BITSTAMP seizing coins and accounts - BEWARE

[simplesimon888]

i have been a bitstamp customer for over a year and i have completed many transactions there in that time.
last friday, i initiated a small cash withdrawal and was shocked to get a message the next day that told me that unless i send them my passport image and information, i would not be able to withdraw any of my coins or cash ever again.
nothing has changed in my account with regards to my banking information or the volume and size of my transactions, or my password or security information. but they are claiming this is a new KYC (know your customer) initiative designed to protect my account from hackers, even though they admit that there is no evidence that anyone has tried to improperly access my account or make any changes to my account information.
i have been passing messages back and forth since then but they are refusing to release my coins and cash unless i provide them with my passport.

does anybody have any suggestions on who i should be talking to there?
has anyone been through this before? what did you do to resolve this?
any advice on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated.

i do not want to give them my passport or any identification information beyond what they already have. it is a betrayal of the promises they used to make about protecting my anonymity and money!

this appears to be straight up stealing from all of us who do not wish our passports to end up with a bunch of faceless Estonians.

once i get my money back, i will never use bitstamp again.

what other exchanges do you recommend that do NOT want that amount of personal information.

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[franky1]

i have been a bitstamp customer for over a year and i have completed many transactions there in that time.
last friday, i initiated a small cash withdrawal and was shocked to get a message the next day that told me that unless i send them my passport image and information, i would not be able to withdraw any of my coins or cash ever again.
nothing has changed in my account with regards to my banking information or the volume and size of my transactions, or my password or security information. but they are claiming this is a new KYC (know your customer) initiative designed to protect my account from hackers, even though they admit that there is no evidence that anyone has tried to improperly access my account or make any changes to my account information.
i have been passing messages back and forth since then but they are refusing to release my coins and cash unless i provide them with my passport.

does anybody have any suggestions on who i should be talking to there?
has anyone been through this before? what did you do to resolve this?
any advice on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated.

i do not want to give them my passport or any identification information beyond what they already have. it is a betrayal of the promises they used to make about protecting my anonymity and money!

this appears to be straight up stealing from all of us who do not wish our passports to end up with a bunch of faceless Estonians.

once i get my money back, i will never use bitstamp again.

what other exchanges do you recommend that do NOT want that amount of personal information.

if your dealing with FIAT then expect all of them to ask for information..

also if they know the account belongs to YOU and the bank you are sending the money to also BELONGS TO YOU. then they cannot stop or freeze funds. as it is not deemed a suspicious activity. if you however were moving funds between different people. then that would trigger suspicious flags.

if you are moving funds from account to account both owned by you. there should be nothing stopping this. i have no clue what bitstamp are upto. but simply processing a withdrawal to your bank is identification enough of who you are..

it would be different if the bank account details did not match the details they do hold about you. seriously think they need to employ someone that can actually know the difference

[ArticMine]

i have been a bitstamp customer for over a year and i have completed many transactions there in that time.
last friday, i initiated a small cash withdrawal and was shocked to get a message the next day that told me that unless i send them my passport image and information, i would not be able to withdraw any of my coins or cash ever again.
nothing has changed in my account with regards to my banking information or the volume and size of my transactions, or my password or security information. but they are claiming this is a new KYC (know your customer) initiative designed to protect my account from hackers, even though they admit that there is no evidence that anyone has tried to improperly access my account or make any changes to my account information.
i have been passing messages back and forth since then but they are refusing to release my coins and cash unless i provide them with my passport.

does anybody have any suggestions on who i should be talking to there?
has anyone been through this before? what did you do to resolve this?
any advice on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated.

i do not want to give them my passport or any identification information beyond what they already have. it is a betrayal of the promises they used to make about protecting my anonymity and money!

this appears to be straight up stealing from all of us who do not wish our passports to end up with a bunch of faceless Estonians.

once i get my money back, i will never use bitstamp again.

what other exchanges do you recommend that do NOT want that amount of personal information.

May I ask what kind identification they already have on file for you. For example do they have a driver's license or identity card on file for you?

