SCAMMED by HitBTC

[Saint-loup]

Were you able to get your money back?

I logged into HITBTC after a while and saw 0.35 ETH missing.

I then saw Inactivity fees.

I received no notifications for any of these transactions.

They've added this dormancy/inactivity fee clause in their Terms of Use few years ago in 2021, without any notice of course, and AFAIK they still don't send any notifications before applying it unlike what is done elsewhere as Acroman08 points out above. And as you can see in this post where I had already quoted their ToS in January 2023, they regularly increase the cost of these fees because they were 5 times lower in 2022. That is to say they cost $10 per month "only" at the beginning of 2023 while currently they cost $50 per month. They've found an (almost) legal way to steal money from their customers on top of their Dogecoin scam in brief.

17.4. Inactive Account Fee. In case during 6 (six) months the User has not made a single Trade, or single Deposit, or single Withdrawal of Funds, the Account of such User shall be considered Inactive Account (“Inactive Account“). For all Inactive Accounts, HitBTC applies a monthly fee, which is the equivalent of 50 (fifty) USDT at the current SPOT rate of the USDT to the Currency in which the fee will be debited (“Inactive Account Fee“). From the moment of recognizing the Account as Inactive, HitBTC has the right, without notification of the User, to debit Inactive Account Fee every calendar month, including charging Inactive Account Fee in the current month for the previous months when the Account was deemed Inactive. Herewith, the Account ceases to be considered an Inactive Account from the date of execution of any of the following actions: one Trade, one Deposit, one Withdrawal of Funds. The debiting of Inactive Account Fee shall discontinue from the date when the Account ceases to be considered an Inactive Account. Inactive Account Fee is debited by HitBTC in any Currency in which the Funds are available in Inactive Account at the time of such debit. If the amount of Funds in a User Account is less than the amount of Inactive Account Fee, HitBTC debits the entire balance of Funds from such Account. Inactive Account Fee is debited starting from 1 June 2021 for each Account, which is considered as Inactive Account as of such date and hereinafter for each Account that is considered as Inactive Account according to the conditions specified in this Clause.

https://hitbtc.com/terms-of-use

[JeromeTash]

Thank you all for the support. I am confident that I will succeed, not only to withdraw my remaining coins, but also to recover the rest that were stolen.
I think that by making everything public maybe something positive will happen, not only for me but also for the other victims.

Were you able to get your money back?

I am pretty confident he never got his money back. Doge withdrawals from HitBTC have been blocked for ages

I logged into HITBTC after a while and saw 0.35 ETH missing.

I then saw Inactivity fees.

I received no notifications for any of these transactions.

HitBTC is one of those exchanges that is being operated by crooks and their aim is to just scam users one after the other. They introduced the inactivity fees a while back and there is almost nothing you can do to get those lost coins.

[deaman312]

I have written to Support. Not sure if there is much hope.

There was no notification sent about the Inactivity Fees.

There was no notification sent about any transaction activity on the account either. If money is being deducted from my account, a notification of the same is needed no?

[slinger155]

HitBTC scammed me too. After I purchased DOGE, they disabled DOGE trading and withdrawals. All I get is canned responses about ‘technical maintenance’ and it’s been a year already. Anybody knows about a class-action or any ways to get them, let me know.

Were you able to get your money back?

I logged into HITBTC after a while and saw 0.35 ETH missing.

I then saw Inactivity fees.

I received no notifications for any of these transactions.

They've added this dormancy/inactivity fee clause in their Terms of Use few years ago in 2021, without any notice of course, and AFAIK they still don't send any notifications before applying it unlike what is done elsewhere as Acroman08 points out above. And as you can see in this post where I had already quoted their ToS in January 2023, they regularly increase the cost of these fees because they were 5 times lower in 2022. That is to say they cost $10 per month "only" at the beginning of 2023 while currently they cost $50 per month. They've found an (almost) legal way to steal money from their customers on top of their Dogecoin scam in brief.

17.4. Inactive Account Fee. In case during 6 (six) months the User has not made a single Trade, or single Deposit, or single Withdrawal of Funds, the Account of such User shall be considered Inactive Account (“Inactive Account“). For all Inactive Accounts, HitBTC applies a monthly fee, which is the equivalent of 50 (fifty) USDT at the current SPOT rate of the USDT to the Currency in which the fee will be debited (“Inactive Account Fee“). From the moment of recognizing the Account as Inactive, HitBTC has the right, without notification of the User, to debit Inactive Account Fee every calendar month, including charging Inactive Account Fee in the current month for the previous months when the Account was deemed Inactive. Herewith, the Account ceases to be considered an Inactive Account from the date of execution of any of the following actions: one Trade, one Deposit, one Withdrawal of Funds. The debiting of Inactive Account Fee shall discontinue from the date when the Account ceases to be considered an Inactive Account. Inactive Account Fee is debited by HitBTC in any Currency in which the Funds are available in Inactive Account at the time of such debit. If the amount of Funds in a User Account is less than the amount of Inactive Account Fee, HitBTC debits the entire balance of Funds from such Account. Inactive Account Fee is debited starting from 1 June 2021 for each Account, which is considered as Inactive Account as of such date and hereinafter for each Account that is considered as Inactive Account according to the conditions specified in this Clause.

