ChangeNow.io Another Scam. Holding of 1.05 ETH (2,500 USD)

[Trêvoid]

What happened:

My friend encountered problems while using ChangeNOW to exchange ETH:

First of all the initial exchange went through without issues.



The receiving exchange (I referred to them as "X") held the funds and requested KYC verification.

After completing KYC, exchange X only agreed to return funds to the original ChangeNOW wallet address.



Here is lets dive into ChangeNOW's Response

During KYC process this issue also has been talked with ChangeNOW support channel and here is their reply.



When my friend agreed to have the funds returned X exchange has return the funds to ChangeNOW:

Now everything started.

    Once funds arrived to ChangeNOW they also requested KYC verification, which was completed.



Once this request has been received KYC verification completed on sumsub very fast. (using mobile phone)



    They then requested additional KYC, including a video call.

    The process has been ongoing for a weeks and my friend already give up from that money.




Scammers Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1307188 and https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2286031

Reference Link: https://changenow.io/

Amount Scammed: 1.05 ETH (2,500 USD)

Payment Method: ETH

Proof of Payment: I would not want to publish his wallet address. However if any mods want to confirm I can send exchange/txs to show wallets and any others. I am adding pictures.



PM/Chat Logs: Have a very long dialogue through email support, if any mod wants i can send them, i will just add here important parts.

Additional Notes:

I strongly advise everyone to not use ChangeNOW (changenow.io), Exolix, and Swapuz. They’re all part of the same operation, despite pretending to be separate projects. This has been exposed multiple times on Reddit and Bitcointalk.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5508552.msg64516309#msg64516309

https://web.archive.org/web/20220213142831/swapuz.com/assets/index.223d937f.js - search for "Exolix"



If you dig into the source code, you’ll find references linking Exolix. Even it has been reported to Kycnot.me, which initially listed both services. After shared findings, they removed Swapuz and eventually Exolix due to inconsistencies. Given all this, it’s best to avoid these exchanges and not to get scammed.

Update: We reached out to ChangeNOW by sending them this thread link, but unfortunately, they started not respond to our emails. (its been two days and counting)


Tags:

ChangeNOW Scam Alert

ChangeNOW Fraud Warning

ChangeNOW Scam Experience

Beware Of ChangeNOW Scams

ChangeNOW Scam Reports


ChangeNOW is a SCAM exchange that has been illegally holding my 1.38M Zilliqa (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5344863.0)
ChangeNow.io (Evercode Lab) - Scam. Illegally holding of 100 BCH (11 bitcoins) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4619534)
[SCAM EXCHANGE] CHANGENOW.IO trying to steal my 3 BTC (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5356594.0)
2,5 BTC ($100K) SCAM Changenow exchange (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5359412.0)

[holydarkness]

I am not sure I understand about one thing, the video KYC, if I understand correctly, you're saying that it's the phase your friend is currently at. That situation about being a week stuck in the process, is it because both parties can't schedule a time or they didn't call your friend on the agreed schedule, or what?

[Oshosondy]

They then requested additional KYC, including a video call.

The process has been ongoing for a weeks and my friend already give up from that money.

This is common to sites like this. They have bad reputation on this forum because of how they can request KYC from anyone at anytime. Forcing the money to go for their KYC or they will seize the person's coin. Very bad. If you need to better site, you can use exch.cx but the site only support few coins.

[memehunter]

[holydarkness]

[snipped images of conversation with live support]

Umm... yeah, didn't mean to be rude, but that's basically granted, that they won't reveal their core team simply because a random someone inquiring through live support. They didn't hand over identities and KYD to anyone asking, even with well known and established crypto business. And most certainly a live support will not have an authority to give info about their team just because someone asked for them.

That's why usually casinos and other prestigious projects deliberately "doxx" their CEO or founder or other staff [imagine betnomi and Sorsis] through their official channel, so that this kind of question won't be asked and put the live support in a difficult situation of having to deny providing an info that they don't have authority to give.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

This is common to sites like this. They have bad reputation on this forum because of how they can request KYC from anyone at anytime. Forcing the money to go for their KYC or they will seize the person's coin. Very bad. If you need to better site, you can use exch.cx but the site only support few coins.

I don't know what the cutoff might be, but after looking at a bunch of these scam accusations I'm pretty sure changenow/changelly/etc. only whip out the KYC card when the swap is of at or above a certain amount--and that would make sense, because banks have requirements as far as which financial transactions they have to report to the IRS (like withdrawing $10k or whatever the number is). 

The problem is that these swap sites aren't banks, and this is cryptocurrency we're talking about.  Crypto users generally don't want to go through the KYC process as a matter of principle, but I think some of these sites freeze their users' funds in the hopes that the aversion to KYC is so high that the person will just give up, leaving their funds in the hands of the swap site.  Someone wrote that exact sentiment recently in another thread, and I wouldn't doubt it.  I'm tempted to say I wonder what happens to those funds, but I'm not that naive.

OP, I hope this situation eventually gets resolved for your 'friend'.

[hd49728]

They will need to look at the Change scam ecosystem and past scam accusations against them. My best wish to you for getting their support and getting your money back.

