Starting in 2021 I began using BitMart.  Pretty basic setup, nothing exciting.  I made the account using my primary email - a Google's Gmail account - which is probably something that 80% of users do (I just made that percentage up).  I made a small deposit and withdrawal (to make sure things were working properly) before I continued to accrue assets there, and everything worked properly.

I amassed quite a bit (for me) in that account.  It eventually held over 1000 USD, making it the exchange that held the highest amount of my assets.

Then things started going wrong.

I stopped receiving security code emails to my Gmail account.

I had set up 2FA SMS on my account at the very beginning.  Since I had attached my phone number to the account, I could use the phone number to log in.  Not best practice, but better than nothing.  So, to log in, I use my cell phone number as a username and put in my password, then I'm prompted to input the code that was just sent to me via SMS.  Receive text message, type in code: login complete.

However, BitMart's security process whenever you do anything that involves withdrawing your assets is to have multiple sources of authentication.  Which is great if they're all working.  I would try to withdraw a coin or token, and it would prompt me for two different codes: one that was sent to me via SMS - working properly - and another that was sent to my email account - broken.

Wham, Bam, Oh Shit A Scam?

Let's see.  I can deposit, trade, and hodl, but I can't withdraw.  Classic.  Scam.  Behavior.

Time to troubleshoot.

I contacted BitMart's customer support and they responded via email.  Those messages were working just fine.  We couldn't find a problem, even after trying a couple of different solutions to what might be happening.  They assured me that the email was being sent on their end.

I contacted Gmail support (I have a business and my business email is run through Gmail, so I actually have tech support.  They'd never intentionally piss on the free users, would they?).  I got on the phone and was able to talk to a real live IT tech support person.  They showed me how to go in and see all the emails being sent to my entire domain (one inbox, whoopee).  The Gmail support person claimed that there weren't any filters on my all-messages inbox.  But the security messages weren't coming through.  They assured me that no security code email was being sent from BitMart. 

What.  The.  Hell.

So I Gave Up

Dabbling in crypto, I've been scammed before.  I decided to cut my losses and walk away.  Sure, it's over two weeks' worth of my pay stuck there.  Sure, I'm pissed.  But a scam's a scam.

Then I had the same problem with uphold.

For those of you still stuck under a rock, switch your web browser to Brave.  Uphold is the Portuguese exchange that Brave browser originally connected with to withdraw BAT, and I've been using Brave for years, so I have an Uphold account.  I've deposited to it and withdrawn from it several times.

Except now I can't log in.  Because I can't receive the security email for the code that I'm prompted for after entering my credentials.

Did uphold get bought out and now it's scamming people?  Doubtful.  WTF.

The Solution

I have another email adress through ProtonMail.  They're based out of Europe, free, and secure.  If you can pay for their service, do it.  They're doing amazing things.  I'm in the process of transferring all of my email accounts over to them, which is a chore but a chore well worth doing.

I send a message to BitMart's support team to change the email associated with my account to my ProtonMail address.  I jumped through the identity verification hoops, and then...

didn't hear back from them.  I had already chalked this up as a loss, so I didn't have high hopes.

I sent the request to change the email address in mid-December, and then I forgot about it.

Scam's a scam, remember.  Water under the bridge.

Then last week I got an email.  In it was this exact message, I shit you not.

That was it.  The entire message.

When I went to log in, everything worked.  I was receiving the security emails to log in properly.

I can withdraw my crypto from BitMart again!

In Conclusion

Don't use Gmail for your crypto exchange accounts!

If changing the email provider was the solution, the old email provider was the problem.  WHY is anyone's guess.

But use ProtonMail.  Thank you.