Is Poloniex liable?

[Hueristic]

I intend to file a complaint and have been in touch with the  Delaware Attorney Generals office and they refereed me to the Delaware investor protection agency which I got redirected to voicemail where I left my contact info to get the ball rolling.

There are many issues with Polo the last year but this one is the final straw. After sending out emails stating that they would be requiring KYC but the users would have a period to withdraw if unwilling or unable to provide KYC then they would be allowed to withdraw funds. Well to no ones surprise they have lied and have frozen accounts that do not comply to their demands of verification. Whether this is legal or not is not the basis for my complaint. although I am sure there is legal recourse in here as well.

My complaint, and where I believe Poloniex is liable, is in order to access your funds to withdraw and not use their service they are forcing their users to agree to waive their legal rights.

I am not a lawyer but as far as I understand that it is a form of extortion.

You must agree to their terms of service which states you waive the right to sue them in order to access your funds and withdraw. It also states that you also agree to waive your rights if you try to use their ticket support system as well which as far as I know is the only other way to remove funds.

So to all you lawyers out there is this Extortion or not?


I will keep this OP updated and all those that Poloniex is stealing funds from go ahead and post in this thread for future reference if this ends up in court.

Please do not clutter it up with worthless "polo sucks" posts.

Feel free to post any open tickets you have that they are ignoring and I will be posting a few tickets they closed on me in the past without addressing the issue nor even notifying me they had closed those tickets.

I am assuming this will end up being moved into the scam accusation section but for right now I am gathering information and advice with this post. As many of you are aware Poloniex is now owned by Circle which is backed by Goldman Sachs so it is now firmly in the grasp of the banking institutions. And will assuredly be firmly in the grasp of the judicial system as well as the regulatory system which is what I'm sure Goldman Sachs was waiting on to catch up before they made this move.

[Reinhe]

Poloniex froze my account on May 27. I sent documents for verification several times, but the status remain unchanged: Attention required. In technical support left two tickets, but no one answers them. On the balance remained a large sum for me. I also know that there are a lot of such people.
For now without further information. Depending on further events.

Sorry for my english, but, I think, is understandable.

[SyGambler]

since you pmed me with this thread I assume you know about my past issue with poloniex , yeah they don't respect their customers and they don't respect their TOS
they suddenly decided to stop accepting traders from my country without any warning , I ended getting my money stuck there for over two months waiting for them to reply
but they paid me after ignoring me for a little bit over 2 months , same thing happened with all the Syrians I know

the shadiest exchange at the moment is bittrex since they are still holding Syrians funds without paying them or even responding to their tickets

[Big Naturals]

Please add bittrex to your complaint, they froze accounts without warning and changed terms of service requiring kyc for withdrawals without any grace period for existing customers.

poloniex and bittrex are both rogue exchanges now, and both should have their actions tested in court.

[coinadon]

I once had a lot of problems with poloniex. But I have left the market a few months ago.

In December 2017 I experience pending withdrawal with SC (siacoin) after submitting ticket In 47 Days the case is complete. But after this, my verified account level 2 arrives "It was downgraded to unverified, and I spent about 30 days to get it done." I guess the customer support from poloniex is less responsive in handling the problems on the users.

[Harlot]

Poloniex is definitely liable they are illegally holding you money without any reason relating to illegal or wrongful doing. They are just basically putting you in a bad position in order to waive your legal rights against them. First off all legal rights are always there it cannot be remove not unless you are involve in a criminal violations. Second any contract agreement related to a removal of rights just to withdraw your own money is basically voidable. So what I am saying is you have another choice. If you accept their terms now you can easily sue them about it after you receive your funds or even if there are any future problems you can't solve because they are bringing up there so-called "agreement" with you.

[Hueristic]

Poloniex is definitely liable they are illegally holding you money without any reason relating to illegal or wrongful doing. They are just basically putting you in a bad position in order to waive your legal rights against them. First off all legal rights are always there it cannot be remove not unless you are involve in a criminal violations. Second any contract agreement related to a removal of rights just to withdraw your own money is basically voidable. So what I am saying is you have another choice. If you accept their terms now you can easily sue them about it after you receive your funds or even if there are any future problems you can't solve because they are bringing up there so-called "agreement" with you.

I believe you are correct as it falls under the "under duress" category. I was hoping an actual lawyer was on here that could site a precedent.

