Suspicious BATM and teller, am I paranoid or it's all normal behavior ?

[stompix]

Or, alt title: How to ruin your vacation in a lot of overcomplicated steps!

3rd the day of my well-deserved monthly vacation with just my wife and no kid away from everything and just got a message from one of my friends that he's ready for a deal we agreed on and, surprise, I'm on holiday I didn't bring my phone with the authenticator , I don't have my laptop, so...need to go and purchase a bunch of coins locally!

Two BATM in the whole country and in already suspicious places, but what could go wrong, right?

So despite the fact that I hate BATM and their 7% fee as much as I can and I dressed up, got a bunch of notes from a normal ATM next door, and toyed around the BATM sitting there that just invites me to buy so I said let's test it, I have time till Wednesday, put in around $200, after 5 minutes saw the incoming transaction, lingered a bit, I selected a new address, all went ok. Since I sensed everyone was curious about my persona there I just said to myself, next day let's get out of here!

The next morning, got a new outfit, and new glasses (007 vibes)  , straight to the shop, had to withdraw around $500 from the ATM (this is another troubling part) purchased another batch for a new address received everything fine. Then when selecting the next address for the next purchase,  scanned it and the BATM suddenly asked me for IDs and facial scan. I just caught a glimpse at the teller and both guys were just sitting there like watching my every move with a little bit more interest than comfortable, so I canceled the whole thing, left, got into the same taxi that bought me here that was the like 50 meters away and bye bye and I didn't mention one thing to my wife as this would probably be more dangerous than everything else as long as she has both our passports   .

So right now I have like a hundred questions:
- Despite not saying a word about KYC and AML limits did it have one and how did it get triggered, does that shit store everything, including tracking those fudns?
- Did that pos of a BATM record everything, and do they store data from customers who turn away when they ask for ID?
- Did I screw up using a normal ATM in the same shop and might have been both tampered with?
- Should I go there again and try again? I need like $400 worth of BTC and I have no other way to get it!

Two more things:
If by godly coincidence someone on this forum is a teller operator or owns a bitcoin exchange and he's the guy that watched me doing all this, I'll get you a case of beer, just forget everything as I'm dying inside of embarrassment already just thinking of it!

This will be moderated, I'm not really in the mood for shitposting!

[1714226904]

1714226904

[1714226904]

1714226904

[Tytanowy Janusz]

- Should I go there again and try again? I need like $400 worth of BTC and I have no other way to get it!

I remember that there used to be a lot of people here on the forum who lent people with good accounts even larger sums without collateral. With 5000 merits, you have, I'm sure they shouldn't have a problem with that, the chances of you ruining your account for such a small sum are virtually nil.

Bitcointalk's Lending Services - old list

- Despite not saying a word about KYC and AML limits did it have one and how did it get triggered, does that shit store everything, including tracking those fudns?

My local atm has a rule that they can ask for a kyc in case someone arouses suspicion e.g. by covering their face/part of face (you wrote that you were wearing sunglasses). Maybe ATM was unable to record face, so it triggered kyc

Did that pos of a BATM record everything, and do they store data from customers who turn away when they ask for ID?

No one knows. My local ATM claims it deletes hi-res videos after 24 h and low-res videos after 7 days (if I remember correct), but no one really knows if they don't store it and sell to bad people.


Just out of curiosity, what country are we talking about?

[stompix]

My local atm has a rule that they can ask for a kyc in case someone arouses suspicion e.g. by covering their face/part of face (you wrote that you were wearing sunglasses). Maybe ATM was unable to recover face, so it triggered kyc

Yeah, thought of that later but it didn't get mad the first time for not seeing what a fine gentleman I am, and obviously the whole reason for me wearing those was not to gift a mug face to every single shady machine in some foreign country.

No one knows. My local ATM claims it deletes hi-res videos after 24 h and low-res videos after 7 days (if I remember correct), but no one really knows if they don't store it and sell to bad people.

