My bitcoin is frozen at Paxful and they won't let me withdraw it

[baodo159]

Hello guys!
I am having a problem with my account at Paxful. There was a seller disputed that I was chargeback but it was took by an accident and I have already called my bank to rebill the transaction and the seller has received it but Paxful still frozen my account, they even suspended my account and when I ask them why then they giving my a lot of reason that I did not ever do it.
It had been frozen 4 months from now and I still not access into my own funds, because I have sent them many emails and sometimes they said it was because I was chargeback but I explained and showed them that I have already rebill it and seller has received money back but then they said I was ripped off giftcard lol. I was not even trade giftcard there then I ask them to show proof then they keep ignoring me!
Could someone help me get my money back?

[jackg]

What country are you in? Was it caused by a bank error, if it's in somewhere like Europe I'd phone up your bank and ask them about it (and if they put the phone down, walk in and demand an appointment) I assume the liability will lie with them if it was them who accidentally charged it back and resent it... You can keep claiming with paxful too though.

[baodo159]

What country are you in? Was it caused by a bank error, if it's in somewhere like Europe I'd phone up your bank and ask them about it (and if they put the phone down, walk in and demand an appointment) I assume the liability will lie with them if it was them who accidentally charged it back and resent it... You can keep claiming with paxful too though.

Thank you for your advice, I live in US. I have contact my bank but they said since I was verified the transaction so there would be nothing they could do. But the amount of bitcoin on wallet is more than what the transaction for. Because I have deposited my bitcoin in there to sell it but I cannot sell it while they frozen it. The chargeback transaction just $300 but have been rebill back but the amount remaining on account is 0.15 bitcoin which is almost 2k and they want to steal my money. They told me to comeback after 1 year to withdraw it??? it's very unreasonable

[jackg]

Did they provide a reason for the year's delay?

If you managed to charge back a bank transfer once why can't they do it again or was it a different way to pay you used? The statute for charge backs is 360 days afaik at maximum so that could be a reason but I wouldn't trust a site to hold my funds for that long...

[baodo159]

Did they provide a reason for the year's delay?

If you managed to charge back a bank transfer once why can't they do it again or was it a different way to pay you used? The statute for charge backs is 360 days afaik at maximum so that could be a reason but I wouldn't trust a site to hold my funds for that long...

yes that's why, could I use anything to recovery my wallet there? or verify I am the legit owner of that wallet and forced them to release those funds? Thanks

[Lucius]

baodo159, for a start I suggest you (if you haven't already) read their TOS, especially the parts that can be linked to your case ->

We may in our sole and absolute discretion, immediately and without prior notice: (a) suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to any or all of the Services (including limiting access to your Wallet), and/or (b) deactivate or cancel your account if: (i) we are so required by applicable law, a facially valid subpoena, court order, or binding order of a government authority; (ii) we reasonably suspect you have or may act in violation of this Agreement; (iii) use of your account is subject to any pending litigation, investigation, or government proceeding and/or we perceive a heightened risk of legal or regulatory non-compliance associated with your account activity; (iv) our service partners are unable to support your use; (v) you take any action that we deem as circumventing our controls and procedures or (vi) we think it is necessary to do so to protect us, our users, including you, or our employees from danger or loss. If we exercise our rights to limit or refuse your access to the Services, we will not be responsible for any consequences of our refusal to give you access to the Services, including any delay, damage or inconvenience you may suffer as a result...

If you are holding bitcoin in your Paxful Wallet and there has been no activity in your account for a period of time prescribed by applicable law, we may be required to report such remaining bitcoin in your account as unclaimed property in accordance with abandoned property and escheat laws. If this occurs, we will use reasonable efforts to provide written notice to you. If you fail to respond to any such notice within seven (7) business days of receipt, or as otherwise required by law, we may be required to deliver any such bitcoin to the applicable jurisdiction as unclaimed property. We reserve the right to deduct a dormancy fee or other administrative charges from such unclaimed bitcoin as permitted by applicable law.

In other words, they can do whatever they want according to their rules, and they don't even have to give you any explanation. They seem to think that you have broken some of their rules, and for now they obviously do not intend to change their decision. If you can afford some legal help (lawyer or legal adviser) that would be best.

What you can do on this forum (if you consider yourself cheated) is to open a Scam Accusations and to present all the evidence by using proper report format. Maybe Paxful will react to that, of course if you let them know.

[hugeblack]

Unfortunately, no one in this forum works for the bank and they will not discuss it publicly, the support team is the only one that will solve your problem.

Depending on what you understand about your problem, the second party to the disputed transaction reporting that you used deceptive methods, and therefore the support team freezes (not to withdraw the money) your account until it is certain of the matter.

