Scotiabank Refusing Bitcoin related Int'l Wire Transfers

[FortyNiner88]

I'm a small-time miner operating in Canada. I recently moved a bunch of coin to the Mt.Gox exchange in Japan, and was able to successfully convert my BTC to $CDN. I jumped through all the hoops of getting my identity and bank account verified with Mt.Gox, then made an international wire transfer of the funds to my bank account.

That's when the bank called me. "We don't know what this is. Is it gambling?"

"No. It's a decentralized electronic currency. Because of work my computer did on the network, it has accumulated a small amount of currency I've exchanged to Canadian and would now like to spend on Christmas."

"I don't understand that. Is it gambling?"

"No. Here, I have forwarded you some documents that define bitcoin. That should help you understand."

"I'm reading these documents and I don't understand. I'm not a computer programmer. This sounds like money laundering to me."

"[Tedious and patient explanation of the BTC basics using small words and friendly tone.]"

"Yeah, well -- I'm not really into computers, and that sounds untraceable."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't verify where the money came from."

"If I deposited cash you wouldn't know either. Besideswhich I just told you. Here's a screenshot of my account, my mining software GUI, and my transaction history with Mt.Gox."

"Yeah, I don't understand this at all. I'm refusing the transfer."

"Um. Where will my money go?"

"I don't know."

"What about all the service fees?"

"I have no idea."

"With all due respect, you're ruining Christmas."

"Yeah, I don't mean to, but I just don't understand what this is."

So...WTF are my fellow countrymen doing to extract your BTC into government-backed currency? I'm at a loss here. Scotiabank just flushed my entire hoard down the toilet (it never re-appeared at Mt.Gox after being "refused") and I'm hesitant to restart my rig until I know there's a way to actually profit and/or transact!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

M49r88

[knight22]

What a shame! You should use Canadian Virtex
I'm using them for transferring funds and I never had problems

[ThomasV]

1. if Scotiabank refused the transfer, your money should be at mtgox.
2. try to discuss the issue with Scotiabank. If it turns out they have an anti-bitcoin policy, hit them where it hurts: close all the accounts you have with them.

[FortyNiner88]

Knight22: Thank for the link. I will definitely check it out and see if it can work for me.

ThomasV: Perhaps the money (minus service fees, I assume) will eventually appear in my Mt.Gox account again. I will wait a few more days before I can officially declare it "vanished." I will open a ticket with Mt.Gox, who have been helpful in the past.

I have discussed the issue with my bank manager, who has known me personally for a decade. He was very polite when he explained several apparently contradictory things. He said that it was his discretion to accept or refuse any wire transfer from outside the country, but at the same time despite our history and his saying he "believed" my "story" he could not allow a "precedent" to be set that might get him in trouble. Like the customer service tool who originally contacted me, he kept repeated that since he couldn't understand what bitcoin was, he was going to play it safe by refusing to have anything to do with it whatsoever.

Naturally, I have escalated my being pissed to somebody at corporate HQ and hold out some slim hope of remedy. I'd pull my accounts but I renegotiated an insanely great mortgage deal six months ago I'm not in a position to walk away from. Thanks for your advice.

M49r88

[bitcoinbear]

Perhaps instead of going into intricate detail of what bitcoin is and how it works, you could simply state "I received the money as payment for some computational work and data processing I did with my computer." It is the truth, and even non-computer people should be able to understand it.

[casascius]

To me, the real kicker is the uncertainty as to whether MtGox will promptly give you access to your funds once they bounce back.  To a certain extent I can't blame them: they should be rightfully cautious about exceptions like this as they are often red flags for fraud.  But there's another part of me that is convinced they are in over their heads when it comes to human resources with good business sense.

Otherwise, let's pretend that wasn't an issue, like if it was just a boring bank-to-bank transfer for an invoice of wholesale non-virtual goods.  Ordinarily, your funds would be back where they came from in a reasonable amount of time, at which point you could just try sending them some other way.  A bank's refusal to accept an incoming wire would seem so much more reasonable.  Let's just hope that's what happens here.  I'd sure be asking the bank manager to reimburse my costs though...

[AndrewBUD]

Was this a huge amount of money? Like thousands?

Scotia Bank sucks


and yes use TD and CaVirtex.. NO international wires.

[blink.blonk.01]

Have you checked with mt gox to see if the money is still there?

[Lethn]

This is precisely why GPU mining will continue, hard luck!

[Tomatocage]

Make it easy. Just tell them you're buying gold in World of Warcraft.

[destruct]

Scotia Bank is the WORST possible bank to use. Scene points aren't worth that awful bank.

Just use https://www.canadianbitcoins.com/ and get cash in the mail. No getting rejected that way!

[SAC]

Must depend on the branch when I setup my business account with them last year the bank manager had no problem with bitcoin.