SCAMMED by Bybit.com

[Joncoin18]

Hey everyone,

I need advice on dealing with Bybit scam. They’ve restricted my withdrawals for 7 months and are demanding impossible proof.

What Happened?
- I deposited funds years ago.
- Now, Bybit is asking for a video recording of the deposit (which is ridiculous—it was 5+ years ago!).

Bybit’s Responses:
First reply:
We have recently received your withdrawal request. To ensure you are the authorized person for this transaction and to safeguard your funds, we need to verify your identity through the following additional authentication process.

(A) Assuming you made a transfer from Exchange A/ wallet to Bybit previously, our security team would like to obtain a clear screen recording highlighting the following key points:

1) Ability to log into Exchange A/wallet successfully (To protect your login credentials, you may consider typing your username and password before starting screen recording, face ID login/ SMS code/2fa verification are all acceptable).
2) Redirect to the Withdrawal History page in Exchange A/ wallet.
3) Show us all the transfer details clearly. Details should include the amount, coin type, transfer date and time, and the completed TXID (Transaction hash).
4) If the Exchange A/wallet does not show full TXID on the withdrawal history page but a link redirects to the blockchain, please click on the link and show us the information on the blockchain.


Second reply:
We regret to inform you that, without video proof of the deposit, we are unable to proceed with your request. You may use the BTC deposit wallet address associated with your Bybit account to locate the transaction on the blockchain. Due to security reasons, we cannot disclose the transaction details. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.


My Issue:
They won’t accept any alternative proof (wallet signatures, old addresses, etc.).
It’s been half a year with no solution.

Question:
1. Any tricks to escalate this within Bybit?
2. Are they just stalling to keep my funds?

Thanks for any help.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I know it's too late to say this, but you really made a rookie mistake. It hurts because you used a mixer which suggest you value your privacy so much but then;

1. You made a direct deposit to a centralized exchange that can request for KYC any time, so no work done
2. You turn a centralized exchange into your wallet, yet it is a universal crypto rule that you should always keep of your funds from a centralized exchange. "Not your key, not your coins"

Please move this thread to the scam accusations board for better context.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

You’re right—it was a mistake in hindsight.
At the time, I didn’t expect Bybit to retroactively demand proof for old deposits, especially after years of no issues. Lesson learned the hard way.

Things change so fast in the crypto industry. Exchanges disappear overnight. Remember the FTX saga and all other services that filed for Bankruptcy like Blockfi thereby holding people's funds hostage

I am still amazed how you held through that time and never withdrew anything from bybit. Recently Bybit for massively hacked, and it's quite clear they are struggling, hence the chaos. 

Keep pestering them, though your chances are slim.

[PX-Z]

Exchanges sometimes request proof of funds for security and compliance reasons, but demanding video proof of a deposit from five years ago seems excessive and unrealistic. I remember HitBTC doing something similar, intentionally creating obstacles to avoid processing withdrawals or claims.

As for your question, there’s no real trick to recovering it anymore (though I hope I’m wrong). They’ll likely keep giving you the same response over and over until you eventually stop asking.

[Lida93]

Hey everyone,

I need advice on dealing with Bybit scam. They’ve restricted my withdrawals for 7 months and are demanding impossible proof.

What Happened?
- I deposited funds years ago.
- Now, Bybit is asking for a video recording of the deposit (which is ridiculous—it was 5+ years ago!).
- Mixers don’t keep records, so I can’t provide transaction details.

Hold on, you left your coins comfortably on a centralized exchange for years. Who does that?  Were you a newbie in cryptocurrency at the time that you didn't knew it's safer to hold your coins in a self custody wallet which you can always have access into without having to face this ridiculous KYC requirements.

I use bybit for P2P trading only and I discovered overtime that they have one of the slowest and boring customers support service and this knowledge makes me very cautious while using their platform because of my previous ugly experience with their support which left me stranded.

Hence, what am trying to say is that if you can't provide the requirements they are demanding of them (which obviously you can't going by the timeframe) just let it slide because they won't give you anymore attention than what they have just done. Next time don't make such expensive mistake again use self custodial wallet.

