light-hearted an approach to a topic which for some users is a very sensitive issue. To reiterate, we absolutely don't sell personal information and would not do so even if we were legally able to.

To answer some more specific points:

---

@Goat, according to MagicalTux, your account was banned because there were many indicators on your account which pointed to money laundering. I'm very sorry that I inadvertently implied that you were linked to terrorism, I was speaking very generally at that point. Furthermore, as you know we've now cleared up the misunderstanding with you and have since re-enabled your account. To give more details, we noticed that fiat currency withdrawals were going to accounts with different names multiple countries. It also initially appeared that stolen identities were being given in the AML process, as multiple individuals from various countries' IDs had been submitted. As such, we were under the mistaken impression that criminal activity was going on under your account.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience, and the mistake on our part. To make a definitive statement, we are now aware that you are not carrying out any criminal activity using your Mt.Gox account. For those wanting more information, this has also been answered elsewhere: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78244.0

---

@The Joint, I've been given authorisation to answer some of your questions as follows:

1)  What is the exact number of customer service representatives employed by Mt. Gox? 

At present, 3. However, we are about to finalise a contract with an external support provider which will increase this number to 4-5.

2)  What are the exact minimum and exact maximum number of customer service representatives working and available for support at any given time? 

At present, all 3 staff work during Japanese business hours, Monday to Friday. This will soon change to include 24x7 support, including live chat and phone support.

4)  How many hours does a typical customer service representative employed by Mt. Gox work each week?

Staff work roughly 40 hours a week.

5)  In what manner does Mt. Gox hold itself accountable for relaying false information to its customers?  I'm thinking of Inaba's recent- and ongoing thread as I type this question.  It appears that it has been a theme for Mt. Gox to respond to such accusations indirectly, for example by citing AML/KYC regulations, and not directly by responding to the specific accusation.

Unfortunately, like any company Mt.Gox is prone to the occasional mistake. When we do we always try to correct it as quickly as possible, as happened in Goat's case. However, we are legally obliged to not discuss the specifics of ongoing AML investigations which sometimes forces us to be vague and indirect. We are always very sorry in these cases for the manner in which we must communicate.

6)  Is Mt. Gox willing to implement a 'guarantee' policy related to statements made to its customers (e.g. a time-frame wherein Mt. Gox has indicated that it will release frozen funds, wherein a transfer of funds will take place, etc.)?

We can't do this, as much as we'd like to (if I'm understanding your question correctly.) This is mainly because often, the funds won't be frozen by us but by one of our banking partners. Once this happens we have no control over the investigation, we just have to support it as much as we are able or risk having our entire account frozen. If we were to make a statement along the lines of "if your funds have been marked for AML investigation, they will be returned to you regardless of the outcome after XX days" it would be both unenforceable and untrue, as in cases where money laundering can be proven the funds are transferred to the relevant financial regulator pending the outcome of a law enforcement investigation.

---

Tainted coins are an issue completely separate to AML, and as such I can't offer any information on this point. I believe MagicalTux has explained the tainted coin policy elsewhere on the forum recently, for those who are interested.

Bruno, with regards to our terms of service quoted, we are legally obliged to do so. Even though we are based in Japan, we have American customers and as such, under U.S. law, are forced to comply with American authorities. All U.S. users should be aware of this fact, but please note that we would not perform any actions until receiving the relevant court order.

Regarding releasing funds when an account is held for AML processing, we cannot do this for the reason noted under point 6 above in general. In cases where an internal AML investigation is underway (in other words, an investigation being performed by us rather than an external banking institution) then we do have some leeway on this issue depending on the legal circumstances of the hold.

I hope this answers most of the questions which have been asked, I'll now head over to the other thread and answer any outstanding ones there.

I don't know what is happening with your verification system, but I was denied because you did not acknowledge a bill I uploaded. I uploaded another bill so I hope it gets approved soon. I have been doing business with mtgox regularly for over a year. All I want to do is make Dwolla deposits. Fortunately, Bitinstant is there, though it costs a lot in fees.

I'm with cbeast, I've been doing business with Mt Gox for a long time, and all they're doing is treating me like shit over this AML process.

I've provided everything they've asked for, and now they're asking me for a LOCAL GOVERNMENT ISSUED, NOTARIZED PROOF OF RESIDENCY.

I live at an apartment complex, and let's just say that the office staff are less than competent.

I can't get them more than I've already given (which is photocopies of Driver's License and a signed Proof of Residency from my apartment complex, as well as my last invoice) but yet they are still denying my application.

When I requested my money back so that I could close my account and just go do business elsewhere, they denied that also, and said "we would really appreciate it if you continued the process."

Whatever, i'm so annoyed by them.

People have to understand one thing, we, and this will apply to any other Exchange at some point, have to follow government and banks rules. Do we like these rules? Not always. Do we enjoy enforcing them? Hell no! Do we have a choice? Not at ALL!

Unless all of you start mining BTC, uses these Bitcoins to pay stuff in Bitcoins and never ever cash out or buy Bitcoins, we will have to follow these rules, coz at ANY GIVEN TIME, if we are not capable to give the proper documentation that a Bank for example need for a deposit or a withdraw they will use this opportunity to shut us down from using their service again. And I am not talking about huge amounts there but if they want to be a pain in the XXX they will and this even for $10.

Banks rules are different from one Bank to another and they totally control us since we NEED them to help you to cash in or out. They are totally closed and will never give you any reasons or details on why a wire is blocked or why they start investigating a certain transfer. And with their Terror list, if you are unfortunate enough to bear the same name as a person in this watch list, hell will fall over us.

At the beginning they did not really care about us, so we could do pretty much everything we wanted, opening an account there, offering such service, but since :
1) We grew and started to handle a lot of money
2) The popularity of Bitcoin and the Risk for them

Banks are scrutinizing our every move.

Now sure you can go to another exchange and we totally understand that, but if tomorrow XYZ Exchange start handling as much as we are handling, they will face the same problems as we do and they will become as "unpopular" as we are.

So at this point there are not many solutions. And our goal is to make sure that we are as CLEAN as possible in the eyes of these people in order to continue to help Bitcoin to move forward. Sometimes we are rather "aggressive" on these aspects and ask more than what an average bank may ask or need clearer documents, but this is in NO WAY to bother you but just to tell Governments and Banks that we are doing things by the books and that we are in no way criminals!

We know that there are many things that need to improve, and we are working on it, unfortunately and since we are working at an international level there are many things that need to be done at the same time which is slowing us down. Things take time and time is something that with Internet and IT Success have radically change in the eyes of many people where things are moving at Light speed, but when it comes to Banks and Government, time is set on another scale that frustrate all of us. The best example I have for you, and I cannot go too much in details, is when we explain to a Government entity what is Bitcoin and what would be the perfect set of rules that we must follow to make sure that we can continue our business in peace. After our lawyer gave them all documentation, met them at several occasions, we asked, when can you give us an answer? They replied : We cannot commit to any time on this matter and it will take as much time as needed to get back to you...

So yes we understand your frustration, yes we are working on improving this Process, Yes we have some solution in mind to help you, but remember that we do not do that to bother you, but we do that in order to protect everyone's assets here and make sure that the service is running smoothly. And more Bitcoin will become popular more things will get complicated. After all if any Government or Banks does not need to make Bitcoin illegal to stop it, they can easily do it by forcing Exchange out of the equation and making impossible for people to cash in or cash out.

PS Sorry for this long speech and for the many mistakes it may contain, I wrote this on my way to the office.

I have never cashed Bitcoins out for fiat, but now that I can't it makes me wary. I withdrew my Dwolla cash since I cannot deposit it at MtGox. I get credit card applications for nothing more than a credit check. Why is this becoming such a hassle? I hope this gets cleared up soon.

