[ Coinmama ] is this a legitimate exchange where I can entrust my credit card?

[Passionate]

I want to know if Coinmama is a legitimate exchange where I can entrust my credit card so I can purchase some BTC in countries like Singapore/Malaysia.

I'm talking about this website: https://www.coinmama.com/

And while I'm at it, I also want to know the best way to see whether a website like that is legitimate or not.

Me and my friends are looking for a place to purchase our BTC regularly.

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[Wexnident]

Yep. Coinmama is one of the most trusted exchanges out there that can be compared to with Binance and other bigshots. On the other hand though, it asks for quite a high exchange fee, amounting to 5%, and 10% if you are using your credit card to buy crypto. It's also available in the countries you have just stated so no worries with regards to that.

As for determining whether an exchange is legit or not, just research about it. Once you've stayed in the community for a tad bit, well-known names of exchanges naturally pop out so you can know by experience whether one is legit or not. As for those new and unknown ones, check out their services if it seems legit and search it up in Reddit or maybe even in this forum itself.

[Passionate]

Yep. Coinmama is one of the most trusted exchanges out there that can be compared to with Binance and other bigshots. On the other hand though, it asks for quite a high exchange fee, amounting to 5%, and 10% if you are using your credit card to buy crypto. It's also available in the countries you have just stated so no worries with regards to that.

As for determining whether an exchange is legit or not, just research about it. Once you've stayed in the community for a tad bit, well-known names of exchanges naturally pop out so you can know by experience whether one is legit or not. As for those new and unknown ones, check out their services if it seems legit and search it up in Reddit or maybe even in this forum itself.

Aye thanks for that information. I just registered in Coinmama now and its asking me documents already I haven't even bought anything yet.

[o_e_l_e_o]

As far as I am aware, there are no major scam accusations against Coinmama, so I don't think you are likely to lose your money if you use them.

However, their privacy policy is absolutely atrocious:

Registering through our website: When you register to the Services through our website, we may collect from you the following information: full name, email address, phone number, full home address (country, state/province, zip code, city, street, house number), gender, date of birth, ID information (issuing country, number, expiry date, etc.), images of identification documents, images of proof-of-residence (utility bills, bank/credit card statements, government-issued letters), images of yourself (selfie photos), information required for our compliance with regulatory Know Your Customer requirements (e.g., contents of KYC Questionnaire and Service Applicant Declaration Form [estimated amount of intended activity, purpose of buying virtual currency, source of the funds used to buy virtual currency, employment status, profession and job title or position, field of activity of employing company or own business, name of employing company or own business, URL to the website of employing company or own business, signature sample, ultimate beneficiary of purchased virtual currency], etc.), as well as any other information you agreed to share with us.

We may share Personal Information with the following recipients: (i) our subsidiaries; (ii) affiliated companies; (iii) subcontractors and other third-party service providers; (iv) auditors or advisers of our business processes; and (v) any potential purchasers or investors in the Company.

In addition to the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy, we may share Personal Information with our recipients for any of the following purposes: (i) storing or processing Personal Information on our behalf (e.g., cloud computing service providers); (ii) processing such information to assist us with our business operations; (iii) performing research, technical diagnostics, personalization and analytics; and (iv) communicating promotional and informational materials, in accordance with our marketing policy (see below under "Marketing").

Seriously. Just look at that. The TL;DR is essentially you have to tell them all your personal information, your employment status and your employer's details, submit selfies and photos of your ID, tell them where your money is coming from, why you are buying bitcoin, what you are planning to do with it, who or where you are going to send it. They will share that information with pretty much any third party they please. Absolutely disgusting disregard for their customers and very shady. Turns out they also track your bitcoin after you have withdrawn them, and if they don't like how you are spending your own money, they will shut down your account: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/bdr9nw/coinmama_is_a_nosey_bitch_tracking_your_coin/

There are plenty of safer and privacy respecting peer to peer trading platforms which I would suggest checking out first: https://medium.com/@cointastical/p2p-otc-exchanges-e-g-localbitcoins-bisq-hodlhodl-etc-20f293a2c72e

[alani123]

As far as I am aware, there are no major scam accusations against Coinmama, so I don't think you are likely to lose your money if you use them.

