US Citizens Locked Out of Bitflyer

[ichiokuen]

Hello! I am a US citizen and have permanent residence here. I signed up and was approved for a Bitflyer account in 2019. Today, I tried to open my account but I get directed to a page asking for verification that I am NOT an American citizen! I tried calling Bitflyer but their lines are too busy and it hangs up(as usual). Has anyone else been locked out of their accounts?
Thanks for you help!

[adamu]

Looks like they just updated their terms to reject people who "may possibly be a specified United States person"

https://bitflyer.com/pub/20211110-usepo ... son-en.pdf

[ichiokuen]

Thanks a lot for looking it up and providing the link. So any US citizen can be a specified individual who's under the rules of fatca? If we are paying our taxes and doing everything correctly what is the problem?

[adamu]

Maybe Bitflyer, not RetireJapan is the place to be asking that. Please report back with the results

[ichiokuen]

Believe me I am trying they will not answer their phones and they will not reply to my emails. I just thought someone on here might have had the same experience that's what a discussion board is for isn't it?

[adamu]

Sorry I have a tendency to take things literally and the "If we are paying our taxes and doing everything correctly what is the problem?" part, anyone other than Bitflyer can only guess at. I got the same message on login by the way, but I'm not a US Citizen. Checking the box lets you in.

[ichiokuen]

Thanks Adam, Sorry too I was a bit defensive there! Under enormous amount of stress with this, because it's happening at the busiest time of year for me.

Thanks for letting me know that you had the same experience. That gives some confirmation that it's not a hacker trying to get my account info. Unless, we are all being hacked of course!

For me to check the, "You are not a US citizen" box would be a lie and would give them reason to terminate my account, so I'll just wait for an email from them I guess.

[RetireJapan]

Just checked my account (haven't logged in for a while) and got the three checkboxes: agree to terms and conditions and claim not to be US citizen. Ticked all three and account opened normally.

[ichiokuen]

Thanks for the info.
Sorry to pry, but are you a US citizen?

[EmaxisSlim Cultist]

On the Reddit Japan finance page, there is a similar recent post (perhaps from you?).

This has happened recently with a few other Japanese exchanges.

Why? Compliance is expensive and difficult when it comes to dealing with US taxpayers. Citizens or not. It's simply not worth it for many exchanges. There is no recourse. I