It may take the form of a (1) compulsive act, (2) threat that causes fear, or (3) use of moral or social pressure to overpower the will of the individual. Agreements entered into, or testaments signed under, duress are judged illegal and invalid. See also coercion and undue influence.

Thanks for the input.

since you pmed me with this thread I assume you know about my past issue with poloniex , yeah they don't respect their customers and they don't respect their TOS
they suddenly decided to stop accepting traders from my country without any warning , I ended getting my money stuck there for over two months waiting for them to reply
but they paid me after ignoring me for a little bit over 2 months , same thing happened with all the Syrians I know

the shadiest exchange at the moment is bittrex since they are still holding Syrians funds without paying them or even responding to their tickets

Yes I pm'd you in case you had not gotten your issue resolved yet, glad you did.

Please add bittrex to your complaint, they froze accounts without warning and changed terms of service requiring kyc for withdrawals without any grace period for existing customers.

poloniex and bittrex are both rogue exchanges now, and both should have their actions tested in court.

I don't deal with bittrex but have heard about this also. I will mention it but since I doubt Delaware is where Bittrex is licensed out of I'm sure they will just say goto whatever jurisdiction bittrex falls under. But I will ask just the same.

Poloniex froze my account on May 27. I sent documents for verification several times, but the status remain unchanged: Attention required. In technical support left two tickets, but no one answers them. On the balance remained a large sum for me. I also know that there are a lot of such people.
For now without further information. Depending on further events.

Sorry for my english, but, I think, is understandable.

Your English is fine. As far as the bolded, have them post in here with ticket numbers if they can. I'd like to have as much ammo as possible when I get a call back next week.

I am doing this because I can, I have no fear of the IRS or anyone else knocking on my door or hauling me into court because I have undeclared funds.




I'm surprised there are not more users here with funds locked under verification. One reason for this thread besides collecting advice on the legality of their move is also the gauge the extent of the seized accounts. Yes if the account has been frozen it is seized no matter what they call it. I understand there are people that cannot acknowledge funds on that exchange do to local laws and such and cannot post in an open forum so anyone that falls under that heading can pm me and I will provide a private email for you to converse with.

[elrippos friend]

Nice thread, i think there will be more and more complaints comming in, hence my favorite exchange (bittrex) is also behaving kind ofshitty, and i am using XMR.to/shapeshift.io since i heard they are behaving like they do 

[Taki]

That's their new politic, you may agree or go away, only this two options. At least they gave some period to all users during which they must to correct their profiles with private information. I think the thread is going to be successful, cause of now there will be a lot of people to complain.

[Reinhe]

Personally, I do not have anything against the KYC. But they did not give to take the money, breaking their own promise not to block the withdrawal of funds. Everything ended with the worst scenario on their part. But the most terrible thing is that they continue this scenario with their silence in keeping money to hostage.

Why is that?

This is some new cannibalistic policy.
Can not apply the rules of fiat money to cryptocurrencies. This will not work. They themselves set people against themselves. Or is it just such a scenario for earning money using someone else's finance under the guise of the law.

[sailthor]

My funds are also currently locked away from me. The day I received an email letting me know I had a week long grace period to withdraw without going theough KYC, I tried to withdraw. Turns out poloniex lied to me and had already locked my account.

[Ivandvanko]

poloniex froze and my account ... after defrosting (if it succeeds), I will withdraw all funds and refuse to communicate with this exchange.  I passed verification last year and they all arranged, but now they do not act beautifully.

[palle11]

I was also noticing that with poloniex, having certain issues when you want to login to your account. I got frustrated and didn't make the type of investment I wanted. I had to take my investment somewhere that I'm now benefiting.

[rmh01]

Poloniex froze my account on May 27. I sent documents for verification several times, but the status remain unchanged: Attention required. In technical support left two tickets, but no one answers them. On the balance remained a large sum for me. I also know that there are a lot of such people.
For now without further information. Depending on further events.

Sorry for my english, but, I think, is understandable.

Same for me. I made the forced verification (shouldn't have), but the status unchanged.

[buwaytress]

Thanks for bringing this up for discussion... it has actually been pointed out before, especially during mid-2017 when Poloniex troubles began. To someone like me, that specific line that forces users to waive legal rights (which they later also amended to specifically include class action) just smacks of unfair consumer practice.

