itBit SCAM (AVOID this Singapore and USA based exchange!)

[hohsuling]

This company entices people to inject funds into their bank accounts. Verification is extremely fast. I sent my documents (Singapore IC and utility bill) and it was verified within a few hours. I then transferred $3000 from my DBS account to their Standard Chartered account in Singapore. One of their support people responded to my ticket within minutes assuring me that he or she would "personally look into the funds transfer" (they are super fast when checking something or anything inbound or money going to THEIR system and accounts).

After trading my funds for bitcoins, the difficulties began. Withdrawing the bitcoins is one of THE most difficult challenges of being a customer of this company! On the scheduled broadcast or send time, I see this transaction status:

"Your withdrawal is being processed. It can take up to two hours to broadcast."

Hours later it reverts back to "This will be sent to the Blockchain on the next working day."

It has been like this for several days now. The transaction status just keeps going from "being broadcast" back to "will be sent the next working day".

Asking them to look into the issue is absolutely useless. They are extremely fast when discussing or dealing with issues related to funds being paid to their accounts but if you want to withdraw or request anything that has to do with removing bitcoins or fiat from their system, they make climbing Mt Everest a thousand times easier to achieve!

This is fraud what they are doing. They encourage people to sign up for accounts. Once they have your money they make it extremely complicated and cumbersome to move bitcoins to an external wallet. I very much suspect that they are doing this to keep all funds and bitcoins within their system. I'm sure they are trying to prolong or even avoid the withdrawal process to give them time and opportunity to put the bitcoins in the market as a way to maximise their capital. That bitcoin volume on their site's front page is probably exaggerated to invite or tempt people to open accounts on their site!

Whatever the case I will not stop resending withdrawal requests. I will do this several times daily, even if it takes a year for them to finally realise that fraudulently withholding what is rightfully mine and not theirs is not something they can do in Singapore!

Its either they allow the XBT withdrawal or they completely return my $3000 to my DBS account!

To itBIT: Stop defrauding your clients! My account is fully verified and my limits are lifted so I am procedurally compliant with your published procedures on your website! Once withdrawn, you can count on me never to ever use your services again!

I should have followed my instincts and sent the $3000 to Bitstamp instead!

Don't use this company's exchange and trade services.

They have so many procedures which go 180 degrees totally against what bitcoin stands for which is SPEED of payment transactions. Instead they have complicated cut-off times, they don't send bitcoins on weekends, your fiat and bitcoins are at risk of all their red tape and do-this do-that policies. It's not bitcoin-friendly. They operate unilaterally in their favor. All this flowery corporate boasting you see on their site ("we are first in this.. first in that... best in this... best in that") are most likely meant to entice people to inject funds and bitcoins in their system! A SWIFT bank transfer is much faster than a bitcoin transaction on this exchange. After the cut-off time, it goes through several hours of "reviewing" your transaction... then the transaction is queued for initiation the FOLLOWING day. Then on that day, you see the transaction is again queued for broadcasting or sending to the blockchain. It's a long list of queues!

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[kralle]

Please post screenshots and or e-mail logs , because whitout evidence anyone can make a scam report

[hohsuling]

Today is the 24th and see here since when the withdrawals have been pending:

https://i.imgur.com/NbYhxGM.png

https://i.imgur.com/BE0eZS2.png

They were pending since Monday and then the "sending now" status keeps reverting back to "pending / will send tomorrow" the following day. They claim to process withdrawals 4 times daily. Since Monday until now the withdrawals were showing as "sending or broadcasting now" (during each of those 4 times per day) back to "sending the bitcoins to the blockchain the next day".

The last time I checked the dictionary, "two hours" is not the same as "two days". It's now the 24th and it's still "will broadcast in 2 hours".

Initially it was a single withdrawal request of 9.1 BTC but I now spread it into separate smaller payments.

This is a fraudulent company. Do not send your bitcoins or fiat to this exchange.

[JamesPeterson]

100% Agree. This exchange is a filthy scam pig dressed up in a $2000 suit. They make it easy to deposit fiat via wire transfer, and post it to the account within hours. They ask no questions, nor need any details, to deposit. The problem occurs when you try to withdraw fiat or bitcoin. Then they ask you a million questions about your occupation, where you got the money from, what third party wallets you use, what your annual salary is, etc. They require you to answer them before they can release the funds, but even if you do answer, they simply come up with more questions for you to answer, or they just stop answering you altogether. They claim this is to prevent money laundering, but this is complete nonsense. If they asked these questions before the deposit, and would not take your money without providing this information first, then maybe... but nothing until you try to get your funds out. Additionally they promise to send your funds "tomorrow", but tomorrow comes and the funds never arrive, even weeks after "tomorrow" has passed.

A big red flag is that their customer service department never answers the telephone. That should be rule number one before depositing any money: do they actually answer the phone in a timely manner every single time you call within their business hours? This company never answers the phone. There are some other major flags as well. For example, the company claims that the money with them is insured, but they do not mention which bank insures them, or who provides "full asset protection". They claim to be for institutions, but with bitcoin having sucn a small market cap, do you really think institutions are trading tens of thousands of dollars, or is this a way to entice people to put way more money than they otherwise would in Itbit's bank account? They claim to be federally regulated, but I urge you to ask them for the legal documents that prove this before you deposit a penny. They won't be able to provide these documents, because they are not regulated, it just sounds good so that you will trust them with your money. They use buzz words that are confusing to new bitcoin investors, such as keeping the bitcoins in "cold storage". It is true, they keep your bitcoins and money their account and never return it. "Frozen storage" would be a better term.

The bottom line is, do not trust any bitcoin exchange that hasn't been around for several years, has lots of users, and is known by the bitcoin community to be safe. Bitcoin exchanges are not like Stock exchanges, which (mostly, excluding MF global) are fairly safe. Even then, I recommend you only deposit a very small amount, call them often, and test the withdrawal process as soon as you can to make sure you can get your money out. Do an internet search. Has the exchange been around for a long time? Do seasoned bitcoin traders trust it? What happens when you attach the word "fraud" or "scam" or "stolen" next to the name of the exchange on an internet search?

One thing is for sure, Itbit is a great way for uninformed people, especially those just getting into bitcoin who do not have friends to show them the ropes, to get their money stolen.