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TheFootMan
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April 05, 2014, 01:23:00 PM |
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Sounds cumbersome.
But picture this.
- Someone setting up a BitStamp account could be using a fake id, it could be doctored in a number of ways.
- Bitstamp requiring that you hold up the ID alongside with taking a high-res photograph of yourself where also the ID is visible, will make it harder to cheat the identity process - and also if you're a cheater, they would now have a high res picture of you to send to interpol, or whatever other agency they'd cooperate with.
- Exchanges are hit right and left with identity scammers, and need to take their own precautions.
So how do you in fact stay safe an anonymous, which actually is your right, imo.
- You could get yourself a convincing fake passport or similar, and most other docs, like utility bill etc. could be doctored. Then first get yourself a bank account with this fake information, secondly make the Bitstamp or other exchange account. If you're lucky, it will all turn out well, and you will have access to a verified bank account and a verified exchange account while none of your private information has been leaked. But that would be against the law, and if anyone found out, funds might've been frozen pending investigation in either the bank or at the exchange - and in that case - you could be in deep trouble, unless you were okay with just writing it all off as a loss. But in a lot of cases, it would never be discovered - and you would be fine. But you'd really need to know a whole lot of the process whereby you become identified - are the financial institutions you're registering with running checks, running your papers through databases they have access to ? Do they check whether your name actually exists, and that your passport number is valid? If the entire process is disconnected from such systems, it would be much easier to cheat. But basically - unless you know what you're doing, you're travelling down a black rabbit hole there. And although it could be justified from a perspective of personal safety and anonymity, it would be highly illegal in most jurisdiction, and penalties for getting caught for such crimes could range from fines to years in prison. Falsifying documents are a serious matter in many countries.
An exchange becoming suspicious as to whether a customer is legit or not, I can see they would ask for a high res picture where you hold up your ID. That might stop a few scammers in their tracks, but it might also stop some legit customers that absolutely do not want their picture being submitted like that. But it's understandable that an exchange asking for this, and then the customer starts making a fuss about, the exchange will hesitate and halt the process until the customer comply.
After all, and this holds true for any company requiring customer identification: The company has a lot of customer interaction every day, and they have a set routine of procedures they follow to verify customer accounts - arguing with them, and trying to circumvent these procedures are usually futile, and only leads to delays and frustrations on your part - the company don't care too much. The only way the company would care was if this started to hurt their business substantially, ie. a dryup of new customers, and customers leaving. And we must also realize a lot of these companies have certain KYC/AML requirements that are showed down their throat by regulation and local laws and procedures, so even if their execs don't like it, they just have to follow it to stay in business.
So, when we've established that falsifying documents to gain access to verified accounts are illegal, there's a few other routes.
You could use a mule, a person, a drug addicts or whoever that really don't give two shits about their identity or anything for that matter or someone who's just really desperate, might be willing to give up all info required and act as a proxy for you. Scenario: This drug addict in the neighbor town gets the word that if he helps get a bank account and an exchange account verified, he will get 5000 dollars, but have to give up access to the accounts to the beneficiary. This is probably also very illegal, but it would be harder to pin it on you, if done right. Still a lot of work, and it could go wrong as well, the upside of this scenario would be that you actually had 100% legit documents, so every checks against national databases would not give a warning signal.
The last and possibly best route would be not to trade on an exchange, but to trade p2p. Various measures could be put in place to make it safer, and very little identifiable information would be needed to give away. You could even establish relationship with traders that could provide the services you need on a consistent basis.
So in the end, you have to play by the rules decided by the exchange, there's no easy way around it. If you don't like those rules - you're out of luck and can't use their services.
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