Localbitcoins stole my bitcoins just because I'm Iranian

[mmahdim]

So lately localbitcoins started to ban Iranian users from trading bitcoins on their website.

In the beginning, they claimed that we will be able to withdraw our funds at any time, and recently they started their new verification process which requires accounts with more than 1000 € annual transactions to verify their ID and provide their address.

Even though my account annual transaction amount had never been more than 1500 €, they are asking me for Tier 2 verification which includes address verification that I already provided them. They are now claiming that my address verification which was a credit card statement is "not valid", And all of that was only supposed to prevent me from making trades on their platform, not to prevent me from withdrawing my Bitcoins.

Now when I tried to withdraw my 0.063 bitcoins which is worth more than 100M Rials, equal to around 10 months of a teacher's salary in my country due to the recent fall of our currency value because of sanctions, I realized that they have banned me from making outgoing transactions! They have literally stolen my Bitcoins by justifying that I'm residing in a country in which localbitcoins is not available!

While we are already suffering from sanctions and economic pressures & instabilities which directly target the people, the worst thing that can happen is getting our money stolen.

Note that I'm a 21-year-old Electronics Engineering student and an ordinary citizen trying his best to have some source of income to be independent. It took me and my brother around 8 months to make that money (half of that is my brother's, and I'm ashamed of telling him what happened).
Already facing economic pressures I also have problems finding electronic parts for even my hobby projects and I have to pay 2-3 times the real price of each part I need. Just imagine your life without Amazon, eBay, aliexpress, etc., and also no international credit cards like Mastercard and Visacard.


If you have any idea about how I can take our money back I'd be glad to hear that.

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[mindrust]

Localbitcoins started KYC'ing people long time ago. If you knew it and still decided to take the risks, you had it coming. Any business with a .com domain name has a secret partner: The U.S.

Unlucky for you, Iran is the country they decided to bomb next.

[mmahdim]

Localbitcoins started KYC'ing people long time ago. If you knew it and still decided to take the risks, you had it coming. Any business with a .com domain name has a secret partner: The U.S.

Unlucky for you, Iran is the country they decided to bomb next.

I only thought they would keep me from trading on their platform, as they also claimed. I never thought they would hold my funds.


p.s. there are lots of Iranian businesses with .com domains  :D

[mindrust]

I only thought they would keep me from trading on their platform, as they also claimed. I never thought they would hold my funds.

You guessed wrong...

p.s. there are lots of Iranian businesses with .com domains 

They are still operating because the US let them. With a snap of a finger, they are gone.

[iluvbitcoins]

Why don’t you send them something else as address verification? O.O

[mmahdim]

Why don’t you send them something else as address verification? O.O

I live with my parents and none of the utility bills are registered to my name. I only have my bank account which they don't seem to accept for some reason :/

[Spendulus]

So lately localbitcoins started to ban Iranian users from trading bitcoins on their website.

In the beginning, they claimed that we will be able to withdraw our funds at any time, and recently they started their new verification process which requires accounts with more than 1000 € annual transactions to verify their ID and provide their address.

Even though my account annual transaction amount had never been more than 1500 €, they are asking me for Tier 2 verification which includes address verification that I already provided them. They are now claiming that my address verification which was a credit card statement is "not valid", And all of that was only supposed to prevent me from making trades on their platform, not to prevent me from withdrawing my Bitcoins.

Now when I tried to withdraw my 0.063 bitcoins which is worth more than 100M Rials, equal to around 10 months of a teacher's salary...

(A) have patience
(B) Repeat (A) over and over

Your btc have not been stolen. Not at this point.

I suggest you start by establishing some person at the company that can deal with you as an individual. That is most important, not to be a slave to the current functioning of a crude AI robot.

[TECSHARE]

Why don’t you send them something else as address verification? O.O

I live with my parents and none of the utility bills are registered to my name. I only have my bank account which they don't seem to accept for some reason :/

This might be why. They might be using credit agencies databases to verify your KYC info. See if you can ask your parents for help to use their bank/address info to fulfill KYC obligations if you can. With the new round of sanctions against Iran they probably are crossing all of the Ts and dotting all of the Is as far as regulations.

[squatz1]

Localbitcoins started KYC'ing people long time ago. If you knew it and still decided to take the risks, you had it coming. Any business with a .com domain name has a secret partner: The U.S.

Unlucky for you, Iran is the country they decided to bomb next.

I mean even if they did KYC and everything and you kept your money on the exchange, you still should be able to get your money back. No reason for them to 'steal your money' just because of this.

I'd compare this to online gambling sites 'banning Americans' (I put it in quotes because EVERYONE uses a VPN) when someone wins a large sum of money and they want verification the American (when submitting their american stuff) is stripped of their winnings but is returned their original funds that were placed on the site. You can't just run off with peoples money -- well at least not in the regular world, the wild west of crypto is a bit interesting.

[mmahdim]

I mean even if they did KYC and everything and you kept your money on the exchange, you still should be able to get your money back. No reason for them to 'steal your money' just because of this.

I'd compare this to online gambling sites 'banning Americans' (I put it in quotes because EVERYONE uses a VPN) when someone wins a large sum of money and they want verification the American (when submitting their american stuff) is stripped of their winnings but is returned their original funds that were placed on the site. You can't just run off with peoples money -- well at least not in the regular world, the wild west of crypto is a bit interesting.