However, their privacy policy is absolutely atrocious:

Registering through our website: When you register to the Services through our website, we may collect from you the following information: full name, email address, phone number, full home address (country, state/province, zip code, city, street, house number), gender, date of birth, ID information (issuing country, number, expiry date, etc.), images of identification documents, images of proof-of-residence (utility bills, bank/credit card statements, government-issued letters), images of yourself (selfie photos), information required for our compliance with regulatory Know Your Customer requirements (e.g., contents of KYC Questionnaire and Service Applicant Declaration Form [estimated amount of intended activity, purpose of buying virtual currency, source of the funds used to buy virtual currency, employment status, profession and job title or position, field of activity of employing company or own business, name of employing company or own business, URL to the website of employing company or own business, signature sample, ultimate beneficiary of purchased virtual currency], etc.), as well as any other information you agreed to share with us.

We may share Personal Information with the following recipients: (i) our subsidiaries; (ii) affiliated companies; (iii) subcontractors and other third-party service providers; (iv) auditors or advisers of our business processes; and (v) any potential purchasers or investors in the Company.

In addition to the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy, we may share Personal Information with our recipients for any of the following purposes: (i) storing or processing Personal Information on our behalf (e.g., cloud computing service providers); (ii) processing such information to assist us with our business operations; (iii) performing research, technical diagnostics, personalization and analytics; and (iv) communicating promotional and informational materials, in accordance with our marketing policy (see below under "Marketing").

Seriously. Just look at that. The TL;DR is essentially you have to tell them all your personal information, your employment status and your employer's details, submit selfies and photos of your ID, tell them where your money is coming from, why you are buying bitcoin, what you are planning to do with it, who or where you are going to send it. They will share that information with pretty much any third party they please. Absolutely disgusting disregard for their customers and very shady. Turns out they also track your bitcoin after you have withdrawn them, and if they don't like how you are spending your own money, they will shut down your account: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/bdr9nw/coinmama_is_a_nosey_bitch_tracking_your_coin/

There are plenty of safer and privacy respecting peer to peer trading platforms which I would suggest checking out first: https://medium.com/@cointastical/p2p-otc-exchanges-e-g-localbitcoins-bisq-hodlhodl-etc-20f293a2c72e

TBF, most companies had to change their Privacy policy to something that covers every single potential case of use after GDPR. It's not like they'd use it in all these ways as soon as you sign up... But it's just there to cover potential liability from such info not being included in the agreement. If OP is from the EU, he has the right to request deletion however and then the exchange would have to delete his personal info from everywhere it was stored.

[RapTarX]

I have no idea about Crypto's regulation in Malaysia but from Singapore, you can use this service. However, as per their international laws-

Depending on your country of residence, you may not be able to use all the functions of the site. It is your responsibility to follow those rules and laws in your country of residence or in the country from which you access this site and service.

If Malaysia have no much regulation, you can buy/sell frequently. For me, it's not possible because I am from India and RBI has asked bank not to assist crypto transaction. Learn more info on Malaysia before doing a trade.

[o_e_l_e_o]

TBF, most companies had to change their Privacy policy to something that covers every single potential case of use after GDPR.

I mean, sure, we can blame the regulators for some of this, but Coinmama are going above and beyond what is reasonable, even under the guide of GDPR or other KYC/AML regulations. The majority of exchanges aren't asking people for the name and website of their employer and a sample of their signature. They aren't also saying they will share all this information widely and freely with a bunch of unnamed third parties.

Performing any KYC anywhere is risky enough. But giving out every single detail of your life, including your employment history and a sample of signature is just asking to have your identity stolen, especially when Coinmama reserve the right to give all that information to anyone they please. Especially when considering the growth of fast and secure decentralized exchanges and other methods which don't require KYC, I wouldn't be touching Coinmama from behind 7 proxies.

[alani123]

TBF, most companies had to change their Privacy policy to something that covers every single potential case of use after GDPR.

I mean, sure, we can blame the regulators for some of this, but Coinmama are going above and beyond what is reasonable, even under the guide of GDPR or other KYC/AML regulations. The majority of exchanges aren't asking people for the name and website of their employer and a sample of their signature. They aren't also saying they will share all this information widely and freely with a bunch of unnamed third parties.

Performing any KYC anywhere is risky enough. But giving out every single detail of your life, including your employment history and a sample of signature is just asking to have your identity stolen, especially when Coinmama reserve the right to give all that information to anyone they please. Especially when considering the growth of fast and secure decentralized exchanges and other methods which don't require KYC, I wouldn't be touching Coinmama from behind 7 proxies.

Yes, KYC is risky, but buying BTC with a bank card is already risky enough for both the exchange and the user... I'd never buy BTC in this way, but if I was absolutely forced to, I'd pick an exchange that at the very least had a well written TOS section. I think that people just get what they ask for when they want to buy BTC with bank card, they risk both their money and their identity more than with any other alternative and they couldn't have been warned enough. Even exchanges offering buying with card as an alternative usually showcase other methods first. 

