Advice on strange KYC issue - been accidentally logging in from a banned country

[thegoods88]

Hi guys,
Hoping for some help here. So I recently opened an account on an exchange that I didn't know had banned users in my country. The strange part is I've had zero problems trading there from my (banned) country. I've been on other exchanges where your IP is immediately blocked from accessing the site. This wasn't the case here. I've had full access to do whatever I please, trades deposits and withdrawals to other wallets.

So I go to make 2 withdrawals today and get hit with a KYC request. In the email it asks to kindly turn off any VPNs or proxies that might hide your location so they can properly assess the account. At this point I do some digging and realize my country is not even supposed to be trading here. I also find several horror stories relating to this exchange with long drawn out KYC battles so I just want to make sure I handle this delicately.

For the record, they never mentioned anything about log-ins from my country or anything of the sort. But they are asking for me to login and upload documents (which will show I am from that country, while logged into an IP from that country) so one would imagine it will come up.

So my question is, what is my play here? Should I be completely honest and tell them my mistake? Just play dumb and send the stuff in? In case it isn't obvious, this is not my forte. Would using a VPN even be smart in this situation or just potentially open up a whole new can of worms?

The safety of the coins is my chief concern here, if they want to close my account thats fine. I just want to make sure I take the correct steps to ensure that I get the coins back. Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated.

[Saint-loup]

Why don't you want to tell us which exchange it is?
When you say users from your country are banned, you mean it's because of a law of your country, because of the policy of the exchange or just because you heard testimonials about that?

[Little Mouse]

You have nothing to do in this case. Exchange has the right to freeze your funds too. When you are joining in exchanges, you should check everything. I always do that before depositing.
Can you share the exchange name?

[Bttzed03]

I doubt that you accidentally registered from a banned country but assuming what you're saying is true, the most likely scenario if you submit your documents is that they will still not allow you to withdraw your funds. I don't think they will buy your "honest" mistake and just tell you it's your fault for not reading their TOS. Don't bother recovering your funds on that exchange.

[libert19]

They let you deposit, they let you trade and now your funds are stuck. If they had they any decency, they wouldn't let you do anything there in first place and would have saved hassle on both sides. I hope it wasn't much amount.

Edit: check if they allow transferring funds to accounts between same exchange, if so you can find someone who has kyc'ed account there and well co-operate, beware of scammers.

[Strongkored]

The case is quite strange and confusing, there is almost no solution, other than giving up your funds there.
But you can try to find out about the exchange review from users on the internet, whether the exchange admin is very easy to cooperate, if so then you can tell and be honest the actual conditions, or if you have colleagues in a country that is not in the banned list of the exchange, asking him for do KYC for you but he is a person who can be trusted.

[joniboini]

They let you deposit, they let you trade and now your funds are stuck. If they had they any decency, they wouldn't let you do anything there in first place and would have saved hassle on both sides. I hope it wasn't much amount.

They won't' do it because it is time-consuming. Not to mention they can mention something like 'it is the customer obligation to check our terms of services before doing any business with us'.

I can name a few exchanges which allow account creation and deposits even if you don't do KYC, and then hit you with KYC request later. Turns out they had this on their ToS so they can blame the customer if something terrible happened.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

If I’ve read it correctly, you opened your account and performed your first few set of operations from within your country, without using a VPN. Being so, that would probably mean that they know you are from the country related to the IP, and switching over to a VPN may raise more concerns if they then see IPs from different countries. This is of course my speculation, as I do not know how that Exchange (or any for that matter) deals on an IP level for their detection and clearance processes. It’s possible that the IP you’ve been using has now triggered a process that demands you to clear KYC.

Why now and not before is a wonder, but perhaps they run routine processes periodically, and not upon registration. As mentioned above, you may (or may not) be allowed to still make transfers to accounts on the same Exchange without KYC. This could open a small window to move your assets to another "friendly account" or even to an alt account of yours (i.e. if you were not required to do KYC during the first days, perhaps you could try to create another account, see if it lets you move the funds to that new account, and off from there).

