Popular Bitcoin (BTC) exchange platform LocalBitcoins is suspending user accounts with little fanfare without warning, citing an “enhanced due diligence process.”

According to media reports, LocalBitcoins, one of the major global peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchanges, recently suspended user accounts in some African, Middle East and Asian countries without warning, as a result some users couldn’t withdraw their Bitcoin.

In the time first reports regarding this case came up a week ago, LocalBitcoins didn’t not give public statement on the matter so far.

According to the report, first complaints started last week, with users of LocalBitcoins in the countries of suspension such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Pakistan saying they couldn’t take their Bitcoins without removing accounts.

Furthermore, LocalBitcoins tweeted that they have a planned maintenance work on their website, which lasted for only one hour.

“The website will be under maintenance tomorrow, 28 January, from 7 am UTC. It is expected to last approximately one hour. After maintenance, service will resume as usual.”

In a separate blog post, the Redditor reported the issue, mentioning that the following message was displayed to those users who had their LocalBitcoins accounts suspended:

“Customers residing or otherwise located in the following countries are required to have an enhanced due diligence process. The countries are defined by EU commission: Afghanistan, American Samoa, The Bahamas, Botswana, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guam, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, US Virgin Islands, Yemen.”

Cryptolydian reported yesterday that, a UK high court has issued a proprietary injunction on Bitcoin stolen from a Canadian insurance firm through a ransomware attack.

On January 17, the court issued documents about a ransomware attack, indicating that over 1,000 computers of the insurance company were made inaccessible by using malware. The hackers requested Bitcoin worth $1.2 million to decrypt the data.

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