Bitstamp locked my funds after I asked a question about their recent crime insurance

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A while back, I was scammed by a third party (i.e., not Bitstamp). I had transferred some BTC from Bitstamp and the target website, which offered an unrealistic APY, disappeared after a while and I lost the money. I had thought this was a risk and, while I was not expecting problems, it was quite frustrating, of course, to lose the funds. But nothing as frustrating as what I am going through right now with Bitstamp!

After I saw Bitstamp’s news about [Introducing crime insurance at Bitstamp](https://www.bitstamp.net/article/introducing-crime-insurance-bitstamp/), I decided to ask them whether the insurance would cover this. Honestly, I don’t know much about these types of insurances and I though there might be a chance that “transfer fraud” would refer to this. It did not, and that’s perfectly fine. I absolutely take the fall for the risk I assumed.

What I cannot understand is why my account was immediately locked from trading and withdrawal, supposedly for my own security. Notice that I made the transfer to a BTC address, nothing more. How could this jeopardize security in any way? The lockup happened just a few days before the BTC went up. I don’t want to sell BTC right now, but what if I did? They took my ability to react!

I thought this would be easily solved, and I started trying to cooperate with them, giving them as much information as I could about the scammer and answering their questions which, after a while, became a bit silly, like identifying the origin of IP addresses in a log (the latest two). Most people I know, would not even understand what the hell they were asking them to do… Now, I am nearing the point of wanting to sell my LTC, however my account is still locked. They eventually asked me for a photo with my ID and a particular writing in paper, which I though was more than enough to prove this is me, but apparently it was not!

Careful what questions you ask Bitstamp! Their response will be to lock your account and ask you a random question every 24h, dragging this process along while your funds are held hostage, which, to me, is even worse than being scammed.

As soon as my funds are unlocked, I will move them into [crypto.com](https://crypto.com) or perhaps Coinbase, but soon I will simply rely on cold storage via a Ledger Nano S, which I have already ordered. It’s true what they say: not your keys, not your crypto! Protect your assets!

I have originally moved into the crypto space because I believe in controlling my own money. I thought I would be safe with Bitstamp, but apparently I am not — their ridiculous security process is more likely to lock you out of your funds than it is for your account to be hacked.

If you want to use Bitstamp, do it, but move your funds into your own wallet as soon as possible.

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