Exactly, and that's the reason I didn't want even my face there, as for the deletion thing, I get a chipmixer deja-vu with it, and not a pretty one 
On top of that,  I didn't like the face of those guys, they were looking like with a smirk or smug face at me I didn't even know how to classify it, unsettling in any case! The good thing is that the AMT did overpay the first transactions so they got confirmed, if they had sent it with 1 sat/b probably I would have yelled scam by now!

Just out of curiosity, what country are we talking about?

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, we're sailing tonight (or tomorrow I don't even know what timezone I'm in as I always wake up in the afternoon here) so let's see what the next one has in terms of Bitcoin. Also, thanks for the tip, I don't see myself asking for such a thing but still noted as last minute option after trying to instruct one of my family members how to move their ass to one of those machines back home and how to use it.

[Poker Player]

My local atm has a rule that they can ask for a kyc in case someone arouses suspicion e.g. by covering their face/part of face (you wrote that you were wearing sunglasses). Maybe ATM was unable to recover face, so it triggered kyc

Yeah, thought of that later but it didn't get mad the first time for not seeing what a fine gentleman I am, and obviously the whole reason for me wearing those was not to gift a mug face to every single shady machine in some foreign country.

This is the most likely scenario.

Exactly, and that's the reason I didn't want even my face there, as for the deletion thing, I get a chipmixer deja-vu with it, and not a pretty one 

If you live in Europe, I wouldn't worry about having your face engraved at a BATM in Punta Cana. Regardless of whether they follow what they say about deleting images, there are a lot of people every day using BATMs and I don't recall anyone on this or other forums mentioning that they have had any problems because of it. Bear in mind that people usually use them in the country they are fiscally resident, trying to avoid the taxman. I would be even less worried if you are 8,000 kilometers away from your usual residence.

[nutildah]

Yeah man that sounds sketch AF... I wouldn't go back there.

As far as the KYC is concerned, it really varies from machine to machine. I just stay under the limits to avoid that kind of thing, and don't use the ones where its mandatory for any transaction. Usually you can find the limit info by looking up the manufacturer online, or on a site like this one:

https://coinatmradar.com/

If you still need the trade you can PM me, or post the offer in Currency Exchange and then PM me.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any information around that states the bitcoin ATM limits neither for the one located in the Boulevard Center nor the one in the Sun Shop. A 2021 article cited a limit of 20.000 DOP without full id (but with an SMS nevertheless), but this may well have shifted to a different range, and is likely bitcoin ATM chain dependent. It does hint to a lowish limit though, so you may need to consider breaking the desired purchased amount into a couple of TX is you decide to retry.

Wearing sunglasses and/or caps and/or masks, will very often lead to KYC being demanded, and is a general practice it seems in the industry. It may still work once in a while without triggering the KYC, but more often than not I believe it will trigger the request (speaking in general terms, not with regards to those local specific bitcoin ATMs).

Both bitcoin ATMs do have contact information on CoinATMRadar, so that would be one way to attempt to get straight answers.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Funny story, even though I don't really get the fuzz about it.
Many BATMs have mandatory KYC once you are over a certain amount in local currency, that's totally normal.

My only take away from this tory is the 7% fee.
For an ATM I think that's quite fair.
Some years ago when those ATMs were still legal in Japan the fee was over 10%. In Taipei right now the "best" and cheapest ATM for buying BTC charges between 15-20%, which is horrendous.

Even in Hong Kong, where you can find more ATMs than you can dream of the fees are quite high, around 10% sometimes. Though you can find exchange shops where you can buy and sell, without KYC, for max 2% fee, which is really great!

[DaveF]

Was it asking for any other way of contacting you?

As others have said, different limits for different places and even different machines in the same network.

There is one that I use that will send a SMS to you and once that phone # gets $500 of BTC you need to put in ID.
There is another down the road a bit that REQUIRES ID every time.

And as others have said. You are you. I doubt you would run from here for $400. Might be worth an ask in the lending section or even replying here.