[PrivacyG]

I am baffled at multiple things in this situation.  One is that you deposited Bitcoin from a Mixer thinking it is a good idea and comes with no consequence, the second is that you had this deposit for so long on their platform and third is their ridiculous request!  Cryptocurrency exchanges come and go faster than buses at a station!  Not to mention in 5 years you may have lost access to the account, forgot where it was deposited from, had your account deleted, changed your e-mail or had it hacked and lost access to it et cetera!  So ridiculous!

[albon]

What I see is that if you cannot provide video proof of the deposit made five years ago, then you have indeed lost these assets. There's no way to escalate the matter within Bybit.

You should have adhered to their terms of use and been prepared for such procedures. Sorry for your loss, but you should have learned your lesson.

CEX platforms are not wallets to store your funds for years. If you were a long-term investor, you should have bought a hardware wallet, as that would have been the right solution for you. Just forget about Bybit now; unfortunately, there are no solutions.

[Mpamaegbu]

I won't blame Bybit if they decide to stand their ground and continue to demand what they've stated clearly they wanted as proof of ownership to OP. The reason being that anything that crawls will definitely look like a snake to Bybit after its last hack experience. Again, to make matters worse OP moved funds there from a mixer. What was OP even thinking doing that? That's not a wise choice if you asked me.

[BenCodie]

KYC has long been claimed as a "security" or "compliance" function and to an extent it may very well be. However, just like casinos and other custodial services, centralized exchanges will use this technique at any corner to be able to make a profit. It is no surprise that you are facing this issue after Bybit just lost $1.5 billion to a hack.

Unfortunately there are no tricks. If it's worth enough to sue them, then I think that is one of your only bets. Another solution (since you have a very valid claim about them not accepting old wallet signatures) would simply be to share your story. They might care more about their publicity than to hold your funds, and one of their PR people might find the story and get in touch with you in order to resolve the issue. This is seemingly pretty common with custodial services lately. Image is everything.

[The Cryptovator]

I can understand your frustration since I have encountered similar situations with Binance. Eventually they allow me to withdraw funds, but the account is restricted permanently. They detected themselves that the funds came from a mixer, and they took action as well. Your situation is worse since you can't show them where the funds came from.

I keep continuing to chat with Binance, so you can do the same thing. Keep chatting with their support and try to explain the situation. On the other hand, create sound to all their social media posts. I did as well, so they will try to solve that issue due to their reputation. There is no alternative; that's how I recover my funds from Binance.

[suzanne5223]

OP, you can keep talking with the Bybit support as you're advised maybe you will lucky one day but with the Bybit hacked and some of the stolen fund been nit through DEX the chance of you getting the fund at least for now is slim because a lot of security entity are looking into the hack and the Bybit team wont want anything that will affect their reputation. You moving coin from the mixer to their platform is something they will want to treat with extra consciousness.

I can understand your frustration since I have encountered similar situations with Binance. Eventually they allow me to withdraw funds, but the account is restricted permanently. They detected themselves that the funds came from a mixer, and they took action as well. Your situation is worse since you can't show them where the funds came from.

I keep continuing to chat with Binance, so you can do the same thing. Keep chatting with their support and try to explain the situation. On the other hand, create sound for all their social media posts. I did as well, so they will try to solve that issue due to their reputation. There is no alternative; that's how I recover my funds from Binance.

Firstly, you are lucky to get the funds back, and I believe the issue happened when there was not much focus on people with illicit transactions abusing the privacy service of Bitcoin mixers because the last time I checked, some CEXs never supported any deposit from online crypto casinos, not to mention crypto mixers.

[khaled0111]

The good thing here is that the reason they provided for rejecting your withdrawal request wasn’t the fact that you made a deposit from a mixer (which is something they do not tolerate).

The reason they provided is that they want to make sure "you are the authorized person for this transaction", which is understandable since you made this deposit years ago.

So, we can assume they are not aware that you made this deposit from a mixer.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do except try to convince them that you no longer have access to the wallet you used for the deposit transaction, and never mention that you used a mixer.

