Localbitcoins freezing accounts for no reason and no response from support

[thehun]

I have been on Localbitcoins for 5 years with no open disputes or negative rep and a fully verified account. Suddenly yesterday after opening a few smaller trades I see that my account is in "forced holiday" without having received any warning.

I have tried to contact support but I didn't receive any reply yet. I see many other people have had the same issue so I tried to contact the team on Twitter and Facebook, also without any success. Finally I got onto the IRC chat and a guy gave me these answers:





According to the CM of the IRC channel depositing your BTC into Localbitcoins is "risky". So take your own conclusions out of this.

[nomadcrypto]

They got me for 0.2btc a couple years ago with similar bs. I had only ever cashed out via moneygram and had never had an issue other than the occasional buyer flaking and not sending. Suddenly one day out of no where the account got locked pending ID verification. At the time 0.2 was roughly $60USD so I just told them to kiss my ass and that I would never use their site again as well as tell this story every chance I get.

Depositing coin into LBC is very risky if you do not want to do indentity verification. If you are willing to do that then there is pretty much 0 risk.

[Slow death]

I am trying to login and says that my email and password do not exist:

Please enter a correct username and password. Note that both fields are case sensitive.

 

What the fuck? I handed over my documents, handed in selfie holding a signed paper with date and I being near my computer and they verify my account and now my account disappeared? what the hell is happening?

According to the CM of the IRC channel depositing your BTC into Localbitcoins is "risky". So take your own conclusions out of this.

I thought about going back to using them because yesterday my neteller and skril accounts were blocked for no reason, I always respected your TOS, so I do not know what's happening, I'm not going to use it any more

[pugman]

I logged in right now and I checked, everything was fine, they are asking me to read the new Terms and conditions. But this seems scary, I have some money in there, so I better move it. I don't want LBC to be the next bittrex/poloniex. Selling bitcoins would become a real life nightmare, if that happens.

What the fuck? I handed over my documents, handed in selfie holding a signed paper with date and I being near my computer and they verify my account and now my account disappeared? what the hell is happening?

Calm down. Check if your Caps Lock is on or not. Try the forgot password method. Or try using the next possible set of passwords. Something must click. They cannot make your account disappear.

[Slow death]

Calm down. Check if your Caps Lock is on or not. Try the forgot password method. Or try using the next possible set of passwords. Something must click. They cannot make your account disappear.

my login details are correct and I do not have caps lock on, this is not the first time this happens, the last time I was forced to deliver selfie holding my passport, selfie holding a signed paper and next to my pc. this all for to prove that I was the account owner and they took time to solve my problem. This time I give up.



       

[Zapo]

Yikes!

I'm glad I converted all my BTC to ETH and moved to localethereum when the big KYC update was about to happen. The entire update makes the core concept of localbitcoins invalid.

Are able to send your BTC away? Their support isn't the most helpful and I'd recommend moving your decent sum of BTC away before they lock your account with another bullshit excuse.

Sometimes it's best to cut your losses.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

OP - Your situation seems fucking ridiculous & unfair. It’s not even for that much money, totally unreasonable on their part. Best of luck with this & hope it gets sorted for you ASAP.

[thehun]

Yikes!

I'm glad I converted all my BTC to ETH and moved to localethereum when the big KYC update was about to happen. The entire update makes the core concept of localbitcoins invalid.

Are able to send your BTC away? Their support isn't the most helpful and I'd recommend moving your decent sum of BTC away before they lock your account with another bullshit excuse.

Sometimes it's best to cut your losses.

Nope, the funds are locked.

I got a reply finally demanding all sorts of KYC steps saying that "we have reason to believe that you have acted in violation of our Terms of Service."

I had to send a selfie with my ID and a piece of paper and a text on it, a utility bill and a photo of my PC with the ticket on it. Let's see what comes out of this.

[Aveatrex]

Yikes!

I'm glad I converted all my BTC to ETH and moved to localethereum when the big KYC update was about to happen. The entire update makes the core concept of localbitcoins invalid.

Are able to send your BTC away? Their support isn't the most helpful and I'd recommend moving your decent sum of BTC away before they lock your account with another bullshit excuse.

Sometimes it's best to cut your losses.

Nope, the funds are locked.

I got a reply finally demanding all sorts of KYC steps saying that "we have reason to believe that you have acted in violation of our Terms of Service."

I had to send a selfie with my ID and a piece of paper and a text on it, a utility bill and a photo of my PC with the ticket on it. Let's see what comes out of this.

This is really bullshit.Did they specify which term on their TOs you violated? I'm sick of these centralized companies that enforce KYC.They didn't understand anything to cryptocurrency and to privacy.
Thank you OP for this post,I was planning on using lbc but now I'll think twice.

[crazy_elky]

only atomic swaps and decentralyzed excahnges will help us

[Joel_Jantsen]

Have been a localBitcoins user since 2015 and never had any issues with them. The only stuff I had to verify was my mobile number and had to submit an ID verification without any message or other details. Have you been flagged by any user who you involved in a trade with? Did you check your feedback score drop drastically? Did you check your recent login attempts to verify your account was safe of unauthorised access? I haven't heard of many cases where LBC closed the accounts with funds in it.

[thehun]

Have been a localBitcoins user since 2015 and never had any issues with them. The only stuff I had to verify was my mobile number and had to submit an ID verification without any message or other details. Have you been flagged by any user who you involved in a trade with? Did you check your feedback score drop drastically? Did you check your recent login attempts to verify your account was safe of unauthorised access? I haven't heard of many cases where LBC closed the accounts with funds in it.

I haven't had any disputes or controversy with anyone. There was one trade that got cancelled by the BTC buyer because he said he couldn't deposit the money in my bank that day, but that's it, no hard feelings from my part.

My feedback is 100% positive, and I have 2FA activated, so it would be difficult to hack my account (no, I didn't see any strange logins).

[thehun]

After accepting my documents they are asking the following:

Thank you for the identification documents. Before we can unblock your account we will need you to provide proof of the source of the funds used to purchase the bitcoin you received to your account in these two transactions:

This is completely over the top. I can understand KYC (if warned in advance, of course) but here they have simply assigned themselves a role that belongs to the financial authorities. What if I didn't buy those BTC? What if they were mining proceeds, won gambling or simply a gift from a friend? It seems to me like they are entitling them to keep it in those cases. 

[thehun]

Happy ending: my account has been finally unlocked.

I just read about this case:

https://www.cryptonetix.com/localbitcoins-trader-bitcoin-maven-sentenced-to-prison-for-money-laundering/

And it makes me understand a bit better the situation. However, these arbitrary actions will most likely mean the end of Localbitcoins.