I remember when I signed up for Poloniex in 2014 I gave them a fake name, because I didn't necessarily trust them, as most people didn't. Then when their Circle acquisition came and they insisted everyone do KYC, I said screw that, because where I lived didn't even allow bitcoin exchanges and Poloniex would have certainly taken that into consideration. Poloniex also gave me the option of changing my customer name, which Trade Satoshi does not. They let me withdraw my coins, and I moved on. This is the standard I'm used to... It seems to me when an exchange uses KYC as an excuse to with-hold customer coins, something fishy is going on. BiteBTC has been engaging in the same behavior.
Then as was pointed out, some people performed the KYC to the best of their ability and were still denied access to their funds. I strongly believe Trade Satoshi recently turned to the darkside as they've racked up a huge number of complaints on social media as of late. They've always had their share of unhappy customers, but now they have way more than their share.
An excellent post. Thank you.
That is the precise reason I added Tradesatoshi to my scam alert signature.
They are by all intent and purposes using KYC as an excuse to seize funds. Those that do not comply are frozen out and many those that do comply with their KYC are also being given the run-around or point blank refused access. They have all the hallmarks of selective scamming.
Regardless of what opinions people may have of Poloniex, when they added their forced KYC policy at least they allowed users the option to change their aliases to their real names then comply with KYC and for those that did not want to do it they allowed them to withdraw - simple.
I will take a closer look at BiteBTC and if they have also decided to go rogue then I will add them to my scam alert signature as well as leave red trust too.