In an ideal world we would love to kill all these intermediaries (Banks and equivalent) that are in fact making things more complicated and more expensive... But until then we do not have much choice.

I uploaded more, but received no acknowledgement. Do I need to open a ticket?

I believe it has already been made clear and that you understand the situation. But here it is again for you to read. Also please understand that I cannot give all the details on what have been done here on this forum since we would like to keep your personal information as private as possible.

1) We can't explain all the details on how do we "Flag" people or how our process work. If we do so publicly we will then offer a unique opportunity for "Bad" elements to bypass or security. So I am sorry but you will never have a clear answer on how our security features works on this matter. Please understand we are doing so in order to protect people assets including yours and our system integrity.

2) What you did is a text book case of money laundering for us based in Japan (Remember we are in Japan). I am not saying you were trying to do something bad, and you have been cleared for this. But Check all Best Practice on this matter and you will see immediately what went wrong. To give you an example, I am French, Living in Japan I own an account in France and Japan with Visa Cards attached to them. Every single time I am sending money from France to Japan, the Japanese Bank call me to check WHY ON EARTH I am sending money to myself? They won't clear the transfer if I won't give them the reasons. Things are even more complicated when I receive money from other people or companies. So in your case you can understand that some flagged has been raised.

3) What you did is against our TOS, TOS that you agreed upon. TOS that has been written by our Law Firm in compliance with Japanese Law.

4) You refused to comply with basic AML/KYC. Sorry but it is how things work, once again what you did is text book case for basic money laundering and we have strict instructions on this matter and are ask by our bank to follow them if we want to use their service. Being reluctant to submit "Proof" and proper documentations did not help your case and increased potential problems with our Bank and Japanese authorities.

5) Not being capable to verify your identity and the clear connection with the person whom you wanted to send the fund give us no other choice to report this matter to the police here in Japan. We are not the law and only the Law can decide what can be done until things are cleared. Also failing to report any suspicious activity to Japanese Law can put us in trouble and ultimately force us to stop our activity temporarily or indefinitely.
Without much solutions in our hands and your continuous refusal we had to move forward. As for today you gave us all necessary documentation and "proof" to clear your name on this matter and the case is closed. The Japanese Police has no involvement in this matter at this point.

Conclusion:
1) You do not have to worry for this matter as far as Mt.Gox is concerned.
2) You do not have to worry about the Japanese Police for this matter. Case Cleared and Close.
3) We cannot communicate any information regarding pending case, ongoing case, past case unless we are requested by law to do so. Failing to this basic duty will be heavily sanctioned here in Japan.
4) We cannot give you the details on how things works when it comes to Money Laundering for example since it will help "Bad" elements to by pass our security measures.

I sincerely hope that this post will put an end to this matter and clear your mind.

Regards

No need at this time, it will be cleared soon, we have a rather large amount of AML waiting to be processed. But don't worry we won't forget you.

Wrong, we do not assume anything, we are just sticking to the fact we have in possession. Each countries as its own set of rules and being in Japan we are obliged to follow them. Remember Japanese Law are really different from Thai or US Ones.

Is a long waiting period for international withdrawal (I'm waiting from June 1) is due to large number of cases of AML?

Panda Mouse

LOL @ how you would love to be able to sell our personal info to the highest bidder, if not for those pesky privacy laws.  ::)

It is explained somewhere on this forum that 5% of our International Wire are also "touched". This said June 1 is old and I would like to check what's going on with this withdrawal. Could you please give me either a ticket number of or your Reference number of your Withdraw (Sent by email).

Today I received my money (22 days), thank you for help.

Panda Mouse.

I cannot seem to get verified by mtgox since starting this process on June 6. If there is a problem with the process, I would like to know. Otherwise, are there any other exchanges that accept Dwolla for deposits?

I decided not to get verified on MT.GOX since it would raise the withdrawal limits.
And those are as far as i know not configurable.

Now that didnt matter much since the limit is 400BTC and i lost 381 that for some
reason got transferred out without anyone logging in (according to logs from MT.GOX).

And MT.GOX blatantly did not even try to answer my question about how it happened
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89142.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89142.0).


However, this thread is about AML/KYC and to get that to work you need configurable
withdrawal limits.


//GoK

I am waiting for an international withdrawal (a big one) which I have initiated on the 11th of June, and it looks like it hasn't even been "processed" yet :(

Can someone please let me know what is going on (ticket #29927)?

I have been trying to withdraw a few hundred dollars from MtGox. My account wasn't verified, because the FAQ says I don't need to be verified.
https://support.mtgox.com/entries/20919111-aml-account-statuses
Specifically "No verification needed (Level 0) - All accounts are initially Level 0"
"Daily withdrawal limit (24hrs): 1,000 USD (or equivalent) "

These days, I try to withdraw to Dwolla, and I thought everything was going smooth. But the $$ still haven't come in to dwolla, so I ask why.
MtGox rep replied that I need to provide document to become verified. This is absolutely not necessary as their own FAQ stated that I can withdraw up to $1000 a day without becoming verified.
It's been 3 days, and my funds are still stuck in MtGox. I've since sent them the documents.
If MtGox keep doing this, all their customers are just going to other exchange sites.

Like we explained you on another thread your money has been sent last Monday. Please confirm.

Regards

I am in the same situation, last month I tried to withdraw a couple hundred dollars to dwolla.  First the transaction said it was confirmed, then it was cancelled without even notifying me.  A week ago I logged into Mt. Gox only to discover that the funds were never transferred.  I started reading about the "verified account" nonsense, I couldn't understand why a transaction for $200 bucks would not be allowed.  I decided just to get my account verified.  After a three day process I finally had my account verified, I initiated the transfer out and STILL nothing has hit dwolla. 

I have no idea what is going on at Mt. Gox but it cannot be good.  This process used to take minutes, I have been trying to get my money out for over a month now.

Hi

Yes you are right Level 0 does not require any AML documents, however, due to Dwolla's new TOS and since we are still waiting for them to give us a "Green Light" in continuing doing business with them we had to change our AML requirements. (One of my colleague will update the support page for that https://support.mtgox.com/entries/20919111-aml-account-statuses).

However, and I am sorry that you did miss this announcement, but we release on this Forum, FaceBook, Twitter, Google+ and on our Mt.Gox Homepage the following Press Release https://mtgox.com/press_release_20120518.html explaining our new terms when it comes to AML and DWOLLA. Also we sent an email notification to all Dwolla user with the above Press Announcement.

So bottom line if you want to use Dwolla you need to be Level 1. If you prefer not upgrading your account to Level 1 and Keep your Level 0 account for your needs you still can withdraw your money but need to use the international wire method.

Hope this answer your question.

It has been explained here over and over. Dwolla decided to change its TOS when it comes to Bitcoin, this in order to protect their clients and their company and we have no problem whatsoever with them willing to protect their business. Dwolla requires now companies like us to submit certain documentations to issue them a "Writing Consent" that allow companies like us to freely continue to do business with Dwolla. As for today and after submitted these documents several weeks ago we are still waiting fro Dwolla to get back to us putting us in a very delicate situation with the fear of being shutdown at any single instant and have the funds on our Dwolla account frozen.

Why not completely disable Dwolla, now that Bitinstant offers paypal withdraw? 6% fee sucks, but hopefully it would be instant.

We have debated this internally many times, still Dwolla "works" and it is really cheap, on the other side we should have our own very cheap solution within this summer (Mid August) that will allow instant Withdraw and Deposit in Different countries... So we prefer focusing on this right now and keep on supporting Dwolla until then, or until they get back to us.

Thanks, I initiated a support ticket with Dwolla and referenced this discussion thread.  I am sure that when everyone knows where the bottleneck is we will get this worked out.