https://hitbtc.com/terms-of-use

[slinger155]

HitBTC scammed me too. After I purchased DOGE, they disabled DOGE trading and withdrawals. All I get is canned responses about ‘technical maintenance’ and it’s been a year already. Anybody knows about a class-action or any ways to get them, let me know.

I greet you,
I want to point out the following problem I am having with the HitBtc website.
As a result of this "inactivity fees" about which I was not informed in any way, and when I agreed to create my account on this exchange there was no such problem, I was left without more than half of the only coins I had on the exchange, namely BitCore BTX.
The problem is the following, on 10-10-2023 I was charged for the first time with this inactivity fee and a considerable number of coins were practically STOLEN FROM MY WALLET.
WHY STOLEN??? BECAUSE THE SITE HAS BLOCKED WITHDRAWALS for BTX long before 10-10-2023. Practically, my coins were STOLEN considering that I was not given the opportunity to withdraw them from the exchange that was stealing from me.
Thank you and I hope you will help me in solving the problem and that I can recover my STOLEN coins.
I paid them a lot and now they were evaluated to me close to zero.

GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK !!!

I am sorry if I post in a wrong place!

[Jo.surf]

They are real scammers ! They had this inactivity fee last time they charged me and first time i ever kwen about it of 10$ per month of inactivity after the 6th months. Today i found it out they just raised the fee to 100$ like that, they wake up one day and decide 100, 1000, 1000000 ! Who cares to even notice their users !! This is just a theft ! I have the right to be noticed if they change univocally their terms of service because I have the right to agree or not. Shame on them !

[albon]

They are real scammers ! They had this inactivity fee last time they charged me and first time i ever kwen about it of 10$ per month of inactivity after the 6th months. Today i found it out they just raised the fee to 100$ like that, they wake up one day and decide 100, 1000, 1000000 ! Who cares to even notice their users !! This is just a theft ! I have the right to be noticed if they change univocally their terms of service because I have the right to agree or not. Shame on them !

Honestly, what happened is not surprising considering the notorious reputation that has surrounded this platform for years, along with fraud Accusations and countless negative reviews from their customers.

These sudden and exaggerated fees are a form of exploitation especially since they did not inform the users about them. Unfortunately, you are not the only one here who has been deceived by them. For me, HitBTC is on my blacklist, as they can do anything at any time just to steal from their customers without any convincing reasons. In any case, if you have already encountered these fees, I do not advise you to proceed with paying them and to avoid this platform entirely, as there are many other safer alternatives in the crypto space.

[adultcrypto]

They are real scammers ! They had this inactivity fee last time they charged me and first time i ever kwen about it of 10$ per month of inactivity after the 6th months. Today i found it out they just raised the fee to 100$ like that, they wake up one day and decide 100, 1000, 1000000 ! Who cares to even notice their users !! This is just a theft ! I have the right to be noticed if they change univocally their terms of service because I have the right to agree or not. Shame on them !

I don't know why you burst this thread that have been dead since last year. I wonder what you are doing visiting such scam exchange that everyone on this forum already know that they are scammers.

The problem with a lot of you is that you don't learn else you would have taken self custody seriously. Always store your coins where you control the private keys and no one will charge you for inactivity. That world alone sound like what we hear in fiat system and not cryptocurrency platform and as funny as it may sound, HitBTC is just teaching you guys to take self custody seriously.

[Jo.surf]

Most of the coins I kept there were coins you couldn't store elsewhere or I bought long time ago, like 10 years ago. I kept them cause 1 didn't want to pay the high fees now 2 didn't apply for kyc yet. My loss is about 200 $, nothing to worth a sue and nothing to die for but it's just the way they steal unpunishedly! They are ridiculous, keep saying they can change univocally their terms of services (ok they can) but they don't notice the users because they say it's enough to update it on their website. I ask how can someone be noticed if they didn't contact them and you don't login to read the update and they reply the updated are meant agreed if the user is active on their exchange and you can refuse asking beforehand the deactivation , so I finally ask why do you charge inactivity fees if you meant active an user just for being an user and/or how can someone ask a deactivation for not agreeing to something he never been noticed ?!? With a sue they would lose 100%. I hope they will many.