[bitmover]

Performing any KYC anywhere is risky enough. But giving out every single detail of your life, including your employment history and a sample of signature is just asking to have your identity stolen, especially when Coinmama reserve the right to give all that information to anyone they please. Especially when considering the growth of fast and secure decentralized exchanges and other methods which don't require KYC, I wouldn't be touching Coinmama from behind 7 proxies.

This is certainly absurd, and as no one ever reads any privacy policy,  we just click ok and they do that
..

Have you ever read similar documents related to your bank account?

I opened a new bank account in the largest bank in Brazil, and I was choked.

Basically, I signed a lot of papers saying that the money is not mine anymore, that they can do with it whatever they pleased and I could not complain. I showed that to the manager and he just laughed and said it was like standard and I shouldn't worry lol

I signed and left lol


On topic

I think coinmama and cex.io are the most common used to buy btc with credit card...
I wouldn't use local bitcoins because the risk of losing money is higher.

[joniboini]

If there is a service like Privacy in your area, or if your bank support virtual card generation for one-time usage, I'd rather use them.

I can't trust them enough with my card details because if something terrible happens then your funds might be in danger.

[Lucius]

KYC is something that becomes almost inevitable if you want to buy BTC completely legally and at low fees. Everything else comes down to p2p and crypto ATMs, where in the first case there is a high possibility of fraud - and ATMs have fairly high fees ranging from 5% to 10% which is certainly not negligible if someone is buying larger quantities of BTC.

Considering that OP is asking for opportunities for buying BTC in Singapore/Malaysia my advice is to try to find some local exchange. Some of the options can be seen at the following links.

Buy BTC Singapore&Buy BTC Malaysia

[o_e_l_e_o]

Have you ever read similar documents related to your bank account?

Oh, for sure, banks are terrible. But part of the reason behind bitcoin is to move away from having to trust third parties with your money and your information, and stop them having complete control over what you do with your own money. To use an exchange that enforces all this and even more is an enormous step backwards.

Everything else comes down to p2p and crypto ATMs, where in the first case there is a high possibility of fraud

That's not accurate if you use a well developed platform like BISQ. In the history of BISQ, they have only ever had two instances of charge backs, and they have since removed both payments methods responsible. They use multi-sig escrow and have extensive mediation and arbitration methods to resolve disputes. Look at the number of scam accusations against it (zero) compared to the endless number against all centralized exchanges.

Even without the privacy implications, I would choose BISQ over a centralized exchange every day of the week.

[Lucius]

That's not accurate if you use a well developed platform like BISQ.

I have nothing against BISQ, but from what I read and what they post on their site it seems that the platform is not used by a large number of people, which can be seen by the number of the last 100 transactions, which implies a problem with liquidity. I also do not see any trade in Singapore dollar, which may be relevant to the OP.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I have nothing against BISQ, but from what I read and what they post on their site it seems that the platform is not used by a large number of people,

Sure, but what you said was there is a high chance of fraud with peer to peer trading, which is not true if you use a proper platform to facilitate your peer to peer trading. There's a big difference between using BISQ and sending first to some newbie account in the Marketplace board.

Liquidity is an issue with all decentralized exchanges at the moment, but it is improving slowly. Unfortunately it usually takes for people to be personally affected by a centralized exchange hack, scam, locked account demanding KYC, stolen funds, etc., before they realize the benefits of a platform like BISQ. In fact, lack of liquidity is the main reason people give for not using DEXs, which is a circular argument. If you don't see any offers that you want to take, then post up some offers of your own. You've got nothing to lose.

[Nayana Patil]

Hey, Coinmama is safe.
You can try this website as well. It has every details regarding Coinmama Exchange.
https://coinpedia.org/exchange/coinmama-exchange/

[pakhitheboss]

I have not tried using this exchange but I have read a lot of review about it I guess they might be offering a good percentage to an affiliate marketer. The most common issue that I came across was the high fees otherwise you can give it a try. I am not sure why you are interested in using this exchange when you have trusted option like Binance.

[corel]

Don't worry. It's a trusted platform for buyng bitcoin without troubles. Fast and simply

[mediaBuzz]

And while I'm at it, I also want to know the best way to see whether a website like that is legitimate or not.

To check a website's legitimacy I usually look for the website's overall authority: if it's an old website, do they have a big network of interlinks across the internet, how big is their monthly traffic. Then goes Reddit discussions, people on Reddit feedback on things as it is (most of the time at least). Don't forget to take a quick look at Trustpilot reviews. Also, sometimes the design of a website speaks for itself.