Thanks, hope it will have the effect we are all waiting for, we, Mt.Gox try to do everything by the book and would love to continue working with Dwolla and comply with their terms. I personally sent an email to Ben Milne 22nd but have yet received an email from him.

How odd, I got this back from my support ticket with Dwolla:

Michael,

Thank you for the clarification, I was under the impression you were sending funds to a third party. It appears that your account is active and verified, if the payment has not reached the Dwolla system we have no control over how long the transfer will take. If another Dwolla user has initiated a transfer to your Dwolla account you will see it in your "pending" transactions or "Money In" tab. I do not see any payments being made to your Dwolla balance at this time, therefore I am not able to see what the hold up is. I would recommend getting in contact again with the third party in question, to see if the funds have successfully been sent to your Dwolla account.

Thank you,

Dwolla Support

What's up with this?

There is nothing odd here and this has nothing do to with you being a verified and active Dwolla user. The problem has I stated earlier is that Dwolla has changed its TOS and impose us, as well as other Bitcoin oriented business working with them to comply with new TOS. Only Business approved by Dwolla and that received the so call "Writing Consent" will be in the clear. As for today, after sending them everything they asked us, after personally contacted Ben Milne to get this done one way or another, we are still in the "Dark".
So in order to avoid another "Technocash" fisaco we decided to be EXTREMELY cautious with Dwolla in every aspect resulting a slowdown in Withdrawals.

I think I understand what Mt Gox support is saying and hope they'll correct me if I'm wrong.  It sounds like Mt Gox is limiting the amount of user funds being put at risk by only putting a certain amount of Dwolla withdrawals through at any given time, so that if Dwolla does suddenly lock their account they will be able to reimburse users out of their own reserves rather than those funds being unavailable to users indefinitely.

TradeHill claimed in their lawsuit that they had put $2 million through Dwolla in the month prior to folding.  It's not unreasonable to assume that MtGox does a similar volume of Dwolla business but if they kept enough funds in their Dwolla account to cover anticipated withdrawals for the coming month, two weeks or whatever, they'd risk a huge amount of money being frozen at no notice.  The only way to avoid that risk is to put smaller volumes of transactions through and wait until they've been fully processed before putting any more funds into the Dwolla system.  While we don't know what their risk tolerance is, obviously larger withdrawals bring them closer to that ceiling than smaller withdrawals.

That's how I understand what they're saying, anyway.

No need for correction.

I'm sorry to bring this up again, but I'm still unclear about your policy here. If emphasis is indeed your policy, why did you report Goat to the police? Did you have proof of him being involved in severe financial crimes or not?

They mean a suspicion as defined by AML/CTF requirements.  They're legally obliged to make the report if the transaction fits certain "suspicious" criteria.  Some things must be reported no matter what.  Others are less clear cut and may not need to be reported if the user can supply information which proves the transaction is legitimate.

It would help a lot if they re-wrote that part of their policy to make its meaning clearer.

i keep clicking these threads to get a clear(er) picture of what's happening, but alas!

i fail.

"will ONLY report ... if we HAVE ACTUAL PROOF" sounds pretty clear to me.

to be fair, I can't find this phrasing on https://mtgox.com/terms_of_service (any more?)

Is there some place (other than the one I just linked) where I can look at the effective policies mtgox is applying?

So far I only had a pleasant experience with this guys. I only exchanged several ks with them, but they are faster than my ability to produce bitcoins ... :)

Tried to verify, but I keep getting an error. It just says "Error: undefined" when I fill out my name.

How does a company prove it's identity? Does this rule out Panamanian companies?

My guess would be that a principal would sign indicating such.  Give them a call; it wouldnt be the first time Mt Gox has this situation.

Got a reply:


No.2 goes beyond a lot of corporate banking requirements and NYC and is probably an error.
 
I guess to maintain privacy you should be able to incorporate an additional separate company for no.2 but in practice they'd probably just ignore principles.
(you can't forge a contract between a company and a natural person, only company to a company such as a sole trader). So requesting things that are associated with the natural person such as a photo is misleading, even if it is a very common mistake to see.

So, how do the competition rate for KYC? Are the other exchanges doing it properly?

What is not proper?

I think asking for ID on 10% of shareholders is not KYC guidelines. Can anyone confirm?

Based on which jurisdiction? A Guideline is a Guidline and you can implement many other options on top of it in order to strengthen your security.

just use someone else's details...

As in, KYC on any shareholder who has a 10% or more equity stake in the controlling company. This is standard KYB (know your business) practice and is generally required for any business that gets acquired to process credit card payments, for example.

In a lot of places it's standard in order to be able to even register or acquire shareholdings in a private company (and it definitely applies for shareholdings over a certain % in public companies).  Many financial institutions also require that any signatories on a business account fully verify their identities in addition to the business itself verifying.

There are many things which can trigger enhanced KYC requirements and ongoing customer due diligence is an actual requirement of AML compliance.  Each organisation has to develop its own framework for these processes, but the penalties for non-compliance are so huge that entities tend to err on the side of caution and try to exceed the required standards (which are often only laid down as broad principles) rather than risk falling short of compliance.  

although skipping some posters i did read MTGox's posts. i will make this post based on my observations as some readers still seem unsure.

MTGox is not making your private bitcoin trades public knowledge. but they do have to account for the FIAT that crosses peoples hands.

it would be a far worse place if KYC was needed for even the small penny trades.. so be thankful for that guys.

other exchanges that don't ask for identification, don't accept bank transfers direct thus the banking regulations don't apply directly. they instead use money-gram or other go betweens for their small amounts reducing them of so many compliance issues in regards to FIAT handling.

what you do with your bitcoin is whatever you want. but if you want fiat, then you have to accept the fiat laws.

if you are claiming you want complete anonymity even when requesting FIAT. Then do yourselves a favour and don't cash out into FIAT. you cannot change FIAT laws by complaining on a website forum.
Instead get out of your computer chairs and get the real world merchants that you use to start taking bitcoin direct instead. then FIAT laws wont apply to you.

EG: get your local 7-11 to accept bitcoin, along with your local pizza place.

if you know of a handful of people in your town that use bitcoin, then get together and plan out how to avoid fiat laws.
EG: when bitinstant release their prepaid card. get the 7-11/pizzaplace manager to order one. and then when u get your food ask the manager for his cards bitcoin address so that you can pay for your food.
then tell all your friends that if they ask the manager they can pay him using a bitcoin address. while the manager knows he will receive FIAT to his card.

he of course would go through AML/KYC checks not you. thus solving your anonymity issues.

Oh dear.

After this I switched to Bitstamp using my online handle name and setup Google Authenticator. I then had my phone stolen last week. They are now asking for ID to disable the Google Auth, which of course I don't have since the name I signed up with doesn't exist...

 it's not a small balance and it's in dollars, not BTC.

Well that just sucks.  :-\

Bitcoin Central requires only the photo ID, not the utility bill. So they have better policies, don't?

This sort of post cannot help the Bitcoin world.

A medical insurance bill?
What about an auto insurance bill?

If less than 3 month it should be fine.

Just curious, since it bills every 6 months:
What about a state ID combined with an 'official' proof of auto insurance card, that has a matching address?
Thanks

Ok despite any claim about keeping privacy, the information you have can be taken by subpoena or other legal process from you.(and sometime illegal by bureaucrats/executive decsions that are just complied with)

thus it is not safe and defeats the foundational purpose of a crypto currency...excepting a person can send the money on x other forwarding addresses...but all these transaction are visible.


/thread.

Lets break this down.



>>which means always and you will fold to any request




NO NO NO you choose to comply you could always say no and face those consequences, you choose obey particular rules or laws, this "we are legally obliged/no control" is rubbish.