There is one case in the EU (almost similar) where a company forced users to waive their withdrawal rights to "lapse" if they agreed to buy in-game tokens (considered as digital content). Courts found that it was permissible, but on highly complex procedure. You can refer to this: http://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/court-decision-consumer-withdrawal-right-waiver-possible-for-virtual-currencies/

Now of course waiving legal rights is completely on another level. It's very common now between employer-employee, and unfortunately, the US Supreme Court has been extremely pro-business, considering legal waivers as legitimate in cases against Google, Facebook, in the past.

[Hueristic]

Thanks for bringing this up for discussion... it has actually been pointed out before, especially during mid-2017 when Poloniex troubles began. To someone like me, that specific line that forces users to waive legal rights (which they later also amended to specifically include class action) just smacks of unfair consumer practice.

There is one case in the EU (almost similar) where a company forced users to waive their withdrawal rights to "lapse" if they agreed to buy in-game tokens (considered as digital content). Courts found that it was permissible, but on highly complex procedure. You can refer to this: http://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/court-decision-consumer-withdrawal-right-waiver-possible-for-virtual-currencies/

Now of course waiving legal rights is completely on another level. It's very common now between employer-employee, and unfortunately, the US Supreme Court has been extremely pro-business, considering legal waivers as legitimate in cases against Google, Facebook, in the past.

Thanks for that info, as you thought that case you cited is not applicable as the bolded shows. This is specific to a virtual currency in a game only and it is ruled as digital content.

The Decision

The court only partially followed vzbv’s arguments: It confirmed that virtual currency was in fact “digital content”, but it did agree with vzbv regarding the requirement of a two-step process to obtain a withdrawal waiver.

I received the pm's guys and have saved the ticket numbers you've sent.

Since I am unable to access the tickets a type of complaint would be a good idea to send with the numbers. At a bare minimum I would need  something like this.

Ticket 12345678 1/01/2018 OPEN                   Verification : proof not accepted
Ticket 12345679 1/01/2018 Closed 5/01/2018   Deposit : Took months as price declined
Ticket 12345680 9/01/2017 Closed 1/01/2018   Margin  : cancelled my position when market moved in my direction

Obviously the more info I have the better I can categorized and correlate the complaints that are not being addressed. I do not need Personal info unless you feel comfortable with that and if you do then make sure to state whether I can share that info with the court system, otherwise I will assume not and protect your privacy.


And make sure to archive your tickets and download your history.

I have added this email to the op. Hueristic_AT_protonmail.com

[Reinhe]

My tickets is open and no answered.

Attempts to send a document have been exhausted.

Withdraw/deposit - locked.
Trade - locked.

I tried several times to send documents for verification. Formally, I agreed to their cannibalistic conditions. But they promised not to freeze the withdrawal from legacy accounts of the funds until the verification was completed. Verification is not complete, the accounts are frozen. Poloniex is a liar.

[labhsikh123]

Yes, definitely, I think, there should be complaint if there become the issue.

[seoincorporation]

You must agree to their terms of service which states you waive the right to sue them in order to access your funds and withdraw. It also states that you also agree to waive your rights if you try to use their ticket support system as well which as far as I know is the only other way to remove funds.

So to all you lawyers out there is this Extortion or not?

I was discussing the same last week, precisely because I find it to be a new way of extortion. If they change their policies, then you should be able to say "I don't agree" and remove all your funds. If not, it definitely seems an extortion to me.
They are asking even for a personal photo of your face. This is against many policies, but, still, they require this new information, along with all the commonly asked one.
So if you do not agree with that, then they will kidnap your fund 'till you give them the information required. This is extortion, kidnapping and it must be illegal.

Besides, giving such kind of private data can be dangerous, for they haven't even spoken about their last hacking attempt: https://themerkle.com/poloniex-users-suffering-from-frozen-accounts-suspended-withdrawals-and-disabled-markets/

Have the data been stolen?
Do the hackers have all the personal information of their users now, including how they look?

I've asked some lawyers friends and they all answered me the same: if you agree with a site's policies and then they change, you should be allowed to stop any relation (commercial, etc) with them, as well as they are obligated to erase all the data they have from you by sending a copy first. Of course, the law system depends on the country they are, but it should work this way, since Poloniex is now under the US regulations.

[marielbeckham]

Didn't expect that there are so many similar cases.