If the Buyer or the Seller of a disputed transaction provides fraudulent information or fraudulent documents or makes false claims or otherwise uses deceptive tactics, the dispute may be immediately resolved against such user and such user’s account may be immediately suspended or terminated at the sole discretion of Paxful Support

It is better for you to contact the second party (the buyer) to contact the support team that the problem has been resolved and that everything is fine.

If no progress has occurred, do not worry, as long as you can access the account and the funds on that account.

[Harlot]

Issues like this where the crypto service isn't responding to your concerns anymore can be solve by taking legal action against them, hire a lawyer and thoroughly explain your situation being centered by Paxful withholding your funds and not contacting you, particularly I don't know if they have broken any law or something or this is just a misunderstanding but usually having to let them know a lawyer is knocking on their doors will speed up the process companies like this always want to stay away from legal issues as it can ruin their reputation by a lot.

[baodo159]

Unfortunately, no one in this forum works for the bank and they will not discuss it publicly, the support team is the only one that will solve your problem.

Depending on what you understand about your problem, the second party to the disputed transaction reporting that you used deceptive methods, and therefore the support team freezes (not to withdraw the money) your account until it is certain of the matter.

If the Buyer or the Seller of a disputed transaction provides fraudulent information or fraudulent documents or makes false claims or otherwise uses deceptive tactics, the dispute may be immediately resolved against such user and such user’s account may be immediately suspended or terminated at the sole discretion of Paxful Support

It is better for you to contact the second party (the buyer) to contact the support team that the problem has been resolved and that everything is fine.

If no progress has occurred, do not worry, as long as you can access the account and the funds on that account.

thanks for your advice, I have contacted the seller and he has told paxful that he has received the money, but they are still ignoring me.

[baodo159]

baodo159, for a start I suggest you (if you haven't already) read their TOS, especially the parts that can be linked to your case ->

We may in our sole and absolute discretion, immediately and without prior notice: (a) suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to any or all of the Services (including limiting access to your Wallet), and/or (b) deactivate or cancel your account if: (i) we are so required by applicable law, a facially valid subpoena, court order, or binding order of a government authority; (ii) we reasonably suspect you have or may act in violation of this Agreement; (iii) use of your account is subject to any pending litigation, investigation, or government proceeding and/or we perceive a heightened risk of legal or regulatory non-compliance associated with your account activity; (iv) our service partners are unable to support your use; (v) you take any action that we deem as circumventing our controls and procedures or (vi) we think it is necessary to do so to protect us, our users, including you, or our employees from danger or loss. If we exercise our rights to limit or refuse your access to the Services, we will not be responsible for any consequences of our refusal to give you access to the Services, including any delay, damage or inconvenience you may suffer as a result...

If you are holding bitcoin in your Paxful Wallet and there has been no activity in your account for a period of time prescribed by applicable law, we may be required to report such remaining bitcoin in your account as unclaimed property in accordance with abandoned property and escheat laws. If this occurs, we will use reasonable efforts to provide written notice to you. If you fail to respond to any such notice within seven (7) business days of receipt, or as otherwise required by law, we may be required to deliver any such bitcoin to the applicable jurisdiction as unclaimed property. We reserve the right to deduct a dormancy fee or other administrative charges from such unclaimed bitcoin as permitted by applicable law.

In other words, they can do whatever they want according to their rules, and they don't even have to give you any explanation. They seem to think that you have broken some of their rules, and for now they obviously do not intend to change their decision. If you can afford some legal help (lawyer or legal adviser) that would be best.

What you can do on this forum (if you consider yourself cheated) is to open a Scam Accusations and to present all the evidence by using proper report format. Maybe Paxful will react to that, of course if you let them know.

Thank you so much! I will do this as your advice to try if it's help to solve my case!
Thanks!

[baodo159]

just to update, the site is scam and the owner of Paxful have been in jail. I know why they refused to let me withdraw my money
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoins-correction-could-well-have-shaken-out-potentially-damaging-investors

[baodo159]

just to update, the site is scam and the owner of Paxful have been in jail. I know why they refused to let me withdraw my money
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoins-correction-could-well-have-shaken-out-potentially-damaging-investors

sorry wrong link lol
https://cointelegraph.com/news/paxful-exchange-ceo-and-cto-arrested-in-miami-on-weapons-and-drugs-charges

[Lucius]

baodo159, they are not scam generally speaking, but they certainly have some weird rules and aren’t too accommodating when things like this happen. As for the case you mention, at the top of the article you can see an update that says "the charges against Mohamed Yousseff, Artur Shaback, and Ivan Suhharev were dismissed and their cases were closed on Nov. 14, 2016, according to court documents from the Miami- Dade County criminal justice system"

The owners definitely have a bad reputation in real life, and to me personally they look like some kind of mobsters rather than serious business people. Maybe this is a good life lesson for you, always check everything thoroughly first - and if you knew what you know now, you might not do business with them.