>>Journalist routinely go to prison for not revealing sources

what you are saying is you will bend over any time your are asked to by anyone that looks semi official….

I mean just for a start you could immediately seek and injunction against any warrant.

You could claim it is an invalid warrant or request and fight it through the courts.

But no you reel out the old line

"Unfortunately, we are legally obliged to occasionally hold customer funds pending the outcome of an investigation by the banks we work with. We don't have any control over this"

I have seen people in companies refuse to hand over information to police who had a warrant, because they cited supervening legislation, or had other obligations under other laws, so you ARE NEVER LEGALY OBLIGED YOU CHOOSE THEN AND THERE TO FOLLOW WHAT SOME GUY HOLDING A CLAIMED LEGAL DOCUMENT TO DO

I mean your basically going back to the Befehl ist Befehl defence which reverse according to the victors needs and covers all the atrocities done.

You have confused Compliance with compliance

That's just plain stupid. Why did you set up google authenticator without a paper backup? Just ALWAYS print out the code/qr code that you import into your google authenticator app. Or take a screenshot, encrypt it and back it up digitally.

Otherwise, you can't complain if you loose access forever. I mean: phones get lost and stolen a lot, don't they?

Go to a notary public with your identity and residence documents.  Fill out a statement that the phone was stolen, and have it notarized.
Include a bank account under the same name.
Scan all the documents and send them in, and ask for a release of funds to the bank account.

While I do understand everything you say, but please, explain how can both this:


AND this:


be true  at the same time?

How can anything force YOU, the human beings, to implement extra torture for your customers (at your cost), instead of extra protecting them (at your risk), while you say you dislike the idea of torturing them?

Please answer.

You are forced to report anything suspicious noticed. OK, that is practical.
How can any human being be forced to notice "suspicious" operations? How can YOU be forced to judge anything as suspicious (distrustful) in the first place???
Is it possible to manipulate human's TRUST from outside and against his will??? Oh, don't say that is true.
Why YOU may be forced to distrust us (and our operations), but we still have no choice, but to trust you?

Please answer!

Why do you prosecute your users for doing "suspicious" and "unlawful" operations, but do not prevent them from doing that? Why not educate them? Put a warning maybe?
Why should I guess how to not get frozen in the first place? Where are the instructions? Why do you care of NOT disclosing them?
WHO on the Earth can force you to actually CARE about not disclosing the details???
Afraid of something? Then do it anonymously. What is the problem?

Please answer!!!

OK, KYC/AML are the "fiat world" requirements.
But then why did you freeze BTC accounts that tried to withdraw large BTC amounts while unverified,
however you accepted large amount payments to that accounts and not allowed to return them back.
How can a Bank/Govt/Whatever force you to NOT return BTCs to the rightful owner??? WTF?
How can they know in the first place and judge you for doing that???

C'mon I feel being brain F**KED by you, MTGOX!!! But please answer.

Anybody who submits dox are surely going to be first on the list in the coming gold and Bitcoin confiscations.

I still have coins stuck on the exchange but if I give out some docs I'm just going to be risking everything. Is it worth it?

There appears to be no way round it. Its frustrating because I thought there was a deadline for this. A few days ago I was able to withdraw a coin. Perhaps where I went wrong was trying to withdraw more. I'll keep trying. Perhaps I can slowly release coins or whatever over a period of years.

People of Cyprus I know how you feel.

I have submitted a pasport and a tax return which are both written in Danish. Can this be accepted?

Also, when I am on the Mt. Gox. site it tells me the following:
"Warning: You have only partially completed the AML process. Before we can review your submission, you must provide address information on the AML page here. "

But I have already uploaded both required documents and pressed the "Finish" button. Should I be worried?

Regards,
Sword Smith

When is MTgox moving to California?  Is the partnership or alliance official with coinbase?

What??  I would be very surprised if Gox moved into the states, but I could be wrong.

They are partnering with Coinlab.

I know that, that seems even more unlikely that they would move their operation into the states.

Though I am hardly Japanese or an authority on law, my background in business is such that I think I can field some answers which might actually satisfy your needs.

You use the idea of "force" as an absolute. While it's true that there is a choice, it's a choice between compliance and jail time. You can always strengthen the security of an organization in favor of privacy, but you may not protect information which is criminal in nature, or you are considered an accomplice to the crime.

So what is or isn't a crime? That depends on the laws which apply the MtGox.


See the above.


This has always bothered me. But the reality is that if they offer "legal advice" in any way, they can be held liable and have criminal charges filed against them for practicing law without a license in many places. Hardly fair, but it's what's required.

MtGox doesn't prosecute; they are merely bound by the legal requirements of where they do business, which is apparently Tokyo. Because there is REAL money being traded and valued, the police have a way which forces companies to care about NOT disclosing information, because there are laws against that sort of helpful thing.

So don't blame the exchange, dude... it's the fault of crafty criminals and over-reactive politicians.
Freezing transactions is once again the "fiat world" requirement--you answered your own question without realizing it.

You're reacting as if a temporary freeze is theft of your bitcoins... it's not, it's a measure which the international banking community REQUIRES in order to operate as a currency exchange, and enforced by international and national laws around the world. So if you misbehave in any way with your BTC, you CAN have them frozen until things become clear.

Again, I have no connect to Mt Gox or its employees (other than being a new applicant), but your being ticked off at them for following the law won't get you unfrozen any faster. It's merely a requirement for them to operate within the law, and since BTC have a perceived value around the world, freezing them is not just legal, it's required.

I talked with support and they told me that I'll have to provide english translation of my polish documents. That means for me spending a lot of cash. Since polish IS based on latin, then where is the problem? My friend has account on Gox, and he didnt had such problems. Smells like laziness to me.

Let's say no passport, no driving license - how to verify for Mt Gox - Student ID ?

Do you think what are you talking is a joke? I just want to withdraw 4 bitcoin, it tell me "Your account is currently pending review, please visit https://mtgox.com/forms/verification"

Please tell me there are some government or some bank to force you to prevent me to withdraw my bitcoin??

And please tell me why my account is pending review??

Your Position in the Verification Queue 20380 Can you do some important things other waste time to do it?


If you reject my documents, is it true that I never give my bitcoin back?

And you prevent me to withdraw bitcoin, Why don't you prevent or notice me when I sent bitcoin to mtgox?

Please answer these questions clearly and directly!

I uploaded documents , but no reply yet.

hy
i keep sending verification pdf´s and everytime you answer: the adress you gave us doesnt match the adress on the pdf you sent. BUT i cant find any form to correct the adress is gave you. plz help
gtz

Bottom line: Mined your security. I'd not use them for wallet services without a bit more than 1 password between me and all my assets.

My wife needs to submit AML stuff, but as all the bills are in my name she has a problem.

Can she submit passport as proof of name and driving license as proof of address?

Or do we have to change the account name on the electricity account so that she can withdraw her Bitcoins?

I am waiting more than a week to validate wire transfer adress. I mailed MtGox, and submited to helpdesk. My question is - WTF?

UPD. answer from MtGox support

Hello,

Due to a huge volume of requests, the AML team will take at least 1 week to respond.

Thanks,

MtGox.com Team

A kind soul please advise. I want to get my account at Mt.gox funded very quickly ($5k). Which procedure is faster according to your experience.

1. EUR funding by SEPA (verification process at Mt.gox + money transfer + crediting the account)

I live in Europe and decided to use SEPA transfer to fund my account at Mt.gox (EUR sent to Mt.gox's account in Poland). I am waiting in a queue for verification (I uploaded the ID + utility bill images). I am 25k in the line, which means - if successful - I will be verified in two weeks time. It will take at least 1 day to make the transfer and 6 days for Mt.gox to put that money in my account (verified by a Polish guy who made an intrabank payment from BZ WBK to BZ WBK). The whole procedure will take 21 days. This is very long.