-Dave

[Lucius]

Suspicious BATM and teller, am I paranoid or it's all normal behavior ?

Considering the part of the world where you are, I don't think you should be too surprised by the teller's behavior, because you are a foreigner in their country, and people often have prejudices when it comes to skin color or even nationality. And when it comes to transactions, you've probably just reached some kind of limit up to which you can trade without KYC, because it's similar here in the EU, they don't ask you for anything until they assess that you're suspicious.

I wouldn't worry too much about everything that happened, because what happens on vacation usually stays on vacation - for a few hundred dollars, no one in the world will ever ask you anything (probably).

[stompix]

A bit of sleep, two coffee sips, and I feel like yeah, I was just paranoid.
Not so much about the BATM and the whole ID thing but what pissed me off was the attitude of those guys, it was like they were laughing knowing what I was trying to do and found it funny or whatever...don't care anymore!

If you live in Europe, I wouldn't worry about having your face engraved at a BATM in Punta Cana. Regardless of whether they follow what they say about deleting images, there are a lot of people every day using BATMs and I don't recall anyone on this or other forums mentioning that they have had any problems because of it. Bear in mind that people usually use them in the country they are fiscally resident, trying to avoid the taxman. I would be even less worried if you are 8,000 kilometers away from your usual residence.

Yeah, that's how a normal guy would have thought and should have reacted also, probably because I'm on vacation and I want to enjoy myself I'm acting like a 10yo.

Yeah man that sounds sketch AF... I wouldn't go back there.

Yeah, no chance, I'm soon off to packing bags and moving to the next destination, and anyhow I don't want to see their faces anymore.
Thanks for the offer but I'm sitting on a pile of cash wanting coins and not having access to mine, so I'll take the advices above, offer a kidney to Shasan or a piece of liver and just deal with it the easy way with nothing complicated that can again go wrong and give me a headacke again!

Wearing sunglasses and/or caps and/or masks, will very often lead to KYC being demanded, and is a general practice it seems in the industry. It may still work once in a while without triggering the KYC, but more often than not I believe it will trigger the request (speaking in general terms, not with regards to those local specific bitcoin ATMs).

Yeah, but what puzzled me is why it hasn't done it the first time, maybe they have some ratio and they let x times with no check-up and only 5 ot 10th time and I just got unlucky? Maybe if I went back inside it wouldn't have asked again? God knows! Can't test it anymore anyhow

My only take away from this tory is the 7% fee.
For an ATM I think that's quite fair.

Even when I see 5% I think is a rip-off, we're talking deposits here not withdrawals, one of my acquaintances runs a coffee shop that accepts Bitcoin has one of and he customized the fees so you pay only 2% to encourage people to buy coins. Total fuckery that's why I hate BATMS, got charged on forex fees to get cash, pay 2 euros for each ATM withdrawal, 7% tax on bitcoin, 1% lost in bitcoin price since yesterday, 20$ on the taxi...

Was it asking for any other way of contacting you?
As others have said, different limits for different places and even different machines in the same network.

It gave a warning that I needed to accept that in order to go on with the purchase I had to agree with something, that's when I tapped cancel and bye-bye, I knew what was coming!
And yeah, I just got paid $200 I nearly forgot of so it's not even $400 anymore, I'm not going to run around like a headless chicken for that much.
But a lesson learned, if you deal with crypto, keep more accessible in some form around you especially if you go away for that long.

I wouldn't worry too much about everything that happened, because what happens on vacation usually stays on vacation - for a few hundred dollars, no one in the world will ever ask you anything (probably).

Yeah, I should have panicked that much, trying to be cool I acted more suspicious, probably these two were laughing cause they recognized me from the day before? And it wasn't a smirk more like being happy they get foreign customers?
I'm not used to staying in the sun for so long, need to chill by a pool with 1001 SPF sunblock and a beer and stop overthinking everything!

So locking this as obvious the answer is number 1.