I’d also provide the Exchange name here on this thread, so people can explain their experience specific to that Exchange.

[jseverson]

Would using a VPN even be smart in this situation or just potentially open up a whole new can of worms?

If you've never done KYC with this exchange ever, it's likely they only require it for withdrawals. That means hiding under a VPN won't help. Either way, the only way to move forward is to subject yourself to the KYC, and hope they give you a brief window to transfer your funds.

I'm pretty sure it's illegal under any jurisdiction for them to keep your money permanently, but they can probably do so indefinitely, "pending investigation." That means you might need to get in touch with a lawyer if they decide to act a little less than pleasant.

Anyway, would you mind telling us the name of the exchange and possibly how much is involved? If they have Bitcointalk presence, the community could probably pressure them into giving you your money back, or to at least look at your case. Not requiring KYC upon registration and asking for it later during withdrawals where they can decide to lock your funds is dishonest behavior.

[khaled0111]

It depends on the exchange you are using. Some of them are more lenient and tolerant in such cases and will allow you to withdraw your coins before blocking your account. Most of exchanges will just block your account and seize your funds without any notice.
Using a VPN may make things much worse. Better be honnest and try to reach a compromise with them.
It may look unethical from their part but there is no much you can do about it as it's your duty to read their TOS.

[hugeblack]

When it comes to using platforms, you must choose between open source platforms or popular central platforms as the platform will give some value to its reputation.

Many platforms do this because their primary purpose is to make profits and therefore they allow you to create an account, deposit funds and other things even if they know that you are from a banned country.
When you want to make withdrawals, they activate the rules against you and ask for documents (they know you don't have them.)

If the platform is honest, then you will be able to withdraw your money and delete your account "if they change TOS after logging in" or ban you if your country is not supported.

[Saint-loup]

They won't' do it because it is time-consuming. Not to mention they can mention something like 'it is the customer obligation to check our terms of services before doing any business with us'.

I can name a few exchanges which allow account creation and deposits even if you don't do KYC, and then hit you with KYC request later. Turns out they had this on their ToS so they can blame the customer if something terrible happened.

You have nothing to do in this case. Exchange has the right to freeze your funds too. When you are joining in exchanges, you should check everything. I always do that before depositing.
Can you share the exchange name?

I don't like very much this kind of speech here...    No, exchanges have not the right to steal your funds, even if it's written in their so-called ToS.
The coins you deposit on them are yours, they are not their property. I don't think there are many countries in the world that allow stealing goods of customers for this kind of reason. So even if it's written in their ToS there are very few chances that's a lawful clause.
Moreover exchanges mostly change their ToS without notifying their customers in advance, if at all...
And last but not least they generally don't even care of them, they don't respect their own written rules.

[thegoods88]

Hi guys. So i found some details here that I failed to mention. Please bare with me, I know I'm a moron for this one.

So when opening the account, I must have claimed my country of residency was a different one because my country is not listed on their pulldown screen. And I was using a VPN.

I planned on using the account for one or two transactions. But everything went so smoothly that I used it again several months later. At this point, I must have lost track over time of which exchange is which, because I eventually found myself automatically logged in from my home (banned) country without the vpn. (Some exchanges need to be VPN'd into where I live and some don't). I was able to trade without any issue. Then a week later I make a withdrawal request and they ask for the KYC.

To my knowledge they never asked for any identity info upon registration. Should I be trying to find a trustworthy overseas friend to help send in documents? Or is there any hope of salvaging things with mine. Any other input would be appreciated.

Thanks again

[o_e_l_e_o]

To my knowledge they never asked for any identity info upon registration. Should I be trying to find a trustworthy overseas friend to help send in documents? Or is there any hope of salvaging things with mine. Any other input would be appreciated.

Sounds like after you made a trade from your own IP and not your VPN, it flagged up in their system and so next time you tried to withdraw you were hit with KYC requirements.

