Beware of changing withdrawal address when using CEX

[jeraldskie11]

I want something to tell to the people who are here in the forum who use exchange on the way they withdraw their money. I have experienced that if you change the withdrawal address that you usually use, it is possible that they will lock your account. That's what happened to me when I was still trading on Poloniex. I really needed the money that time so I withdrew, but I just waited for almost two weeks to keep submitting requests for their support. But eventually, I got what I withdrew.

That's why those who keep withdrawing from the exchange should be careful, it's better not to change your withdrawal address because it may take a while before you can use your money or you might not get your money.

[noorman0]

I think you are detected as "unusual activity". This is one way to protect user accounts from potential hacks, however 2 weeks is a hell of a time to wait without regular updates. They should reset the identification time policy.
By the way, is there any additional process to get your money back, like eg re-KYC?

[Despairo]

It's really a big joke how changing withdrawal address will be flagged as an unusual activity because as long as you're using your account without changing the password, email, 2FA, and IP address, it's obviously the real owner behind the account. I know there's a chance someone get robbed and the criminal access the account with the original device used by the real owner, but it will cause a problem with an innocent user.

[mk4]

Slightly off-topic but any reason why Poloniex is your choice of exchange? Knowing that the likes of Binance and Kucoin are far better exchanges overall?

[GEMIN_M4]

It doesn't make sense, sorry, I don't use poloniex exchange and if this act is accurate like you just said, it is enough for me to stop using the exchange, on Binance or Huobi, which are my favorites, I can withdraw to any address I feel like, how can I stand on one wallet address? You shouldn't have any problem if your 2FA is active and you use one IP address all the time, maybe you keep inserting the wrong code a few times, and this is when you will get your account locked.

[cryptoaddictchie]

I want something to tell to the people who are here in the forum who use exchange on the way they withdraw their money. I have experienced that if you change the withdrawal address that you usually use, it is possible that they will lock your account. That's what happened to me when I was still trading on Poloniex.

Maybe not all exchange cause I often change my withdrawal address for crypto and theres nothing problem with that. Cause that normal that youll change address sometimes. But if you are talking about bank account or cashing out fiat then maybe they will flagged you cause its not normal to change account frequently.

[rat03gopoh]

on Binance or Huobi, which are my favorites, I can withdraw to any address I feel like,

It wont avoid you from similar risks. If you're serious about this skepticism, then you shouldn't use any CEX.

You shouldn't have any problem if your 2FA is active and you use one IP address all the time, maybe you keep inserting the wrong code a few times, and this is when you will get your account locked.

Error code 2fa won't get you into a withdrawal freeze because (in the worst case scenario) you'll be asked to reverify before you can even open your account.
Even in normal activities, they're still in control of your money and at any time suddenly give any reason for suspicion to make it difficult for you to withdraw.

[hd49728]

I want something to tell to the people who are here in the forum who use exchange on the way they withdraw their money. I have experienced that if you change the withdrawal address that you usually use, it is possible that they will lock your account. That's what happened to me when I was still trading on Poloniex. I really needed the money that time so I withdrew, but I just waited for almost two weeks to keep submitting requests for their support. But eventually, I got what I withdrew

It is not normal process. Usually, exchanges will lock your account if you have suspicious log-in IP. Something suspicious change in geo-location that triggers their security on your account. However, if your are real owner, you won't have problems to withdraw it by some verification steps.

I did not use Poloniex last two years and I don't know how the exchange is nowadays but eventually you withdrawn without problems. That's good.

I have never experienced that my account is locked because I submit a withdrawal to a new address, never. On exchanges, you can whitelist your withdrawal addresses but they don't lock your account if you withdraw to a new, non-whitelisted address.

[jeraldskie11]

It is not normal process. Usually, exchanges will lock your account if you have suspicious log-in IP. Something suspicious change in geo-location that triggers their security on your account.

Maybe that's the case why my account got locked up.
But why did they take so long to unlock my account, and it took so long to reply with my ticket? That's why I submitted more ticket.

By the way, my account was locked only when I was withdrawing and not when I logged in.

<snip>

However, it is not necessary to change your withdrawal address, it's your account and you can do what you want. I just want to inform to those who use CEX not to be so confident. We don't even know what they are thinking from time to time.