2. USD funding by International Wire Transfer ( money transfer + crediting the account + check process at Mt.gox)

Mt.gox write on their website in regard to International Wire Transfers (USD sent to Mt.gox's account in Japan): ''First-timer depositors are requested to upload their copy of the official ID to facilitate this process.'' - I already uploaded the image of the official ID. Further Mt.gox write ''International wire transfers usually take 2-5 business days to reach us. All deposits are subject to AML check (check is not verification!) due to more stringent AML requirements and this process may take up to 24 hours after the funds have reached us.''

Am I correct to assume that the procedure of funding the account by International Wire Transfer takes only 6 days (5 days for the money to reach mt.gox and 1 day due to AML)?

Please advise.

Thanks

None of that will work Loozik so forget about Mtgox, try using bitstamp.net, they're fast and professional. I'm not affiliated just a happy customer.

So for withdrawal, so in order to use sepa or any euro bank transfer I have be verified? Or is sepa separate from euro wires? Can I receive a non-sepa euro transfer?

What if I use USD/PLN to withdraw and use the same polish bank they use? Will I need to get verified then? And what will be the withdrawal fees on bank wires If I use their bank WBK?

Also off topic but what's the smallest amount of bitcoins/dollars you can trade at mtgox?

So the verification team was beefed up,

what about the security and speed, can mtgox hire more experienced people?,

and buy some actual trading technology used for actual trading?

or are they too busy  verifying more people to pump the price and doing insider trading?

After 16+ days waiting for mtgox to verify the account and had to deal with the frozen withdrawal restriction, the account finally was verified, but the withdrawal limit stays at $1000.  Emailed support, but no reply or update of status after 2+ days.  Mtgox needs to get their business straight, it is not like they are operating on a shoestring budget, judging by the volume, they are doing very well just collecting commissions.

I know you cant accept bank statements, but what about credit card statements? I live with my mother, and all of the utilities are in her name or my father's name....

after waiting XX days for the verification status upgrade to be processed, the request for a limits increase should at least be handled in a prioritized manner, instead of going to the normal support ticket queue, incurring another XX days delay.

it is really frustrating to receive the status complete email and then having to wait another week for the limits increase...

I am currently applying to become verified. And the reason why people only submit a drivers license is because, submitting the proof of residency simply does not work. I have tried for a million times to upload my proof of residency and it just will not upload. It shows a red bar, and that's it.

After logging in and out to see if it resolves the matter, it send my application out automatically. Had to wait for almost two weeks to get a decision, which obviously was that i failed and need to apply again. And once again proof of residency will not upload.
To check if there is something wrong with the file, I tried to upload proof of my driving license on the proof of residency section , and it still does not work. It send my application of automatically again, and I have to wait for 2 weeks again to receive the same decision.
For a company with such large amounts of revenue, you make quite a meal of dealing with customers needs. Not to mention the in-capacities of your systems and website.
I would not be surprised if it is only 1 member of staff going through all of the applications, since the rate at which they are resolved seems to be a couple of hundreds per day.
Bitcoin is a lovely concept, but companies like yours taint it for the worse. I'm afraid Bitcoin will never gain mass adoption, whilst it is being associated with Mtgox.
[/list]

someone knows more about this, is this true? http://pastebin.com/ePiAqkfA

This! Same situation. I am so sad about this, spend lot of time to scan all this stuff, waited more than 2 weeks, wrote lot of letters, and when I verified my limit is same. Makes me cry

UPD: Gox quickly answered and increased my limit. However it did not ask me for google authenticator, that I protected withdrawl...

So what is the deal with straight btc withdrawals now?  Do I have to submit personal data to get my coins out?

Sooooooooo looks Like Gox may have a few AML things to figure out itself........

All Mt. Gox user accounts are required to be verified in order to perform any currency deposits and withdrawals


 - https://mtgox.com/press_release_20130530.html

 Cox continues to lie and treat some of us like criminals solely on basis of their mistaken suspicions.

I can't withdraw even BTC without verification, because I've used a VPN to connect. So, to the Gox AML dumb@$#&* that looks like a violation of their TOS by having more than one account, because there are others who access their accounts through the same VPN IP.

The same "violation" occurs when two or more members of the same household access their MtCox accounts through the same house router with the same IP, and also would be flagged for mandatory verification, even for BTC withdrawals.

So, even if it's just their mistaken suspicion, at MtCox we are automatically guilty until we prove ourselves innocent by showing our papers...

May what goes around some day come around to the MtCox @#$$%%^&*s!

Oh wow. If you want a stomach ulcer, do business with Mtgox. The Bitcoin-Painpal.

It would be great if an exchange could open up in a country where the world's worst terrorist, Uncle Sam, does not have access. With access to Swift or SEPA network of course. Russia maybe, or China? South America? Not that those countries are more democratic than the US but at least, they don't bully other countries into adopting their own shitty laws.

Imagine China charging US companies for not complying with Chinese AML laws and then having people arrested on that basis, unthinkable!

An exchange that does nothing but exchange fiat to crypto and reverse, that is what the world needs. BTC could be over 1000$ if the exchanges wouldn't be such a bottleneck.

Yeah, I got my verification tonight, finally, and they are playing stupid, I tried to withdraw my BTC before I was verified, even though it said I could, the blockchain shows it was deposted into my wallet and then spent, which is impossible because it has double protection 2nd PIN to send BTC . I do not know what to do? They have stopped communicating via email, and my wallet provider hasn't responded since this all began, I am new to all of this, I am so sick and depressed, this is all of the money in the world I have, and if I loose it, I am ruined. I need help, please!?!?


Brandyn Garcia

What blockchain transaction spent your money?

They may have put it (sent it / spend it) into a cold storage address managed by them till the case (if there is any) is resolved. I am sure other forum members will be able to give you a more precise explanation. I am myself a newbie.

Do you know which address it was sent to?

Half of my coworkers are trading BTC over the same IP.
This is just the usual scrutiny by Gox.

Same here they are ceasing our account with no appearent reason.
Suddenly i can understand where the ddos attacks come from......

Meanwhile: fake verified accounts are beeing sold on silk road to the masses.
while the real ones are beeing frozen .

Looks like MtGox is becoming the PayPal of Bticoin.

Looks like MtGox are taking a month to transfer people's money into there bank accounts.

I spoke with them regarding me already waiting 3 weeks for my money, and they said they had just cleared the backlog for June. Meaning there is a month and half wait for money to be transferred into bank accounts.

Funny how when I trade silver world wide with millions of users I get my money in 4 days.

Terrible system getting bored waiting now

sorry mate they lied to you mine was for June 6th and i still haven't gotten anything and after talking to live support today they openly admitted to being more then 2 months behind still.

this is bull even for gox they need to get there shit together.

Unfortunately there is no control instance in the bitcoin system, other than the foundation, which is a joke when it comes to protecting customers.

all they say is were working on it. blah blah shit. then they try to pass blame on there bank and such.

Seen this before and it never ends good. And have you guys watched the volume on Gox Japan in the recent days? /hint

Instead, on bitstamp, it works very smoothly.
Trading and withdrawals work fine and fast and customer service is immaculate.

Trading might work afterall that is how Gox makes most.
Also depositing works perfectly.
But withdrawing. Please! :D

I hope the edit made it clearer.
And if you still deny it, i had friends waiting 2 months for a SEPA. Which is simply a lye by gox, i have an account at WBK myseld, and although my bisnes is not big i could get a daily withdrawal limit of 1.000.000PN(24kk€)provided i had the cash. ;)

The edit is clear. Gox has locked accounts at random for over 2 years. Now they lock everyone.