That's exactly what I'm saying.
There's no reason for them to hold my money because I could not verify my address. Not to mention that according to their own rules and terms there's no need for accounts with less than 1500 euro income per year to verify their address. I have already verified my passport and identity.
They're just making an excuse to steal my money knowing that I would not be able to stand against them because of the sanctions.

[mindrust]

I mean even if they did KYC and everything and you kept your money on the exchange, you still should be able to get your money back. No reason for them to 'steal your money' just because of this.

I'd compare this to online gambling sites 'banning Americans' (I put it in quotes because EVERYONE uses a VPN) when someone wins a large sum of money and they want verification the American (when submitting their american stuff) is stripped of their winnings but is returned their original funds that were placed on the site. You can't just run off with peoples money -- well at least not in the regular world, the wild west of crypto is a bit interesting.

That's exactly what I'm saying.
There's no reason for them to hold my money because I could not verify my address. Not to mention that according to their own rules and terms there's no need for accounts with less than 1500 euro income per year to verify their address. I have already verified my passport and identity.
They're just making an excuse to steal my money knowing that I would not be able to stand against them because of the sanctions.

No reason but who is going to punish them for that? Tell me who?

They do it, because they can get away with it. They do it, because they can.

Why do you think USA killed the Iranian general?

Because they can.

[mmahdim]

No reason but who is going to punish them for that? Tell me who?

They do it, because they can get away with it. They do it, because they can.

Why do you think USA killed the Iranian general?

Because they can.

I mean if lbtc was USA based I wouldn't trust them for sure. But I trusted them because they're based in Finland, while the EU is still a part of the JCPOA.
It seems like I was wrong...
You can't trust anybody if you don't have leverage.

[mindrust]

No reason but who is going to punish them for that? Tell me who?

They do it, because they can get away with it. They do it, because they can.

Why do you think USA killed the Iranian general?

Because they can.

I mean if lbtc was USA based I wouldn't trust them for sure. But I trusted them because they're based in Finland, while the EU is still a part of the JCPOA.
It seems like I was wrong...
You can't trust anybody if you don't have leverage.

Not your keys, not your coins.

[TheCoinGrabber]

Weren't you the same guy complaining about not being able to ship in the ICs needed for a project? Wow, this sucks big time. 

I don't have any solutions I can suggest and there's really not much you can do against them. If I were you I'd probably go follow Spendulus' suggestion of trying to make formal communications and hope someone picks it up and then try work out a solution from that. I don't know if social media are blocked there but if you can carpet bomb their Twitter with you complaint they might actually try to contact you since that's going to agitate customers.

[mmahdim]

Weren't you the same guy complaining about not being able to ship in the ICs needed for a project? Wow, this sucks big time. 

I don't have any solutions I can suggest and there's really not much you can do against them. If I were you I'd probably go follow Spendulus' suggestion of trying to make formal communications and hope someone picks it up and then try work out a solution from that. I don't know if social media are blocked there but if you can carpet bomb their Twitter with you complaint they might actually try to contact you since that's going to agitate customers.

Yeah, I'm the same person.
That's a good idea, I will try that if they don't respond to my support tickets. Thanks for that.

[mmahdim]

I've got some good news!

lbtc just accepted my address verification! 
I can withdraw all of my money now. I'm so excited! 

Thanks everyone for your support and ideas.

[akram143]

I've got some good news!

lbtc just accepted my address verification! 
I can withdraw all of my money now. I'm so excited! 

Thanks everyone for your support and ideas.

Stop calling the sites are scam at first instances,good you got your bitcoins back.And the blame should be on your for not knowing their announcement which was way back longer and have enough time for people to withdraw if they did't like their KYC terms.

[mmahdim]

I've got some good news!

lbtc just accepted my address verification!  
I can withdraw all of my money now. I'm so excited!  

Thanks everyone for your support and ideas.

Stop calling the sites are scam at first instances,good you got your bitcoins back.And the blame should be on your for not knowing their announcement which was way back longer and have enough time for people to withdraw if they did't like their KYC terms.

First of all, this wasn't in the first instance. I had been arguing with them for around 2 months over this problem. Second, they cannot hold my money because of their KYC terms which shouldn't have applied to me in the first place according to their own rules since I never had more than 1500 euros annual transaction amount. They can only prevent me from using their platform for trading bitcoins.
Third, I already provided them the required documentation for my address verification, but they kept rejecting it for no reason.

[yoseph]

I've got some good news!

lbtc just accepted my address verification!  
I can withdraw all of my money now. I'm so excited!  

Thanks everyone for your support and ideas.

Stop calling the sites are scam at first instances,good you got your bitcoins back.And the blame should be on your for not knowing their announcement which was way back longer and have enough time for people to withdraw if they did't like their KYC terms.

First of all, this wasn't in the first instance. I had been arguing with them for around 2 months over this problem. Second, they cannot hold my money because of their KYC terms which shouldn't have applied to me in the first place according to their own rules since I never had more than 1500 euros annual transaction amount. They can only prevent me from using their platform for trading bitcoins.
Third, I already provided them the required documentation for my address verification, but they kept rejecting it for no reason.

So I am wondering whether you are able to trade on their domain now since they have accepted your address verification or you are still banned and can only make withdrawals on the sites only.

[mmahdim]

So I am wondering whether you are able to trade on their domain now since they have accepted your address verification or you are still banned and can only make withdrawals on the sites only.

Actually no. my account is suspended. I can only withdraw my money.