[coupable]

They are real scammers ! They had this inactivity fee last time they charged me and first time i ever kwen about it of 10$ per month of inactivity after the 6th months. Today i found it out they just raised the fee to 100$ like that, they wake up one day and decide 100, 1000, 1000000 ! Who cares to even notice their users !! This is just a theft ! I have the right to be noticed if they change univocally their terms of service because I have the right to agree or not. Shame on them !

I don't know why you burst this thread that have been dead since last year. I wonder what you are doing visiting such scam exchange that everyone on this forum already know that they are scammers.

I don't think anything wrong with him updating this thread. He is a newbie and chose better to stick to his old post instead of duplicating content by creating more new threads about the same issue. And since he is a newbie, he might not be aware about the reputation of Hitbtc in bitcointalk community. Don't expect everybody has clue about what you think is obvious. People still fall victim in Hitbtc till nowadays.

The problem with a lot of you is that you don't learn else you would have taken self custody seriously. Always store your coins where you control the private keys and no one will charge you for inactivity. That world alone sound like what we hear in fiat system and not cryptocurrency platform and as funny as it may sound, HitBTC is just teaching you guys to take self custody seriously.

The commun between most of the accusations is that people left Hitbtc long time ago with some balances left behind, with no clue that the platform already flagged as a scam service since then. The reasons are almost the same like tokens that has no listing outside Hitbtc or tokens value rose over the years. I can't blame them about their culture 8 years ago.

[Perfectbaby]

They are real scammers ! They had this inactivity fee last time they charged me and first time i ever kwen about it of 10$ per month of inactivity after the 6th months. Today i found it out they just raised the fee to 100$ like that, they wake up one day and decide 100, 1000, 1000000 ! Who cares to even notice their users !! This is just a theft ! I have the right to be noticed if they change univocally their terms of service because I have the right to agree or not. Shame on them !

Honestly, what happened is not surprising considering the notorious reputation that has surrounded this platform for years, along with fraud Accusations and countless negative reviews from their customers.

I have never liked using Hitbtc for trading after my first encountered with them That was when I entirely stop using them and even when any coin are being listed there I do avoid what would lead me to that place to go trade any upcoming coin/tokens because of their bad reputations. It is very painful to see that they does things without notifying their users, which simply means that they had no regards for their customers and users because they felt they can make any readjustment without the noticed of the public and they must adhered to their terms which is a very shady moves.

[albon]

Most of the coins I kept there were coins you couldn't store elsewhere or I bought long time ago, like 10 years ago. I kept them cause 1 didn't want to pay the high fees now 2 didn't apply for kyc yet. My loss is about 200 $, nothing to worth a sue and nothing to die for but it's just the way they steal unpunishedly! They are ridiculous, keep saying they can change univocally their terms of services (ok they can) but they don't notice the users because they say it's enough to update it on their website. I ask how can someone be noticed if they didn't contact them and you don't login to read the update and they reply the updated are meant agreed if the user is active on their exchange and you can refuse asking beforehand the deactivation , so I finally ask why do you charge inactivity fees if you meant active an user just for being an user and/or how can someone ask a deactivation for not agreeing to something he never been noticed ?!? With a sue they would lose 100%. I hope they will many.

Your loss is small compared to others who lost thousands on the same platform.

Anyone holding crypto long-term on HitBTC or any CEX is ignoring a basic rule in this space as these exchanges should not be used to store your assets for long-term. Instead, buy/withdraw to self-custody wallets that you control.

I agree that the amount you lost is not worth filing a lawsuit, which could cost you even more. You could just see it as a lesson learned in crypto management.

It's clear that their support team won't provide clear answers in such cases without offering any real solutions. Everyone knows their intentions, even if they claim otherwise.

So anyone thinking of using them should really do their research first.

[Psyer]

Hi All
I am also a victim of the HitBTC scam. HitBTC froze my verified account for no reason. I have repeatedly provided valid documents to unfreeze my account, but HitBTC systematically rejected them without justification. Since HitBTC ignores law enforcement requests and hides its address, the only option left is to turn to the crypto industry's leading authorities. I have already contacted Coinmarketcap.com and Coingecko.com. They are the leading authorities in the crypto industry as the world's largest cryptocurrency data aggregators.
Coingecko.com is interested in my evidence, but they need our collective complaints to take action against HitBTC.
Please join our community - every complaint is important!:
https://hitbtc.info/
or
https://x.com/HitBTC_Scam

[RGBTC]

^^
They are not authorities, they are statistics and price tracking sites. What you can hope is that they just delist HitBTC from their sites, unless they say they can forward your report to the official authorities. If not, you should submit your collective report to an online crime/fraud handling agency such as IC3, Europol, etc.