Funny so easy to send gox money so hard to get it back.

At least they have not reported you to the police. That law suit sure fixed that policy.

Btw fuck gox if it was not clear.

Now why would gox or any entity would report me to the police the NSA or whatever agency.
If you are hinting at the cards, there is nothing wrong with them.
And if you would understand the Polish language you would know that im not lying.
Sawadee kap.

But you are right, almost evrybody saw it coming.
And i dont know why we are arguing. Basically we agree.

There is something fishy happening at MtGox. I withdrew my money more than a month ago and have not received anything, and "customer service" is just stalling. Wish I had read this topic beforehand. I am going to start looking into my legal options if they do not produce something by next week.

Thats nothing new, Gox is simply close to bancrupcy, having lost 10kk$+.

Judging by how difficult it seems to be to even give money to Mt.Gox, I'm not surprised.  They rejected my "proof of residency" because the name on the utility bill is different to the name I gave them (which, incidentally, matches my passport, but it just so happens that the utility company cannot spell my name correctly).  So for the sake of two letters in the wrong order, I can't use them.  Lucky me, I guess!

Hey MTGOX

Your business is a scam

Prove me wrong by giving me money

You can transfer money into mtgox

You can then purchase bitcoins with said money

You can then even sell those bitcoins for money

However if you want to withdraw your own "money" that you supposedly have in the account your screwed. Mtgox has no money at all. I want my bitcoins back from the beginning. The "trading floor" your website boasts is completely false your falsely advertising services that are completely fake I just want others to know this before they get scammed by them and I won't stop until everyone new to bitcoin knows about how fraudulent your website is.

Tell me how this is not a complete scam money goes in but no money comes out. Can someone point me toward the closest class action lawsuit that is being brought to address this obvious fraud. You make it seem like the people using bitcoins are the people committing fraud however it is your business. Your business is a complete embarrassment to the bitcoin community. I trust bitcoin However  you guys are a scam. You hurt the community.

+1

Any legal way we can put pressure on these ass clowns? Usually in the past i write a letter to people like this quoting loads of financial laws (both, UK and European) saying how i am threatening to take legal action unless said infraction is corrected and boom! Problem solved. It has worked a treat with both Visa and American Express in the past, when other people said i had no chance and when American Express came back to me and said investigation was over and they had filed in favour of the merchant. Boom typed off my nice letter and investigation reopened and back in my favour. The trick is to send it to at least 3 different departments, email fax, registered post. There has to be someone who will do the right thing. 

Been doing some research about Japanese financial law but all i seem to find is crap about not forcing employees to drink or telesales people not encouraging grannies to deposit money into scams via door to door sales. What gives...Japan sounds like a real interesting place  >:(

Maybe someone who is Japanese can shed some light on consumer rights in Japan. BTW if anyone wants copies of my letters to Visa and American Express then PM me and i will send them. Perhaps a class action lawsuit is needed.

Is it still possible to withdraw BTC without KYC?

+1

Mtgox is a scam, disgrace and shame to bitcoin community.
Mtgox CEO and employees should all perform harakiri!

Someone unsticky/delete this post. I've messaged MtGox regarding my account verification and multiple things listed on here are now invalid according to them. I got a basic reply from a shitty foreign customer support agent(s) where they don't even address what you ask and tell you something you already know. After 9 verification attempts I finally am told I need to get a proof of residence from my city hall. That would of been nice to know 2 months ago. Hopefully they aren't trying to steal my identity, I've given them enough documents to have a pretty good attempt at it.


Edit: DON'T USE MTGOX, THEY ARE A SCAM.


Email I got from them:

We regret to inform you that the identification documentation you have submitted has been reviewed, and your request has been temporarily denied.

Reasons(s)

Your account has been flagged for further confirmation by our assessment department. If you would like to continue with the verification process, please provide us the following documents (Please do not forget to provide your account number or your username) :

Note: ALL documents must be notarized with apostille and sent by priority mail to the address at the bottom of this page. If your documents are not in Japanese, English, or do not have Roman alphabet, (罗马字, 로마자, Лaти́нcкий aлфaви́т, ألفبائية لاتينية, לאטיינישער אלפאבעט,  λατινικό αλφάβητo) they need to be translated and then notarized before sending.

1. A valid copy of a government issued photo ID
2. Proof of residence (less than 6 months old) - this can be a utility or phone bill

BANK STATEMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED

These documents must be sent to:
MtGox AML
Cross Office Shibuya Medio 2-C
11-5 Shibuya 2-Chome
150-0002 Shibuya Tokyo
Japan

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but it would be greatly appreciated if you resubmit the requested clarification(s) above.

Otherwise, if you would like to make further enquiries in relation to this, please do not hesitate to contact Mt.Gox AML team by responding to this email.

No.

As of this morning their header messaged changed to "Attention Users: All withdrawals and deposits require account verification."

And yes, apparently they consider BTC transfers as "withdrawals."

That message said something specific about FIAT CURRENCY needing verification about 12 hours ago. But alas, as I was complaining in emails with them about the implication of singling out FIAT CURRENCY the message changed.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH MT GOX unless you feel comfortable in handing over all the ID people need to forge your identity.  Even if you just want to get BTC back out.  What a scam.  They didn't mention this when I asked for a deposit address, only when I attempted to withdraw.  Total thieving extortionists, requiring my private ID information in order to get back my deposited BTC's.  Since when does KYC say they need my ID for BTC's?  It doesn't as far as I know. I suspect insolvency is prompting them to do this to slow down or stop withdrawals.

Yes.  They are jerks if you ask me.  The header on the site 12 hours ago explicitly stated that FIAT CURRENCY transfers required verification -- which implied that BTC did not -- but now it reads that all withdrawals do.

Here's how I know this whole "verification" for KYC is a total scam:

https://www.mtgox.com/trade/funding-options

As a Mt. Gox user one option is to supposedly be able to withdrawal BTC as a "Bitcoin Foundation Donation" to https://bitcoinfoundation.org/blog/

But again... even to donate the BTC you once owned you have to be verified.

This is some evidence that the issue is not about Knowing-Your-Customer requirements but is more about Mt. Gox holding onto your funds for as long as they can (likely to avoid insolvency.)

Who knows about LTC on MtGox? Or maybe XPM will be soon there?  ;D
Or it's only fairy tale like megillah?  ???

Even if it does come to pass it won't be worth while as you will need to be fully verified to get any coin out.

1. A few month ago I signed up for an account at MtGox. I submitted ID and utility bill scans.


2. When I was verified and received this e-mail (I want to increase the withdrawal limits now; my questions are in red bold):

''We are pleased to inform you that the identification documentation you have submitted has been reviewed, and your account has been upgraded to "Verified" status.

If you would like to request a withdrawal limit increase (up to 10x your current daily limit, and up to 5x your current monthly limit), please reply back to this email with the below.


Wallet (BTC/USD/ETC): - What should I write after this colon? What is ETC?
New Daily Limit: - What should I write after the colon: ''10x'' or the factual currency amount?

Wallet (USD/EUR/ETC):
New Monthly Limit:''


3. Can someone advise me what are the current withdrawal limits for ''verified'' status?

Thanks

what is the processing period for withdraw fiat ?

Ahh damn what a burn.

gotta jump through all these hoops wtf for.

Mt. Gox is wrong for this.

yes you can get money in, put you cant get it out. ouch.  glad they only have.   0.09 btc.

Mt.Gox has poor service! I uploaded my address proof on Nov 6 but didn't get any answer so far. I am using bitstamp and happy with it now.

Well said! Screw mtgox!

FYI, even though their 'funding options' page still says the bank receiving fee is approx $15 USD, it is now $42 USD..

My account seems broken, I'm never able to start the verification process..

