Upbit, a South-Korean based crypto exchange firm, was fearing an attack from fraudsters but manages to save the day. Intentionally delayed withdrawals in an effort that the accounts of users remain unharmed from attackers.
Upbit had recently introduced a new policy which was to be promulgated only after November 27, 2020. Through this new policy, Upbit had imposed a restriction upon the withdrawals of crypto assets from the exchange. According to new rule, those customers who had deposited Korean Won (KRW) had 24 hours to receive withdrawals in digital assets. But this withdrawal was made subject to sending of withdrawal request within 24 hours. However, if the time limit had exceeded, then the withdrawing person was to receive KRW instead of digital currency.
Meanwhile no time limit had been made applicable upon withdrawal on the basis of KRW. For instance there is no restriction upon a person who had deposited KRW and wanted to withdraw in KRW.His withdrawal request was to be acted upon as and when received.
Similar rule was also made applicable upon the deposits in the form of digital assets. In this situation if the person wanted to withdraw digital assets, he had 24 hours from the time of request. Otherwise he would be entitled to receive KRW after expiry of 24 hours’ time.
An official of the exchange informed that they were in the knowledge of possible hack attack. He told that the system indicated of mega scale theft. The new rule had been put in place to efficiently tackle any such attempt, he told. He added further that now a days fraudsters are calling customers purporting them to be agents of the exchange. They ask customers to handover confidential information and data so that they can hack into their accounts. However, the intentional delay put in withdrawal is helping the exchange to stop occurrences of any unwanted events, he told.
The official also told that once any such suspicious withdrawal request is received at exchange’s end, then the customer is notified. This gives considerable time to the customer to notify the exchange that the withdrawal request is unauthorized.
It seems for sure that the strategy worked out well for Upbit as no complaint of any fraud was reported.
