As I am going on with my wonderful life... my iPhone starts acting up as I'm updating it on my iMac. All of a sudden it needs to be restored and I lose many applications and my Google Authenticator information for various exchanges that I had setup accounts to trade with.
i.e. Kucoin, Huobi, Binance, etc.
I'm saying Fuck me as with all the stress of the market as we all know how much the market is changing daily!
Anyways... I email support at these exchanges... asking what do I need to do to turn off Google 2FA since I can't login to my accounts.
Binance is quick to get back to me. They ask me to send a picture of myself with my driver's license and a piece of paper stating to reset Google 2FA. I do that and within 24 hours all is clear and I have access to my account.
To Kucoin and Huobi I sent a similar email on Jan 11th asking to reset my google authenticator. No reply. I send them another email with the same information I sent Binance thinking that might work, and what trades I had with them and still no reply. Research and figure out what they need and send them an email Jan 17th with more details (which luckily I had because of my ledger I keep with my trades) and then another email on the 21st and finally I got an email.
"dear user,
We have unbound Google two-step verification for you.
plz check
thank you "
Thinking yeah! But lost money with market falling!
Huobi is still the shits! I have talked to their Telegram support since the 17th and having sent them all the information they needed multiple times... I'm still waiting for them to unbind my Google Authentication. They called me at 3am while I'm asleep the other night... I email them to call me between 9am to 11pm if they need to talk to me. Again this morning they call me at 5am and again I'm asleep.
They email me the following message.
WTF have I been doing all this time? Contacted their online support from whom I've emailed them the exact information they need and why not just unbind the F@#$ Google 2FA?
So I'm still waiting on Huobi after 2 weeks and you all know what's happened to the market.
However, the worst part is that my bank cancelled my debit card because they detected a fraud e-transfer of $1400 on the 17th.
Very suspiciously only after having sent Huobi and Kucoin my Driver's license, bill, passport to verify my identity.
At the bank they told me, whoever did this also switched my email address in my account to a "temporary" email. Yes folks, an email that only works for a short period of time. I never knew that you could get such things.
Though I can't be 100% certain someone at Huobi and Kucoin did this. It is awfully suspicious.
It is already scary to provide very sensitive documents to people you have no idea who they are... secondly we have no idea what fraudulent activities they are capable of doing using these documents.
To safeguard yourself.
Never have similar passwords for banking as you have for other accounts. I know it is difficult... but I'm quite sure they can see the passwords we are using and that they are not encrypted.
Back up your Google 2FA ... yes print and back them up.... you can't rely on digital storage.
Stick with bigger sites like Binance that actually have customer service. Not being able to access your account for even a few days can cost you thousands of dollars and Kucoin and Huobi have shown they are not reliable when it comes to customer service.
Hope this reminder helps you and pass it on to your friends and family who might have accounts on these exchanges. You can't be safe enough! Binance has most of the coins you'd want to trade anyways so if you don't have an account with them sign up using my referral link if you like at: https://www.binance.com/?ref=12930031
Also do not use two factor SMS authentication. It is not reliable and easily intercepted and someone can then sign into your account and rob you!
Happy Trading.
Cheers, Jas
P.S. If you are a Canadian... don't use Coinbase... start with QuadrigaCX... they are the safest and largest exchange in Canada with lowest trading FEES. My referral link: https://www.quadrigacx.com/?ref=pk771laaqcyix8ii1kr9iixf
If you need help to use them leave a comment below.