Here's an update from
my etoro experience:
• etoro account opened, money deposited by paypal. "Bought" some netflix stock.
• after a few days the account locked down and demanded i upload ID. wouldn't let me trade/withdraw/anything.
• Site's ID upload didn't work, nor did help section.
• Contacted etoro help. They didn't help much over email, and though i stated not to use my phone,they called my phone.
• Customer services person over phone suggested i insecurely email scans of government-issued ID, which I wasn't gonna do. I remind them that they're legally prohibited from trading on behalf of anyone who they can't prove to be over 18 in the UK, so they can't lawfully take a deposit before seeing a user's ID. More to the point, my passport is out of date so I didn't have enough ID at the time.
• This meant my account was stuck holding netflix and I couldn't change that before renewing my passport or generating some other form of ID. If i was holding some less successful stock, that might have wiped out my money. I explained this, and how it meant I wanted my account cancelled and my money withdrawn.
• I posted about this experience on these boards in etoro's bitcoin announce thread, and was messaged that they'd look into it.
• They tried to call me 8 more times while I was working but I wanted to use email, not phone (so I had logs, perhaps to paste here). I let it ring, but they didn't try my email.
• They DID cancel my account and informed me, but rather than paying me the account balance, they only paypalled me the amount I first deposited,
minus 5$ for fees.
In short:
I paid 5 bucks to let them borrow my money for a month.
And to be slightly dissed by an american over the phone who seemingly didn't believe that a brit can exist without a current passport or driving license.
...and to be told this:
Hi Thom
we are cashing out your funds.
Sorry it took some time, we were trying to reach you over the phone.
Would be happy if can post all was solved once you receive the funds.
Thanks and i am here for anything you need.
Amos
Sorry, etoro. Your service may be legit and real to moneyed users with ID who don't mind risking it in insecure transmissions, but from my experience being locked out of my account, for all I can tell no trading occurs there and it may just be a big operation to sucker folks into that $5 processing fee.
I mean, that referral $$ that etoro is giving people to spam links around has got to come from somewhere.
Some of it is mine.