ChangeNOW is a SCAM exchange that has been illegally holding my 1.38M Zilliqa
ChangeNOW.io Evercode Lab - Scam. Defamation. Abuses. Threats - Russian Business
ICO. ChangeNOW.io has failed to list or exchange their own NOW tokens.
Changenow.io selective scamming
[SCAM EXCHANGE] CHANGENOW.IO trying to steal my 3 BTC
ChangeNow.io (Evercode Lab) - Scam. Illegally holding of 100 BCH (11 bitcoins).
Scam about 1.6 BTC.

[hugeblack]

This is funny, although ChangeNow claims to require KYC to comply with regulatory requirements, the coins deposited from ChangeNow were described as high risk by platform X.

The best solution would have been to contact platform X to do a refund to another address instead of ChangeNow's address and maybe it would be a good lesson that you should deposit to these services from your wallet instead of a crypto exchange.

ChangeNow has a long history of scamming and since they received 1.05 ETH they should have refunded it to you directly via an external address or converted it to any other cryptocurrency.

Tell your friend not to receive and discuss the issue here and on reddit he has already completed KYC and the worst has happened.

[holydarkness]

This is funny, although ChangeNow claims to require KYC to comply with regulatory requirements, the coins deposited from ChangeNow were described as high risk by platform X.

The best solution would have been to contact platform X to do a refund to another address instead of ChangeNow's address and maybe it would be a good lesson that you should deposit to these services from your wallet instead of a crypto exchange.

ChangeNow has a long history of scamming and since they received 1.05 ETH they should have refunded it to you directly via an external address or converted it to any other cryptocurrency.

Tell your friend not to receive and discuss the issue here and on reddit he has already completed KYC and the worst has happened.

I don't think it's feasible, to ask platform X to do a[nother] refund to a different wallet. OP's friend's fund is already returned to ChangeNow, platform X has completed their duty and no longer in any monetary obligation to refund OP. The ball is on ChangeNow's yard now... which rather unfortunate, given there is a big likelihood that the fund is as good as gone.

[examplens]

I don't think it's feasible, to ask platform X to do a[nother] refund to a different wallet. OP's friend's fund is already returned to ChangeNow, platform X has completed their duty and no longer in any monetary obligation to refund OP. The ball is on ChangeNow's yard now... which rather unfortunate, given there is a big likelihood that the fund is as good as gone.

Given that there is a third participant in the whole case, the 'X' platform, the entire case is very easily proven and is ripe for a lawsuit. I am sure that the Netherlands authorities can handle this in the right way. (At least that's the address on their website)

[FinneysTrueVision]

ChangeNOW is allegedly one of the many scam services related to Changelly and Freewallet. In fact it was also delisted from kycnot.me for the same reason as the other exchanges you mentioned.
https://kycnot.me/exchange/changenow

A frustrating KYC process is one of the usual tactics these businesses are using to steal users money. With so many accusations and pretty credible evidence against them I don’t know why so many hardware wallets are still partnered with these scammers.

[holydarkness]

I don't think it's feasible, to ask platform X to do a[nother] refund to a different wallet. OP's friend's fund is already returned to ChangeNow, platform X has completed their duty and no longer in any monetary obligation to refund OP. The ball is on ChangeNow's yard now... which rather unfortunate, given there is a big likelihood that the fund is as good as gone.

Given that there is a third participant in the whole case, the 'X' platform, the entire case is very easily proven and is ripe for a lawsuit. I am sure that the Netherlands authorities can handle this in the right way. (At least that's the address on their website)

I'll say it'll be an interesting thing to see, and I am more than happy to be a fly on that courtroom just to see the legal proceeding, as perhaps it'll teach ChangeNow to act more proper and within... sense. Though I don't think OP OP's friend will want to pursue this venue with "only" 1 ETH being disputed

[AHOYBRAUSE]

ChangeNOW is allegedly one of the many scam services related to Changelly and Freewallet. In fact it was also delisted from kycnot.me for the same reason as the other exchanges you mentioned.
https://kycnot.me/exchange/changenow

A frustrating KYC process is one of the usual tactics these businesses are using to steal users money. With so many accusations and pretty credible evidence against them I don’t know why so many hardware wallets are still partnered with these scammers.

Oh wow, I always thought they are a trustworthy site! I have done several swap there, up until like 800$ several times actually and I never ever encountered any problem. It was always quick and within minutes I got the new coins.
Now that I am reading this I will have to rethink if I continue using this site.
Is it actually a fact that they have a fishy history? When you look at trustpilot they have over 10k reviews with 88% 5 stars. Sure reviews can be faked but with that high amount of reviews a big % of them positive I don't see so many red flags.

[hugeblack]

I don't think it's feasible, to ask platform X to do a[nother] refund to a different wallet. OP's friend's fund is already returned to ChangeNow, platform X has completed their duty and no longer in any monetary obligation to refund OP. The ball is on ChangeNow's yard now... which rather unfortunate, given there is a big likelihood that the fund is as good as gone.