Is that a $42 fee for receiving wire transfers? And these are taking 7-10 business days to process? You cannot be serious ...

I really don't see how people use Gox as Fiat cannot be withdrawn. My friend has been waiting three months and funds still not arrived.

Yes, I paid the 5% exchange rate fee/scam + $24 AUD to my bank, $25 USD to JPMorgan (intermediary bank) and $42 USD to Gox's bank.

I found out JPMorgan was involved when I called my bank but that's all they could tell me unless I wanted to pay a fee to investigate any other fees incurred.  :/

The $42 was confirmed after looking at the transaction details and talking with Gox support.

I should have stuck with sending AUD instead of USD.

I don't understand. Even though 2+ Million was seized by the Feds, they should've made enough by now to recover the losses. Why is USD Withdrawals still lagging?

I concur.  All of this bullshit puts us right back to dealing with the corrupt fiat banks.  This defeats the purpose of Bitcoin. 

After reading page 9 I think I recognize this business model.  Madoff anyone?

I have a coin there and I have no idea how to get it. Everything is delayed for unrealistic time periods.
Does anyone have a good experience withdrawing €'s somewhere? in Germany specifically?

I was able to pay a 5% hair cut and then wait for 3 weeks to get my money out of MtGox.

Don't know about you guys, but I'm voting with my feet, and staying away for the time being.

3 weeks? that must have been a really low amount...

Are there information about larger amount being processed faster? the withdrawal process is so opaque with MtGox, and there seem to be tons of horror stories in these forums. Until that clears up, I for one really don't feel comfortable doing business with them again. However I'd love to reconsider if funds can start to flow freely into and out of MtGox again.

Just FYI, the amount I withdrew is about 40k USD, don't know if it is considered large or small, or somewhere in-between.

It's been a few weeks and I can't get them to answer any of my inquiries about how to get my fucking money. It originally said 5 business days to process the KYC bullshit. 6 days later, it said 10 days. Well, it's been over 10 business days, and they haven't bothered to deal with it. I've got over $3k sitting waiting to withdraw (probably not a "Large amount" for some, but it's half a month's salary for me, so it's not insignificant to me), and they're holding it hostage.

I opened a ticket, got the promise of a response within 24 hours. 4 days later, the only response I got was "We will forward this to the Verification team and you will be updated on this."

4 days to get a copy/pasted canned response from some clown named "Danny"?

No wonder Japan's economy is in the shitter...  ::)

No need to create an altnick, its in the limbus. Congrats

Same here.

3 weeks later, they rejected my paperwork AGAIN, with zero explanation, suggesting that I submit (among other things) my tax return information (which is what I already submitted).

What a bunch of fucking clowns.  >:(

We need to get these kind of scumbags out of the industry and get some real exchanges that understand what the whole fucking point of bitcoin is!

They did this to me as well. My account was just verified today and I deposited BTC in there on August. I'm looking for a buyer before I move my money but I will post here if it all goes well. Don't submit to many forms or you'll have to send a notarized letter to Japan, they made me do that but I managed to get my account verified by talking to the AML team via Email.

Re-submitted even more documents to these fucking clowns. Guess that means I get to start waiting another 2+ weeks for them to get around to taking 3 seconds to look at it, and hopefully not imagine some other reason to reject it.

Anybody have any suggestions for an exchange owned/operated by somebody with some actual integrity? Gox certainly ain't it. They're either ABSURDLY incompetent, or shady as fuck. Either way, the end result is the same: They provide among the worst customer experiences ever delivered.

Bunch of feckless fucking oxygen wasters.  ::)

In terms of a smooth money withdrawal experience, Bitstamp was the best I came across. Took 1 day and was painless.

I'm actually fully verified on Gox, there was a period where they were doing verifications at high speed and little fuss (a pdf cell phone bill was all it took for me) but it doesn't matter, last time I tried to withdraw money I ended up cancelling after a month and taking a loss rebuying and checking out elsewhere. Nobody in that place can (or is allowed to) tell you when a withdrawal would go through. After several weeks they will still say they don't know where you are in the queue, except that it's quite long because of a limited amount they can push through their bank yada yada yada. It's all BS. They've been playing that song since summer, and the only reasonable explanation is that they simply do not have the funds to cover all the withdrawals. A few will trickle through just to keep up appearances but the vast majority is backlogged for many weeks at best. Gox just isn't a very attractive place to send money to right now. You can send it to other exchanges, most of them have considerably lower BTC prices than Gox and very low deposit fees. It's a vicious circle, Gox BTC rates are high because you can only really get BTC out of the place reliably, and this makes it more interesting to deposit elsewhere and transfer BTC into Gox if you wish to trade there compounding the lack of fiat coming in. Either way Gox has a liquidity issue, I have a feeling if we saw the actual numbers we'd shit bricks.

You guys really wants to submit your driver license or Passport to them ? 

Where is that information will go ?  is someone will make copies and try to fake some ID out of it ?  What if they got hacked and everything is stolen ? Pretty sensitive information.

(Gotta learn about paragraphs my friend)

Posting Nazi aside, this is exactly my experience with Gox. There was a good period for getting money in/out of Gox, but ever since HSA seized their Dwolla monies (and other issues) I've literally been unable to withdraw $USD from Gox since May 2013. I've tried multiple times, and each one ends up "pending" after MONTHS of service tickets, I'm told by GOX support to cancel the transaction. To me that's very clear.

I just gave up, bought BTC, and pulled out it at a loss. 

Avoid GOX like the plague if you need USD in/out.

I just want to transfer my BTC back to my wallet....But I keep getting an "Provided amount is invalid" error.

I have enough coin to withdraw the amount requested?  What gives?  Is there a minimum withdraw amount?

In response to my own question.....  after trying it about 10 times.

The "amount" can't start with a decimal.  The amount needs to start with a "0"

Example

  .99999 = BAD
0.99999 = OK


Woodser

i transfered 1000euro to mtgox for about 24 days ago, with one reply from support and i still cant see my money but i'm sure that that they got it

Lost $3000USD bank wire to them.  Does anyone know how to contact their bank?

I went to this bank WBK Poland allready but they cant do anything :/ Maby police?

unfortunately, my experience is similar to the horror stories already posted. I initiated a $997 withdrawal Nov 11, only because there was a max limit of $1000. I have yet to get the money or even a response on my support ticket(s). 39 days and counting for a WIRE xfer. Simply no excuse for this. I converted the rest of my account back into BTC at a small loss just to get my funds out.

I have a separate gripe. two years ago, I persuaded my reluctant father to buy some coin at Mt.Gox. He's not a technical guy and I had to walk him through the process. as luck would have it. he top ticked the first bubble buying at $31/BTC a day before the hack and the crash to $3. Dad figured he was going to lose it all and pretty much forgot about is except to use it as an ecuse not to listen to any more of my investment advice. Two years later, that 31 coins are worth over $20,000 and I try to help him regain access to his account. Well, after submitting driver's license, utility bill, passport photos, social security number, recors of the original wire xfer funding his account, stool sample (ok, not that). Still unable to recover access to his account.

My guess is that Mark AKA "Magical Tux" ran short on USD when the Feds seized his $5 million Dwolla account, and the problem got much much worse as it initiated a panic by US traders to get their money out. I think Mt Gox is solvent, but they are stalling until they can convert their other funds to USD and make their depositors whole. Time will tell.

more than 20days still not verified my account what kind of business you doing?

I really hope that this is a joke. If the law is all that is keeping you honest then you have little integrity to begin with.

probably mentioned elsewhere as it's a month old but I just stumbled upon the page..  ben swann on gox.
http://benswann.com/bitcoin-is-soaring-but-beware-mt-gox/

it's bizarre how they have been acting, they should be more specific about the issues and more apologetic or people will assume the worst, ie. they're criminal or under some form of govt. control.