If you don't tell us which exchange it is, then we can only guess. I would suggest thoroughly reading their Terms of Service and User Policies to see if anything is mentioned. If you submit your own documents and admit to being from a banned country, then most likely they will simply confiscate your coins. If you send in documents belonging to somebody else in a different country, then most likely that will flag up as well since you haven't been logging in from that country. And if you get caught doing that, then it could lead to more serious issues since it will be assumed to be attempted money laundering.

I'm afraid your coins are probably lost. Take this as a lesson to not use centralized exchanges.

[SFR10]

I've been on other exchanges where your IP is immediately blocked from accessing the site. This wasn't the case here. I've had full access to do whatever I please, trades deposits and withdrawals to other wallets.

Every single exchange out there operates in a slightly different way...

So my question is, what is my play here? Should I be completely honest and tell them my mistake? Just play dumb and send the stuff in?

Go with the honest route and hope for the best.

This could open a small window to move your assets to another "friendly account" or even to an alt account of yours (i.e. if you were not required to do KYC during the first days, perhaps you could try to create another account, see if it lets you move the funds to that new account, and off from there).

Most exchanges are against having multiple accounts and by doing so, he/she surely raises another red flag.

Or is there any hope of salvaging things with mine.

IMHO, chances of retrieving those funds are slim to none ^{[unfortunately]} but don't let that discourage you from trying.

If you don't tell us which exchange it is, then we can only guess.

This.

[Artemis3]

Hi guys,
Hoping for some help here. So I recently opened an account on an exchange that I didn't know had banned users in my country. The strange part is I've had zero problems trading there from my (banned) country. I've been on other exchanges where your IP is immediately blocked from accessing the site. This wasn't the case here. I've had full access to do whatever I please, trades deposits and withdrawals to other wallets.

So I go to make 2 withdrawals today and get hit with a KYC request. In the email it asks to kindly turn off any VPNs or proxies that might hide your location so they can properly assess the account. At this point I do some digging and realize my country is not even supposed to be trading here. I also find several horror stories relating to this exchange with long drawn out KYC battles so I just want to make sure I handle this delicately.

For the record, they never mentioned anything about log-ins from my country or anything of the sort. But they are asking for me to login and upload documents (which will show I am from that country, while logged into an IP from that country) so one would imagine it will come up.

So my question is, what is my play here? Should I be completely honest and tell them my mistake? Just play dumb and send the stuff in? In case it isn't obvious, this is not my forte. Would using a VPN even be smart in this situation or just potentially open up a whole new can of worms?

The safety of the coins is my chief concern here, if they want to close my account thats fine. I just want to make sure I take the correct steps to ensure that I get the coins back. Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated.

Contact support and explain the situation. Tell them that you just want to close your account and withdraw your funds.
If they ignore you after going the official route, denounce them in the forum in the corresponding area (Service Discussion Exchanges).

Give them time and try to escalate until they give you no other choice but to denounce them here. The right thing is for them to let you withdraw all your funds and close your account.

[famososMuertos]

Exchange? Country?
In any case not many countries are blocked, what is true is that recently, a popular Exchange made a blockade.

Situations
- In case of promotions, campaigns.
- Trader (Deposits with your money)

In case of Promotions, campaigns
The issue of multi-accounts requires some information, skill and intelligence, but the most important is to know that it is a fraud.

I'm going to tell you what happened to you, you opened an account with your home country, there was no problem, then you opened a second account and used VPN.

Then, the blockade of your country came, the funds that you had there, by concept of this promotion, are blocked, although you were able to make withdrawals before blocking your account But the last received for the promotion this blocked.

Then you activate your VPN and login with user 2, and the system says Ok! You can withdraw, but it shows that you are from the country you claim to be. That is KYC.

What Would You Do?  you have two options:
1.- If you deposited in that BTC exchange (eg) and the withdrawal amount does not exceed the minimum required for KYC, it is simple, support ticket and then explain why you use VPN, they should not ask you KYC, but if your amount of Withdrawal exceeds the minimum in "terms and conditions" of the exchange, you must provide your documents and explain that the use of VPN is for personal security reasons.

In this case, that your money will not be lost.

2.- In the event that your funds are a product of that promotion and you want to withdraw them (user2) you are in the OP, so you are trapped in the exchange.