Unfortunately, what happened has happened, but it will be a good lesson not to make a transaction from exchange to exchange directly (preferably use an intermediary wallet) and to ask the exchange to return the funds to any wallet address if possible.

[yhiaali3]

I don't know what the cutoff might be, but after looking at a bunch of these scam accusations I'm pretty sure changenow/changelly/etc. only whip out the KYC card when the swap is of at or above a certain amount--and that would make sense, because banks have requirements as far as which financial transactions they have to report to the IRS (like withdrawing $10k or whatever the number is). 

But the amount here according to OP is only 1.05 ETH which is around $2500 so I don't expect this amount to be the maximum and I don't expect it to be a problem when dealing with banks. In such a case they should alert the customer that additional documents are required.

Even if it requires KYC verification I don't understand why "they asked for additional KYC, including a video call" as OP mentioned? This is very surprising because such an amount is not large enough to require all these strict procedures and verification via video call.

[examplens]

I'll say it'll be an interesting thing to see, and I am more than happy to be a fly on that courtroom just to see the legal proceeding, as perhaps it'll teach ChangeNow to act more proper and within... sense. Though I don't think OP OP's friend will want to pursue this venue with "only" 1 ETH being disputed

Scammers like Changenow take advantage of the fact that it is difficult for many clients to initiate proceedings against them due to various international complications. I don't know where the OP is from, but I believe that a model can be found where they will authorize a law firm that take over the case and possibly charge for their work in case of success.

Even if it requires KYC verification I don't understand why "they asked for additional KYC, including a video call" as OP mentioned? This is very surprising because such an amount is not large enough to require all these strict procedures and verification via video call.

OK, they got KYC verification and what next? They refuse to pay the money, if something is wrong they would have to start an investigation and involve the authorities. Many exchangers hide behind KYC requirements, without the resources or authorization for further processing. Also, the fact that it is a 'smaller' amount is no excuse.

[NotATether]

~

No exchanger will ever give you information on whether a specific exchange is going to trigger additional screening (i.e. KYC) because their risk detection tool is outsourced to a 3rd-party they are buying the service from. So as you can imagine, not even the exchanger staff themselves will know in advance. It does not matter if it is 3 BTC or 0.01 BTC.

The only way you can mitigate the risk is by using a mixer (and use a good mixer that won't trigger the "Mixer" subcategory of the AML detector).  You can find a couple of them on my website.

[Trêvoid]

I don't think it's feasible, to ask platform X to do a[nother] refund to a different wallet. OP's friend's fund is already returned to ChangeNow, platform X has completed their duty and no longer in any monetary obligation to refund OP. The ball is on ChangeNow's yard now... which rather unfortunate, given there is a big likelihood that the fund is as good as gone.

Given that there is a third participant in the whole case, the 'X' platform, the entire case is very easily proven and is ripe for a lawsuit. I am sure that the Netherlands authorities can handle this in the right way. (At least that's the address on their website)

I'll say it'll be an interesting thing to see, and I am more than happy to be a fly on that courtroom just to see the legal proceeding, as perhaps it'll teach ChangeNow to act more proper and within... sense. Though I don't think OP OP's friend will want to pursue this venue with "only" 1 ETH being disputed

Hi,

Thanks for reply.

Unfortunately my friend already give up from that money and just wanted to share his bad experience to everyone.

According to him, after sharing the thread here, ChangeNow.io now stop responding emails and also on support channel.

[Trêvoid]

ChangeNOW is allegedly one of the many scam services related to Changelly and Freewallet. In fact it was also delisted from kycnot.me for the same reason as the other exchanges you mentioned.
https://kycnot.me/exchange/changenow

A frustrating KYC process is one of the usual tactics these businesses are using to steal users money. With so many accusations and pretty credible evidence against them I don’t know why so many hardware wallets are still partnered with these scammers.

Oh wow, I always thought they are a trustworthy site! I have done several swap there, up until like 800$ several times actually and I never ever encountered any problem. It was always quick and within minutes I got the new coins.
Now that I am reading this I will have to rethink if I continue using this site.
Is it actually a fact that they have a fishy history? When you look at trustpilot they have over 10k reviews with 88% 5 stars. Sure reviews can be faked but with that high amount of reviews a big % of them positive I don't see so many red flags.

I strongly not recommend using

ChangeNOW
Exolix
Swapuz

they are all part of the same operation and scamming (deceiving) numerous individuals.

[Trêvoid]

This is funny, although ChangeNow claims to require KYC to comply with regulatory requirements, the coins deposited from ChangeNow were described as high risk by platform X.

The best solution would have been to contact platform X to do a refund to another address instead of ChangeNow's address and maybe it would be a good lesson that you should deposit to these services from your wallet instead of a crypto exchange.

ChangeNow has a long history of scamming and since they received 1.05 ETH they should have refunded it to you directly via an external address or converted it to any other cryptocurrency.

Tell your friend not to receive and discuss the issue here and on reddit he has already completed KYC and the worst has happened.

Even after going through the whole KYC process, they haven't send it back coins, which is frustrating enough. But now, to make matters worse, the ChangeNow isn't even responding to emails.

He starting to feel like been scammed.

He is worried and want to warn others to be careful.