Bitcoin Forum

I had no clue where to post is, but wanted to share this nonetheless because I think it was very odd.

I'm fairly new in this (cool) bitcoin world and I'm about to buy some more hardware. So I google'd where I could buy some BTC with Ideal, found a trustworty website and entered my order. So far, so good. When I wanted to finish the order, the ideal transaction got blocked by the bank! There was a phone number I could call and so I did.

I called the number and spoke a call center agent, who, as he told me, got a pop up message in his screen that he has to forward my call to the anti-fraud desk. The next employer I get to speak is that apparently BTC is used for fraud a lot (lol!) and hence my transaction was blocked. After laughing and dying a little, both at the same time, I kindly asked here to unlock my Ideal transactions again so I could finish the trade and I did.

So.. Even banks are scared people convert fiat into BTC now?  8)

Sorry for the bad English, I'm from the Netherlands  :)

Where did you bought the bitcoins?

The transfer went fine after it got unlocked. I don't wanna call names and cause a potential bad reputation!

Your bank is indeed doing you a service. Buying bitcoins through ebanking is the 'prefect crime' for a hacker to make a profit from PCs under his control. Untraceable, irreversible.  In all likelyhood the vast majority of such purchases or attempts to purchase are fraudulent, and your bank is acting in the best interest of its customers by not allowing such transactions to go through without checking.

There have been quite a few reports like your's, Bitstamp got flagged in some countries.

Have you bought a considerable quantity?

It was not bitstamp and was 2.5 BTC..

Out of curiosity, which bank do you use?

ING

In general, there is nothing to be alarmed about when a bank or credit card company asks you for verification of a transaction.  That's their systems working RIGHT.

It's when they simply refuse to deal with XYZ or refuse to deal with Bitcoin that there is a problem.


By comparison, a major currency trade operation like XE.com does have some currencies they refuse to deal with.  They have very, very good reasons for doing that.

Banks do not have similarly good reasons to reject customers who trade bitcoins.

Apparently US dollars are used for fraud a lot.   And money laundering.   And they are counterfeited too.  Particularly by the US Fed.

This is why I use a credit union :P

I would sooo throw a few bitcents towards seeing this happen.  ;D

That is so tempting because I've been looking to pull off a prank like this lol :D

i can tell you that some of the banks in Israel doesn't allow wire transfers to any of the known exchanges ...

which ones?