[BitCoinDream]

i have been a bitstamp customer for over a year and i have completed many transactions there in that time.
last friday, i initiated a small cash withdrawal and was shocked to get a message the next day that told me that unless i send them my passport image and information, i would not be able to withdraw any of my coins or cash ever again.
nothing has changed in my account with regards to my banking information or the volume and size of my transactions, or my password or security information. but they are claiming this is a new KYC (know your customer) initiative designed to protect my account from hackers, even though they admit that there is no evidence that anyone has tried to improperly access my account or make any changes to my account information.
i have been passing messages back and forth since then but they are refusing to release my coins and cash unless i provide them with my passport.

does anybody have any suggestions on who i should be talking to there?
has anyone been through this before? what did you do to resolve this?
any advice on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated.

i do not want to give them my passport or any identification information beyond what they already have. it is a betrayal of the promises they used to make about protecting my anonymity and money!

this appears to be straight up stealing from all of us who do not wish our passports to end up with a bunch of faceless Estonians.

once i get my money back, i will never use bitstamp again.

what other exchanges do you recommend that do NOT want that amount of personal information.

I could see... it was inevitable from BitStamp. Now they're know & identified. They have to follow KYC. That is why BTC-E is better. Anonymous owners dont give a fuck to KYC n all...

[simplesimon888]

i am not dealing with FIAT ( i don't even know what FIAT is) and i am not moving funds at all.
all i do is buy and sell coins, and withdraw some profits to my bank 1-3 times a month.

do you have any advice on what i should do or who i should be speaking/messaging at bitstamp?

[simplesimon888]

i have been a bitstamp customer for over a year and i have completed many transactions there in that time.
last friday, i initiated a small cash withdrawal and was shocked to get a message the next day that told me that unless i send them my passport image and information, i would not be able to withdraw any of my coins or cash ever again.
nothing has changed in my account with regards to my banking information or the volume and size of my transactions, or my password or security information. but they are claiming this is a new KYC (know your customer) initiative designed to protect my account from hackers, even though they admit that there is no evidence that anyone has tried to improperly access my account or make any changes to my account information.
i have been passing messages back and forth since then but they are refusing to release my coins and cash unless i provide them with my passport.

does anybody have any suggestions on who i should be talking to there?
has anyone been through this before? what did you do to resolve this?
any advice on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated.

i do not want to give them my passport or any identification information beyond what they already have. it is a betrayal of the promises they used to make about protecting my anonymity and money!

this appears to be straight up stealing from all of us who do not wish our passports to end up with a bunch of faceless Estonians.

once i get my money back, i will never use bitstamp again.

what other exchanges do you recommend that do NOT want that amount of personal information.

May I ask what kind identification they already have on file for you. For example do they have a driver's license or identity card on file for you?

i don't remember what identification  i gave them when i first opened my account. i don't think i gave them any - but i did give them my name and banking information, which they checked out and confirmed was real.

[mindfulmojo]

i am not dealing with FIAT ( i don't even know what FIAT is) and i am not moving funds at all.
all i do is buy and sell coins, and withdraw some profits to my bank 1-3 times a month.

do you have any advice on what i should do or who i should be speaking/messaging at bitstamp?

I don't know anything about this issue, but you are dealing in fiat currency. Paper money = fiat.

[Nagle]

This is a red flag.

Whenever it suddenly becomes harder to get money out of a financial service than to put it in, something is very wrong. Legitimate operations do all their "know your customer compliance" when you open the account, before they let you put money in.

[BitCoinDream]

This is a red flag.

Whenever it suddenly becomes harder to get money out of a financial service than to put it in, something is very wrong. Legitimate operations do all their "know your customer compliance" when you open the account, before they let you put money in.

Cant agree more with u. Why someone will create problem at withdraw but not at deposit ? Time to get cautious guyz...

[crazyivan]

I really do not understand what is the problem here. I think we all try to convince people that Bitcoin is NOT a tool for smugglers and money launderers to do their shady business. If you do not belong to this group, what exactly do you have to hide? Introducing some limited transparency into Bitcoin economy would be great IMO, it would discourage shady businesses, deter scammers and introduce some form of accountability. You already gave them your scanned ID before, they would not let you trade otherwise so I do not see a problem about them trying to re-verify your identity. After all, this is all aimed towards safety of our accounts, certainly they do not do this cause it is amusing to them.

[pedrog]

Bitstamp has nothing to do with this, they just follow the rules, provide the necessary documents and it's all fine.

This guide seems good, don't know if it's up to date: http://www.pwc.com/en_gx/gx/financial-services/assets/pwc-kyc-anti-money-laundering-guide-2013.pdf

And stay away from exchanges who do not follow these international directives, your bank account can be frozen and you may have to answer a lot of questions.

[pedrog]

I really do not understand what is the problem here. I think we all try to convince people that Bitcoin is NOT a tool for smugglers and money launderers to do their shady business. If you do not belong to this group, what exactly do you have to hide? Introducing some limited transparency into Bitcoin economy would be great IMO, it would discourage shady businesses, deter scammers and introduce some form of accountability. You already gave them your scanned ID before, they would not let you trade otherwise so I do not see a problem about them trying to re-verify your identity. After all, this is all aimed towards safety of our accounts, certainly they do not do this cause it is amusing to them.