If you look at their score on trustpilot, they are marked as poor, where 51% say they are bad service.

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/paxful.com

[Harlot]

just to update, the site is scam and the owner of Paxful have been in jail. I know why they refused to let me withdraw my money
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoins-correction-could-well-have-shaken-out-potentially-damaging-investors

sorry wrong link lol
https://cointelegraph.com/news/paxful-exchange-ceo-and-cto-arrested-in-miami-on-weapons-and-drugs-charges

With regards to Paxful being a scam or not I'm still in the middle of this since from what I know topics related to Paxful here in the forum are always divided with it. Most of the members saying that they are a scam are the ones who have the same issue with the OP the ones who are saying Paxful is not a scam are members who have no problems with their service or are community managers of it. Even if you look at Reddit you will see no sure answer that their service is definitely a scam, one thing is for sure though their customer service is really slow that's why it doesn't help them in this kind of cases.

[VoucherS]

I've seen someone didnt get 1million USD withdraw for years on this site. Im sure its a scam, i found a thread about this 1million $ thing back in ~2019 maybe.
But hopefully you get your funds , good luck :/

[baodo159]

baodo159, they are not scam generally speaking, but they certainly have some weird rules and aren’t too accommodating when things like this happen. As for the case you mention, at the top of the article you can see an update that says "the charges against Mohamed Yousseff, Artur Shaback, and Ivan Suhharev were dismissed and their cases were closed on Nov. 14, 2016, according to court documents from the Miami- Dade County criminal justice system"

The owners definitely have a bad reputation in real life, and to me personally they look like some kind of mobsters rather than serious business people. Maybe this is a good life lesson for you, always check everything thoroughly first - and if you knew what you know now, you might not do business with them.

If you look at their score on trustpilot, they are marked as poor, where 51% say they are bad service.

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/paxful.com

I have not trust them anymore since they suspended my account and ignoring me like I am the scammer. But the thing here is my money still there, I need to get my hard-erned money before saying goodbye to their site. I have tried many way already even contacted the person who disputed the transaction and they have sent paxful email saying about to unlock my account but they are not. They really just wanted to steal my money or make me waiting 1 year and maybe I will forget about it then they will claim it as un-wanted funds or they will just steal it. It is not fair and too many people still out there giving them money everyday like that. We should do something to take down this business and these people. Please guys, if someone have any idea. They told me to comeback after 1 year to wiithdraw my funds because they will need time for the enforcement law or victim to come and claim the funds but literally the victim who is the seller have already contacted them to tell them unlock my account. This is very wrong and very rude people scamming over our money

[7788bitcoin]

If you look at their score on trustpilot, they are marked as poor, where 51% say they are bad service.

It is a P2P site and they act as an escrow and if you trade gift cards and other risky transaction then most of the time you will encounter scammers that might sell you stolen or scammed gift cards in exchange of bitcoin and once you understand that you are scammed at a later time and you really cannot do anything about it will provoke some negative ratings.

[Findingnemo]

I have not trust them anymore since they suspended my account and ignoring me like I am the scammer. But the thing here is my money still there, I need to get my hard-erned money before saying goodbye to their site. I have tried many way already even contacted the person who disputed the transaction and they have sent paxful email saying about to unlock my account but they are not. They really just wanted to steal my money or make me waiting 1 year and maybe I will forget about it then they will claim it as un-wanted funds or they will just steal it. It is not fair and too many people still out there giving them money everyday like that. We should do something to take down this business and these people. Please guys, if someone have any idea. They told me to comeback after 1 year to wiithdraw my funds because they will need time for the enforcement law or victim to come and claim the funds but literally the victim who is the seller have already contacted them to tell them unlock my account. This is very wrong and very rude people scamming over our money

Even if you are not a scammer, the charge back make them to feel like you are a one so they want to restrict you from scamming anyone in the future.The same thing happens with loalbitcoin as well but there is an opportunity to unlock if you can provide all the necessary proof like transaction statement of repayment and also the proof of charge back was a mistake by banking side.

[bakasabo]

You can try your luck contacting Alex077, even though he is a Russian speaking, he definitely understands English.

I'm not saying he will 100% help you, but he promotes Paxful on bitcointalk and cryptotalk forums. Maybe he can somehow help you or gave some contacts to persons that could help you, maybe he knows someone from the team. Just try, no one will punish your or make laught of you for that.

[baodo159]

You can try your luck contacting Alex077, even though he is a Russian speaking, he definitely understands English.

I'm not saying he will 100% help you, but he promotes Paxful on bitcointalk and cryptotalk forums. Maybe he can somehow help you or gave some contacts to persons that could help you, maybe he knows someone from the team. Just try, no one will punish your or make laught of you for that.

Thank you! I have contacted him and he was asking me for my username and the problem was. Maybe he could do something for my case, thanks anyway!