In an ideal world we would love to kill all these intermediaries (Banks and equivalent) that are in fact making things more complicated and more expensive... But until then we do not have much choice.

Thank you for explanation but it's nearly 4 weeks happened since i sent them none my docs not approved... Hope 2014 to get approved.

I was just approved on Mt. Gox, took about 2 months!! Now I'm not sure I want to trade there after hearing about the withdrawal issues in November.  I do recommend coinbase, I've been buying and selling there for a month, very easy for US customers.  I tried BTC-E, Mt. Gox, and some Slovenian exchange (forget the name at the moment).

What's the latest on the Mt. Gox withdrawals?  Are there still issues or ?

Hello to all,

I'm kind of a newbie here, and was reading some info about Mt.Gox.
I wanted to know more about trading BTC. I found out that there are several BTC-traders.
I subscribed at two BTC-trade platsforms, one of them is Mt. Gox. I did this so I could see more of the site and its possibilities.
I found out that if one wants to trade you have to get your account approved, and for that you need to send them some documents.

Now, the thing is that I like my privacy, so I'm always skeptic if sites ask for privacy-information.
Before doing so I always check that site by reading newarticles about them or topics on forums like this one.

I found out that Mt. Gox has some 'financial troubles'. I've read about a Lawcase/suit, a fine of some millions USD they got, and on there site is written that one can make only 1 withdrawal every 20 days.
My experience tells me that whenever you read that kind of news about a site, it most of the times is no positive news but more of a warning.
As I understand correctly (?), they also now have troubles with paying the members that make withdrawals from their accounts to bank or payment processor (like OKpay for example).

Have I understood the news correctly?
What do you think? Should I, as a newbie, go on with Mt.Gox? Is there a chance that Mt.Gox come above these troubles?
Should it be better to delete my account and go trading with some other platform?

Questions, questions, questions ...
I hope one of you can enlight me a bit more on this subject.

Have you already acquired BTC and are interested in trading to profit from price fluctuations, or do you want to buy your first bitcoins?

If it's the former then you could try BTC-E or bitfinex, as they don't require you to submit your dox, stool samples, etc. if you're not planning on withdrawing or depositing fiat currencies.

If it's the latter then most exchanges will ask for the dox, but you can avoid this hassle if you decide to buy through localbitcoins.

I'm in the same boat.   I've submitted my paperwork to MT GOX over a month ago and it still says that it's reviewing. 

How long does it usually take for US customers that are verified to withdraw their funds?

Months

I hear gox is takeing months in other currencies as well now. They must have hardly any cash or coins left now

Mt Gox is no longer honoring the withdrawal of Bitcoins either.  I decided to get out of Mt Gox, converted my fiat to BTC (at a loss) and requested a withdrawal.  I expected it to take under an hour - the whole thing ought to be automated right?

Nope

It has been 2 days now and zero indication of any activity.  But Mt Gox certainly took their .01 withdrawal fee.

MT GOX IS A COMPLETELY SHADY and INCOMPETENT EXCUSE FOR A BUSINESS.  I'm in IT and there is no reason such an operation should be screwed up - I can understand issues with dealing with fiat, but not something handled predominantly through software.  I apparently never even owned my bitcoins or even fiat, I suppose - you put money into Mt Gox, you are GIVING it to them!

Bitstamp on the other hand has been superb.

December 2013 Mtgox withraval BTC still worked. Now they are thieves. I lost in Mtgox only 20 BTC. ., DO NOT use them anymore. ( waiting a little and see, what MTgox is tell for  users and give back our money)

my account has been compromised and they stolen my BTC. as soon as i received the email with the withdrawal information. i written to MTGOX to try to cancel the transaction or to do something and that was a couple hours ago and no reply at all. hope i have my BTC back but it seems that mtgox doesn´t case. should have people dealing for this kind of urgent issues.

Exactly.

Please do not deposit any funds into Mt. Gox. Puurmaa, they've kind of taken my 1BTC hostage while they decide if they respond to my requests for verification, I couldn't imagine losing 20. I finally received a response on January 24th after nearly a month of waiting. And this is after they decided to increase the wait time to 20 days from my original 10 day wait time. I can't wait to see what their withdrawal time is LOL. I'm looking at it as, if I get my money withdrawn at any point in time I'll consider myself on of the lucky few. This is a very bad public perception you have going on Mt. Gox and it's pretty much your own damn fault as a company.

My opinion is to steer clear from making any transactions with them.

Hello,
I have question,
MtGox accept Canadian citizens?

If you're in Canada you might as well stay with https://www.vaultofsatoshi.com (https://www.vaultofsatoshi.com) based in Canada.

Read up on all the horror stories with Mt. Gox, not worth it.

Thank you malevolent for your posting.
In answer to it:

I did earn some free BTC already. I don't think it's enough to trade with (yet), but I AM interested in the subject. I guess the wisest thing to do, untill that time, is to read more about it and gain more information on how trading with it works. Maybe it's the thing for me, in future, too? From what I've read till so far is that some earned a decent amount with it. But, I've also read about people that lost a decent amount.
And so your answer leeds to the following question: 'If one (a newbie like me) wants to have more information about it, what sources (articles, website, books, documentaries if there are any, etc...) would you recommend?'

And about the 'latter' .. thank you for this tip. I will get into 'localbitcoins' as well, and try to learn more first.

So, I guess you can read from my posting, I am really still a newbie on all of this stuff, but willing to learn. Thank you for making a little bit wiser. If you have more tips or suggestions ... plz do so!

Back to the subject of Mt. Gox ....
Quite disturbing news I've read. Mt. Gox suspended withdrawals. I've read something about technical issues and hope they overcome it in short periode of time. BTC rate plunged into the deep with -20% and more, and japanese are selling like hell!! Those are the stories on the internet I've read. All the more reason, if one is a newbie like me, to first gain more information on trading with BTC, before doing so.

I have accounts on 8 trading sites including Gox but never put any money in Gox as I am from the UK and they had just lost their Barclays account to sent £££s in and found I could use OKpay but getting my docs verified on there took a few weeks. In the meantime I looked at many sites and found localbitcoins the easiest to use and to buy but not cheap. Adding all the charges to transfer GPB into USD then to the trading sites I found if I picked a dip in the BTC price I could buy it overall at a good price at localbitcoins and with a lot less hasstle.
I spread my BTC in a qt wallet to hold and on several trading sites as i no longer trust any will ALL my money. Also some Casascius physical Bitcoins.

Who can participate? Is it necessary to pass KYC?

Seems to be interesting project!
Where I can find more information?

What is soft cap and hard cap? What is the price now?

Are there any benefits?

What will happen if someone will not pass KYC?

These KYC and AML's does is put many innocent peoples information, all in one not-decentralized spot, that maybe hacked by somebody and find that jackpot of information..

very good planning but what can be directly verified or not, about my experience when the verification was very difficult to receive.

just examples of market exchange from Singapore which is very difficult to verify, the end of it I just stay the Exchange switch to another Exchange.

Surely your thread is very valuable because all your writing is recorded for the good of MountGOX.

Thank you for all the information you provide, I will continue to support you here in order to maintain the confidentiality of your customers to trade on the MountGOX exchange.

Thanks
Hammonds

You surely can't withdraw your funds if you didn't pass the kyc. As stated in the OP even you didn't get verified at first attempt you can still try to pass proper documents so no worries.

If we don't want to deal with kyc here it's fine as we have a lot of exchange sites that doesn't need kyc. So it's our choice and no one forces us to use this.

Hello,
Our company is looking for a KYC service provider. I would like to have more discussion about your services. Looking forward to hearing from you.