There are mainly two types of freeze: bank-imposed freeze and legal freeze.
I. Bank-imposed Freeze
Bank-imposed freeze includes two categories:
1. In some countries and regions, bank accounts are not allowed to engage in crypto transactions. If an account is found involved in such transactions (e. g., keywords like BTC, ETH, or USDT in transfer remarks are detected by the bank's risk control system), the bank may freeze it or temporarily suspend part of its transaction permissions.
2. An account may also be frozen due to its suspicious activities, such as late-night large transfers, frequent transactions with multiple individuals, and a consistently zero balance, that have triggered the bank's anti-money laundering system.
Typically, banks do not freeze your bank cards. Instead, they may limit your non-counter services or only allow outgoing transactions, which means they temporarily suspend some transaction features.
How to Handle Such Situations?
Contact your bank and provide the required information, usually an explanation of the reason for the transfer.
How to Prevent Such Situations?
1. When trading with buyers, remind them not to include sensitive keywords like USDT or BTC in any transaction remarks.
2. Avoid relying solely on a single card. Switch between different cards periodically.
II. Legal Freeze. This is the one that most people are concerned about and find troublesome.
How a legal freeze works varies depending on the judicial procedures in each country, but it follows a similar pattern.
After a victim reports a fraud case to the police, they will put a legal freeze on all the bank accounts involved in the flow of the victim's funds. For example, the victim's money was successively transferred to account A, then to accounts B, C, D, E, and F. In this case, accounts A to F may all be subject to a legal freeze. However, B, C, D, E, and F may be unaware of the origin of the funds.
A legal freeze typically doesn't happen immediately after you receive suspicious funds. It could be due to a transaction that took place a month ago. However, it is generally related to a transaction that occurred a few days ago.
How to Handle Such Situations?
If your bank card is imposed with a legal freeze, you need to contact your bank or their hotline to inquire about the freeze duration and the authority that issued the freeze. These two pieces of information are essential and displayed at the bank's backend system. Therefore, we strongly recommend you to obtain them.
In most instances, a legal freeze is imposed temporarily to aid police investigations and is typically lifted within two to three business days. Therefore, there is no need to be overly concerned as your account will be automatically unfrozen. Nevertheless, it is recommended that you transfer your funds from the affected account since the case may involve multiple victims, resulting in the possibility of future freezing. It is worth noting that the exact timeframe for unfreezing may not be precisely 48 or 72 hours, but could extend by a few hours or even half a day.
However, in certain cases, a legal freeze may last for six months. This usually occurs when you directly receive suspicious funds or have close ties to the origin of those funds. It is important to acknowledge that in some regions, all associated accounts may be frozen for six months, in accordance with local judicial regulations.
How to Handle Such Situations?
- Contact the local police immediately and request information on the specific transaction that led to your involvement. If they provide the information, comply with their requirements by presenting the necessary documentation. Such documentation, used to explain why you made the transfer, typically includes your order records on Poloniex OTC during a specific period, which can be exported and printed from your Poloniex OTC account, and the transaction history of your frozen bank account. If the police require personal information about a specific counterparty, contact our OTC customer support team and follow their provided legal process.
- Once you have submitted the required materials, the local police will provide feedback based on their procedures and the specifics of the case. Some situations may necessitate a resolution or withdrawal of the case before your account is unfrozen, while others may involve freezing only the funds related to the case or immediate unfreezing. If the police refuse to unfreeze your account after you have made a statement, inquire about the funds involved in the case. If the amount associated with the case is significantly lower than the frozen funds, you can request to unfreeze the funds not involved. From a legal standpoint, if you are not involved in telecommunications fraud or money laundering and your account is frozen solely due to crypto sales, you are an innocent victim affected by the situation. In this case, we suggest you seek guidance from a lawyer.