Alternatively, OP could check if their case is tax deductible in their country, see: https://koinly.io/guides/ (consulting a CPA is likely needed to be extra sure)

Well, their page has been flagged by trustpilot lol. I'd look for an alternative in the Instant exchanges thread


I'd also like to add that it's best to treat these instant exchanges as a CEX without registration since they're also centralized. They can block your funds and request KYC, not to mention a lot of them probably gets liquidity from CEXes like binance, hitbtc etc...

@op, you may wanna check out: https://kycnot.me/ for possible alternatives.


Another thing to consider is how much CCTVs are covering you on your way. For starters, wearing something to make your face harder to recognize would be a good idea e.g. face mask, cap, etc.

Website's back now, still can't withdraw?


Looks like some domains are for certain locals. For instance, if you go to exmo.com and change the language to russian, you'll be redirected to exmo.me.

Does the good old pressing down to paste the text not working?

In any case, an alternative is: (also on android)

select which coin wallet > in your upper right, select the 3 dots > share address > you'll be presented with available apps for quick sharing

SMS are easily intercepted which makes it insecure, see: https://proton.me/blog/stop-using-sms? 

I guess if you understand the risk, you can do amounts you're comfortable losing but significant ones? nahhhh. Let's not forget that someone near me can easily pluck out my sim card with some sort of needle and if they replace it with a new one, it would probably take some time for me to notice.

Well, the only hotbit out there in hongkong is marked as "dissolved" (unless they go by a different name).


It's interesting because they still claim to be registered according from their about us... so I couldn't help but to look into Estonia's as well only to find out they were registered only a year ago despite hotbit claiming longer than that.


All this lying ain't a good sign. Makes me even more on the fence about the whole thing since we don't have any outside info at the moment.

Hmmm. If I were you, I'd opt for a fresh OS installation since we don't know what slips thru AVs and our own eyes. Probably opt out on extensions in the sync settings as well, just to be extra sure.

You can try to compartmentalize if you're dabbling with potentially dangerous stuff like pirated softwares, keeping the data of malicious extensions, etc.

Taking it from place to place would probably get a wider reach specially since we don't know how often the chosen museum/gallery would put it up on display. The hard part is you'd likely have to dedicate a good amount of your time and effort for this.

Not really. For instance, there was a time kucoin did not IP ban the fellas from unsupported countries. There was also a case in paxful where a once supported country became restricted however the user in question was still able to deposit, so when they did, their funds were locked. CEXes don't always have the proper restriction in place before you start trading.


the horror stories from people who had their funds freezed by centralized exchanges should always be mentioned especially if one could be violating some current/future policies.

I think the easiest way to meet scammers would be by joining cryptocurrency communities in telegram, reddit, discord etc... and announcing you need some help with your crypto lol.

At the very least, it looks like the addresses of approved reports would be published in their explorer, see scamfari.com in the list of reporters: https://explorer.hapi.one/reporters/

The effort you made to talk about them is SUS AF.

In a different board:

Trying to pose as a user when you actually own the service is yikes. Good luck getting people from here.

That's interesting... there's someone in crunchbase proclaiming their group owns ZB.com, EXX.com and BW.com. For those who don't know, exx.com exit scammed so if this isn't some fake information, we might be seeing a pattern here.


In any case, I would stay away from any exchange proclaiming similar high volumes despite barely having an online presence.

I've always thought they were faking most or at least a large portion of their volume so I wonder how big/small is this loss to them... or did the mantra "fake it till you make it" finally worked?

It's one of the most common attacks so I find it hard to believe that there isn't much awareness about it but you probably know your place better than me.

This attack has existed even before the crypto boom and any accounts connected could be targeted e.g. bank, emails, social media, etc... SMS aren't really private so you have no idea if someone is making a profile out of you based on the OTPs you're receiving.


well, you need an inside access to do it hence employees are usually targeted for it.

Yes, but scammers don't always have to obtain them legally. For instance, lookup news about illegal activation of sim cards where scammers use fake/stolen personal information.

Where are your funds sitting OP? are all of them in your private key wallet/s? asking because there's a 'limited access' tier in their exchange/custodial services where you only have to give basic information with no ID and/or selfie needed. If you've used the said services, some of your funds may still be sitting in their custodial wallets like the trading accounts.

Keep in mind that your backup phrase only covers private key wallets. In case you have some cryptos you can't get out in their custodial wallets/accounts, you'd have to contact the support team about it.

Care to elaborate why do you think it won't happen in your country? some sort of rigorous process for sim porting? For one, there were already cases of telecom employees accepting blood money from scammers as a side job so even that wouldn't stop sim hijacking. Not to mention, you could always meet a sloppy employee.

In addition, there are services providing access to numbers from various countries (lookup: sms verification/sim rental services). I imagine scammers could use something 'similar' hence, it's not necessary for them to be in the same country as you.

It's a very popular scam right now.... Scammers DM their victims about how successful they are as a trader and later on offers help. The catch is victims will be redirected to some no one has ever heard website, similar to you. They will try to loosen up their victims by saying "you can always start with small amounts". That being said, few trades will work until the victim does a big enough deposit for the scammer to freeze their account. You might get asked to pay more money to them in order to get your funds out, please don't.

This is why I find sms 2fa inconvenient as well, you have to constantly rely on these service providers... there is no need for such thing in TOTP so aside from better security, it will also save you from hiccups like this.


Try to check if your country is undergoing delays/maintenance in twilio, see: https://status.twilio.com/
According from this tweet, they are using them for their SMS 2FA.