My bank account was frozen due to suspicious activity on my account

[Dudeperfect]

I think this is the case of the fraudulent transaction (the amount sent to your bank account was compromised), Make sure you keep all the transaction records (previous records and feedbacks of other transactions too) in for the further investigation. Unfortunately, the priority will be given to the recovery of fiat funds (which was sent to your account). Keep posting updates, good luck.

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[botany]

Guys, please anyone from you have ever faced this issue with the bank and have a template of letter to the Financial Ombudsman? I'm not sure how long it takes, but I'm a bit afraid I will never receive my 10k back :-(

Did you write the letter. If not a template can be found here
http://www.which.co.uk/documents/docx/letter-asking-the-financial-ombudsman-service-to-intervene-in-a-dispute-with-the-bank-309322.docx

The bank must have some timeline to complete the investigation of the $10k. They can't hold it forever.

[European Central Bank]

It isn't like these laws are advertised or known about by the average joe. I am legally literate but why should everyone else have to be to sell their property? FYI i am from the UK and any bank deposits are protected up to 75k, the bank cannot simply run off with your wages, etc.

as soon as any of your money touches a bank, it's no longer 'your' money. it's a credit owed by them to you. there certainly will be legal avenues you can follow but that's the fundamental bedrock of anyone's relationship with their bank. not enough people seem to give it any thought.

[Dudeperfect]

It isn't like these laws are advertised or known about by the average joe. I am legally literate but why should everyone else have to be to sell their property? FYI i am from the UK and any bank deposits are protected up to 75k, the bank cannot simply run off with your wages, etc.

as soon as any of your money touches a bank, it's no longer 'your' money. it's a credit owed by them to you. there certainly will be legal avenues you can follow but that's the fundamental bedrock of anyone's relationship with their bank. not enough people seem to give it any thought.

That's why the bitcoin is the need of this hour. Governments are seeking for the extreme control on the economy of the countries (they are not wrong at their place but it's not convenient for everyone). Using usual route to remit funds outside the country requires much more time and we have to depend on banks for that but bitcoin gives the user, full control of their funds.

[GreenBits]

Hi guys! I was selling bitcoins worth £10 000 via localbitcoins.com and what's happened when the purchaser sent my money to the bank account? My bank has froze my bank account without telling anything. When I tried to contact the purchaser via localbitcoin.com he was already away and I didn't get any reply from him. I have been spending whole day in the bank and trying to explain my last transaction and nobody listened me. They just told me that everything is under investigation.

It that means that someone get my BTC and when sent me money just visit his bank again and told them someone abused his card and want money back? And I'm just a victim of that everything and will never get my money back?

I already reported that case.

Please, could anyone tell me what steps I should do?

Thanks a lot for your help and advise!

While your funds could have been tainted in some way, which will flag a transaction on this platform, you most likely are running into problems because of the amount of money involved with your account/that transaction. Transactions that large invoke AML/KYC procedures automatically, so they will most likely need you to answer a few questions and possibly identify yourself. Otherwise, they would be breaking the law (they may have to fill out a questionnaire for the transaction to cover everything on their end).

[ozhaveruk]

Hi friends,

It's been a few months since the last post on this thread but this is exactly my problem at the moment.
I'm from the UK. Yesterday I sold some bitcoin on localbitcoins to a new user with 0 feedback. I suppose I should've know better than that but his ID was verified with lcb and I made sure the funds came from an account in his name.
A few hours following the trade I discovered that I was unable to perform any transactions on my bank account (HALIFAX) when I contacted the bank I was told my account was being investigated due to fraud and I must report in person in a branch with identification.
I contacted localbitcoins and they refuse to release any details about the buyer ID that might help me prove my innocence to the bank. All I have is a record of the transactions on lbc and you can see that the buyer's real name is verified and that's the name that matches up with the bank transfer that he paid me for the bitcoins.
I've been really stressed all day and I can't sleep.. I feel so helpless. I saw there some really good people writing on this forum and contributing their opinion and experience. Please if anyone reads this and can give advice what am I supposed to do? I am totally innocent.
Will my bank Halifax accept the proof when I show them my localbitcoins account? Will they understand that of course there was no fraud since the buyer received the bitcoin in exchange for his payment as they were held and then released from escrow. There is actually no way he didn't receive them.
Will the bank accept that this person ID was verified by lbc and therefor of course it was him making he payment that came from an account in his name.. who is going to believe that some one stole someone's ID documents AND managed to steal access to their bank account... Now way! Of course it was him and now he's just trying to scam me after having received the bitcoins knowing full well what kind of trouble banks can cause.
Please tell me what to do... I'm so stressed. Will I lose all my money? Will I lose some of my money? What am I to do?

[countryfree]

To freeze a bank account is unusual. It takes more than a large deposit for a bank to activate it. I mean that even if you're on minimum wage, you can always sell an used car, or get a loan from a parent. The cause of the freeze comes most probably from the other side. I mean the buyer who made a large transfer to an unrelated person. That transfer raised alarm at the other guy's bank, and that alarm spread to your bank.

[ozhaveruk]

Hi thanks for the reply
In my case I found out that the buyer complained that I had scammed him by taking his money and giving him nothing. Now I will have to prove my innocense to the bank by going to the branch with all the evidence that he did in fact receive bitcoin in return for his payment

[botany]

Hi thanks for the reply
In my case I found out that the buyer complained that I had scammed him by taking his money and giving him nothing. Now I will have to prove my innocense to the bank by going to the branch with all the evidence that he did in fact receive bitcoin in return for his payment

If you are a victim of man-in-the-middle attack, then tough luck. You will have to show evidence that the bitcoins were indeed sent to him, and not to anybody else.