[nutildah]

So, we can assume they are not aware that you made this deposit from a mixer.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do except try to convince them that you no longer have access to the wallet you used for the deposit transaction, and never mention that you used a mixer.

I'm pretty sure they know its from a mixer. That's one thing that most mixers aren't actually great at doing -- mixing coins.  

Every mixer or mixing process has a signature pattern that can be identified in retrospect. OP says the deposit was made 5+ years ago -- that's more than enough time for mixer outputs to have been thoroughly analyzed and identified. They are giving OP a chance to prove otherwise based on the off-chance that they are wrong (but they are not wrong).

5 years ago, receiving coins from mixers wasn't nearly as big of a deal as it is now. Too bad he didn't do something with them back then.

[God Of Thunder]

I don't know what I should say except for sorry for your situation. It is your mistake that you directly deposited your funds from the mixer, and now you cannot actually provide any kind of proof. I am curious why you did not touch your Bitcoin for that long. Probably, they wouldn't even notice that the coin came from a mixer if you acted instantly, such as moving your funds to another wallet or exchanging them, and withdrawing them. But, unfortunately, you did not do anything. You can do some trick, but that would be unethical.

[Coyster]

I am curious why you did not touch your Bitcoin for that long.

I guess OP didn't know about "not your keys, not your coins", there is nothing wrong in hodling your bitcoins for so long, what matters is where you are hodling it.

1. Any tricks to escalate this within Bybit?

I don't think so, i would have said you should make some noise on their social media platforms, but it would come to nothing because centralized exchanges are within their rights to request information like this, and their TOS covers them on it.

[CryptSafe]

Sorry for your experience, as it looks frustrating to encounter such at this point. Bybit, I know, is among the top five biggest exchanges in the crypto space and can not be talked about defrauding its customers at any point in time. When I first saw the topic, I thought it to be a p2p scam as that is the popular issue amongst big exchange, but from what OP has said, Bybit is just trying to protect the assets for the owner as every exchange would do the same since the account has not been active for a long time. OP, you would have to comply with them as that is what would be the case as your account has been inactive for years and what they are just trying to confirm is that you are the real owner of the account so you would not blame them for their actions and from the looks, you do not have much proof to present to them and that is were the problem is. You will have no option to explain to them beyond reasonable doubt that you own the account holding such assets.

[crwth]

That’s just really troublesome knowing that it’s five years too long and they might be wondering if you are still the real owner of it. It’s probably why they want that screen recording or something. Isn't your identity enough proof that you are the owner?

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I guess OP didn't know about "not your keys, not your coins", there is nothing wrong in hodling your bitcoins for so long, what matters is where you are hodling it.

That's like the first commandment in the Bitcoin ecosystem 

I am sure he knew exactly what he was getting into, especially for the fact that he even tried to mix the coins

That’s just really troublesome knowing that it’s five years too long and they might be wondering if you are still the real owner of it. It’s probably why they want that screen recording or something. Isn't your identity enough proof that you are the owner?

In this case, I think they are trying to look at the trail of the coins (proof of source of funds) so in most cases they can ask you to send video recordings of your logging into your account, which OP will not be able to achieve.

[God Of Thunder]

I guess OP didn't know about "not your keys, not your coins", there is nothing wrong in hodling your bitcoins for so long, what matters is where you are hodling it.

As Bitcoin_Arena said, I also believe the user is not a noob, and he knew what he was doing. An average user who barely knows about Bitcoin and how CEX works won't use a mixer service. Since the guy used a mixer, we should assume that he knew what he was doing. But his mistake was that he did not act fast. An exchange takes a little time to investigate the incoming funds.

It's been five years since he deposited the funds. So, the exchange must verify that he is the same person who made the deposit. They wouldn't ask to verify if you moved the funds within a week or a month. I guess his account was dormant for five years.

[Doan9269]

I have two things to remind you of, if you are claiming being scammed by this centralized exchange called bybit.

1. Remember of it recent hack, incase you don't know, bybit was recently hack by the Lazarus group and crypto asset worth reasonable amount have been lost at the cause.

2. You may also need to know this or rather be reminded instead, that a centralized exchange could do ore worse than this if we are using them for the storage of our crypto asset.