[348Judah]

Why should they hold an account down for changing withdrawal address only, this is common thing and shouldn't be a threat to them except if stated on their policy that when a withdrawal address is changed it takes a week or more to get it resolved and fit for withdrawals, moreso one can easily understand this as a reas to lay hold upon wallet like electrum which renders opportunities of the this kind whereby you can change addresses as you like, so i will advise you try using a decentralized exchange or cold storage like electrum wallet and only uses a centralized exchange when converting to fiat.

[joniboini]

But why did they take so long to unlock my account, and it took so long to reply with my ticket? That's why I submitted more ticket.
By the way, my account was locked only when I was withdrawing and not when I logged in.

I mean, what do you expect from a centralized service? Most of them take days to respond to tickets. You're quite lucky if they respond to your request in under 3 days or so unless they don't have that many users to begin with. Unfortunately, this is one of the risks that you have to accept if you use their service. At least there are alternatives as mentioned above.

That's a bit odd IMO, most exchanges that I know of will lock your account when you log in if they detect you use different IP. Asking them to ask the reason is probably better than guessing here.

However, it is not necessary to change your withdrawal address, it's your account and you can do what you want. I just want to inform to those who use CEX not to be so confident. We don't even know what they are thinking from time to time.

Some exchanges that I know allow you to add more than one withdrawal address in a form of contact. So it doesn't matter if you log in from another location but withdraw to one of those addresses. However, this doesn't remove the IP abuse protection. IMO it is necessary to do that since not every user is smart enough to activate the necessary security measure to secure their account. Their slow response definitely needs to be fixed though.

[Potato Chips]

I've seen coinbase consider such for "unusual activities" hence I wouldn't be surprised if others followed but I do expect them to couple it with other reasons as well.

A combo of several factors can get a transaction flagged as unusual, like if the funds are being sent to a new address or using a new device.

But yeah, the fact that it could be one of the reasons for unusual activities still ridiculous since we know most wallets change your receiving address after every use... it's also an advice you hear a lot.

[crwth]

Are you sure they are like that? It's been a while since I have tried Poloniex but maybe with Justin Sun being at the helm, maybe it's one of the things to do?

In other exchanges like Binance, you could have multiple withdrawal addresses as long as you verify and have the OTP correct and other authenticators needed and it could be done. Just like what others said, it might be because of unusual activity and not just based on the withdrawal itself or something.

[Edwardard]

Its not the about the change of withdrawal address causing issues, but its about your change in ip address and maybe larger amount. Maybe you used a VPN to access your account hence they locked it down for your own security. This happened to me on bybit as well once, I got locked from trading, withdrawal everything but I told the support about the issue and my account was unlocked in a few hours. Not sure why are you using polo though, who else uses that no volume trash exchange ?

[Darker45]

As far as I can remember, I changed withdrawal addresses a number of times in the past. And I used to maintain different centralized exchanges. I never had a problem. So I guess this isn't just about changing withdrawal addresses alone. It may have something to do with a change of IP address, for example, or a change of location, or perhaps the withdrawal to a new address is made after a long period of inactivity in the account, or other possible triggers.

This is one of the disadvantages of keeping your money in a centralized exchange, especially when there is an emergency or an urgent need for that money. Lucky for you, you got it after almost two weeks. Some are asked for KYC and each time they submit they got rejected.

[sunsilk]

I guess it's rare to still see someone who's using the exchanges like bittrex and your choice, poloniex. Their past of their prime and attention is no longer with them.

I have no idea why they've suddenly flagged you by just withdrawing to another address. That's something unusual that these exchanges do to their customers.

But probably due to the strict compliance that they're doing towards the policies of the government that they're working with, it's like a measure that they should do to most of their customers. To me, it didn't happened yet and hopefully it won't.

[dansus021]

I agree with noorman0 I think your account got detected as "unusual activity". I actually use Centralized Exchange and Withdraw using different address although is not every day but sometimes I change it because of different occasions.  Im using binance btw and it went smooth the only things I got temporary ban because I keep changing my IP address because I'm using VPN.

Either you are using VPN keep changing IP or you have huge amount of money went withdraw sometimes exchange check it when the user has big withdraw.