[babsalt1975]

With rampant cases of money laundering, banks are afraid to transact in very big amounts of money. It will always be suspicious to have a single transaction with a very big amount. The best way to deal with this situation is have smaller transactions scattered over a period of time. When you were trading in the bitcoin, you would have sold a few and explained the transaction using another item but not trading in bitcoin. As it stands, bitcoin is not universally accepted and banks believe bitcoin is being used for money laundering. I hope your issue was resolved?

[fisheater]

I don't think there's anything to worry about. The bank has regulations to prevent money laundry. Once they found out the source of the money is legal, they will remove the freeze.

[ozhaveruk]

Thanks for the reassurances. I'm unable to get into the branch until next Friday but I have spoken to their fraud department and I was lucky the last time I tried a really nice representative took the call and really tried to help me. But I'll still need to go into the branch and show my localbitcoins.com activity and prove that the bitcoins were given to the buyer.
I will update you on the results. In the meantime any more practical advice would be appreciated especially from anyone who has faced such a situation with a UK bank before.

[ozhaveruk]

And by the way to all those who post information about big transactions this isn't the case. The total was £1000 only and still if someone complains about you that you took their money and gave them nothing in return they are basically accusing you of committing fraud in which case they will most likely freeze your account and send back the money to the buyer unless you can prove that you did everything correctly and the fraud allegations are false.
The same applies for cash deposits, even that I read in places the person who deposits the money can attempt to get it back with claims he was forced to do it or was cheated etc.
Seems nothing is truly irreversible except cash and Bitcoin

[hilariousandco]

Thanks for the reassurances. I'm unable to get into the branch until next Friday but I have spoken to their fraud department and I was lucky the last time I tried a really nice representative took the call and really tried to help me. But I'll still need to go into the branch and show my localbitcoins.com activity and prove that the bitcoins were given to the buyer.
I will update you on the results. In the meantime any more practical advice would be appreciated especially from anyone who has faced such a situation with a UK bank before.

If you have all the proof that you sent the coins to him (or they were released from escrow) then I can't see why there should be a problem. You should also file a police report and press charges against the guy because this is attempted theft/fraud.

[ozhaveruk]

Yes! I would absolutely want to make a police complaint about this guy unfortunately I just don't believe that my complaint would make a difference. I did ask my bank that should I prove myself innocent and it would mean I am actually the victim of fraud here would they persue this criminal charges against the fraudster and I got a vague response. Seems not.
It is a shame there isn't a process by which if multiple users were defrauded by the same user on localbitcoins.com that they could all share information and work together to bring that fraudster to justice.
Unfortunately at the moment reviews are anonymous ​ and localbitcoins themselves aren't actively pursuing fraudsters. I wrote to lcb and all they told me was that if they were contacted by the bank or police they would fully cooperate. I think there should be more tools on the site to combat fraud.

[ozhaveruk]

If it's possible to ask the moderator to change the subject of his thread from "My bank account was frozen" to "my bank account was blocked" or add the word "blocked" in the title. I think it would help some people find it.
I'm still interested to hear from people who had specific experience with their UK bank account being blocked.
I'm sure there are many victims

[Oxydarck]

Hi papaxamo111
Last week i was wondering about you
Did you get an answer from the bank? Did they released your funds and or told you a reason? 10k is a good bag of cash. I am not from UK but i think you should visit an association for consumers rights. It's free and they have competent people to help you

No i didn't get an answer from the bank and they didn't told me a reason . Yes 10k is a so good bag of cash .

[countryfree]

Hi thanks for the reply
In my case I found out that the buyer complained that I had scammed him by taking his money and giving him nothing. Now I will have to prove my innocense to the bank by going to the branch with all the evidence that he did in fact receive bitcoin in return for his payment

Just what I wrote in the most above yours. Forget about punishing your fraudster. Your bank has other things to do, and so does localbitcoins. I guess it's safer to trade with cash in a public place.

[hilariousandco]

Yes! I would absolutely want to make a police complaint about this guy unfortunately I just don't believe that my complaint would make a difference. I did ask my bank that should I prove myself innocent and it would mean I am actually the victim of fraud here would they persue this criminal charges against the fraudster and I got a vague response. Seems not.

Then press charges. The guy was probably dumb enough to use his own account if he's trying to get the money back. If what you say is all true then you should have ample proof that you sent the coins and he received them so it's black and white that he's trying to commit fraud. If you don't file a police complaint he'll just keep doing it until he gets caught. If he has a history of doing this then he'll likely face punishment. Doesn't local bitcoin use escrow any way to stop this sort of fraud?

[HI-TEC99]

Other things I would like to know:
1. For UK residents: what bank/association do you recommend for trading with BTC? Should I open a business account? What bank do you recommend?

Look forward to your reply.
Best Regards

It's a bit late now, but there's a thread detailing free EU bank accounts you can open online.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1756494.0

I suggested adding Fidor Bank to it, although I have no experience of using it myself. It's supposed to be Bitcoin friendly because it's possible to link it to a Kraken exchange account to facilitate fast transfers.

Fidor Bank offers free bank accounts to German citizens and UK citizens that they can open directly online.

https://www.fidor.de/

https://www.fidorbank.uk/