One doesn't need to have something to hide to value one's privacy.

In the first couple of years or so of Bitstamp there was no need for KYC/AML but eventually it was introduced.

https://www.bitstamp.net/article/bitstamp-new-verification-requirements/

[ArticMine]

May I ask what kind identification they already have on file for you. For example do they have a driver's license or identity card on file for you?

i don't remember what identification  i gave them when i first opened my account. i don't think i gave them any - but i did give them my name and banking information, which they checked out and confirmed was real.

Thanks for the info. I am trying to get a handle on possible solvency issues here.

[Sir Bitcoin]

I had a friend of mine lose his buying and selling priviledges on bitsetamp for no apparant reason..

Shame they are going down hill like this

[simplesimon888]

Bitstamp has nothing to do with this, they just follow the rules, provide the necessary documents and it's all fine.

This guide seems good, don't know if it's up to date: http://www.pwc.com/en_gx/gx/financial-services/assets/pwc-kyc-anti-money-laundering-guide-2013.pdf

And stay away from exchanges who do not follow these international directives, your bank account can be frozen and you may have to answer a lot of questions.

Bitstamp has nothing to do with this, they just follow the rules, provide the necessary documents and it's all fine.

This guide seems good, don't know if it's up to date: http://www.pwc.com/en_gx/gx/financial-services/assets/pwc-kyc-anti-money-laundering-guide-2013.pdf

And stay away from exchanges who do not follow these international directives, your bank account can be frozen and you may have to answer a lot of questions.

Bitstamp has EVERYTHING to do with this. They have changed their policies which explicitly stated that your anonymity was a core value of theirs. If legislative changes have forced them to take on these new policies then it was incumbent on them to give advance warning to their customers about those changes before they came into effect. They did not do that. No email, no press release, no announcement....just this new play to effectively steal coins and cash from those old clients who value their privacy and do not wish their identification info (that that can be used to say steal your identity) to end up in the hands of faceless non-government actors in faraway Estonia, which also happens to be a country largely controlled by mobsters.

And the coins/cash they seize....do you think Bitstamp is giving it to the EU govt's justice department? Or money-laundering agency?

Please....

....BITSTAMP is officially a place where your coins will get stolen/seized if you do not wish to reveal your most private identification. Get your coins out now!!

[pedrog]

Bitstamp has EVERYTHING to do with this. They have changed their policies which explicitly stated that your anonymity was a core value of theirs. If legislative changes have forced them to take on these new policies then it was incumbent on them to give advance warning to their customers about those changes before they came into effect. They did not do that. No email, no press release, no announcement....just this new play to effectively steal coins and cash from those old clients who value their privacy and do not wish their identification info (that that can be used to say steal your identity) to end up in the hands of faceless non-government actors in faraway Estonia, which also happens to be a country largely controlled by mobsters.

And the coins/cash they seize....do you think Bitstamp is giving it to the EU govt's justice department? Or money-laundering agency?

Please....

....BITSTAMP is officially a place where your coins will get stolen/seized if you do not wish to reveal your most private identification. Get your coins out now!!

Dude, they never promise anonymity because they cannot have anonymous customers, the only thing they can guarantee is your privacy, pretty sure they do that.

And as you don't even know where they are from I advise you to investigate a bit more.

Oh, and KYC/AML requirements announcement date was 4th September 2013, being mandatory on the 30th, and yes we got a few emails about it.

https://www.bitstamp.net/article/bitstamp-new-verification-requirements/

[m1rr0rm3]

i am not dealing with FIAT ( i don't even know what FIAT is) and i am not moving funds at all.
all i do is buy and sell coins, and withdraw some profits to my bank 1-3 times a month.

do you have any advice on what i should do or who i should be speaking/messaging at bitstamp?

FIAT currency is your local paper/coin money.  So yes you are dealing in FIAT Currency. 

Use Coinbase.com

[pedrog]

i am not dealing with FIAT ( i don't even know what FIAT is) and i am not moving funds at all.
all i do is buy and sell coins, and withdraw some profits to my bank 1-3 times a month.

do you have any advice on what i should do or who i should be speaking/messaging at bitstamp?

FIAT currency is your local paper/coin money.  So yes you are dealing in FIAT Currency.  

Use Coinbase.com

Coinbase is only available to US and UK and, also, they are compliant of course...