Sometime this year, Paxful launched the  “Did You Know” campaign, which was carried out to enhance the learnings about bitcoin, the cryptocurrency world as a whole, and all about Paxful’s platform, including the terms and conditions of Paxful, the potential penalty for violating any of the terms of service.

The community of bitcoin trading opens doors to new opportunities, duties, and risks. Operating your business on a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace is also not easy at all. In their strong will to keep the platform safe, Paxful could restrict access to the account of certain users. 

In this article, we’ll be looking into the logical reasons and activities that could lead to one’s Paxful account getting frozen. 

Reasons Your Account Is Frozen On Paxful

Geolocation lock on User Accounts

A common reason is the Geolocation lock on User Accounts. Paxful has enabled this additional tier of security to protect its users and their bitcoin. If you log in from any new location without your two-factor authentication enabled, your Paxful account will be automatically locked for security reasons. You will need account confirmation and approval via email to be able to access the account again. 

OFAC sanctions

Another possible reason is the limitation of entry to the platform due to its obedience towards OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control) sanctions. This means that users and traffic from selected jurisdictions are restricted from using Paxful’s services. These countries include Burundi, Central African Republic Sanctions, Cuba, Crimea region, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan-related Sanctions, Sudan and Darfur, Syria, and Yemen.

Numerous violations of Paxful’s terms of service

There are many fraudulent activities and more serious violations against Paxful’s Terms of Service that can lead to your account being frozen, you need to have the terms of services at the back of your palm to avoid any unnecessary restrictions on your account.

Having multiple Paxful accounts

 Paxful is a platform that values its users and the safety of all trades. It does not allow users to have multiple accounts on the platform, because this is an unfair benefit in the natural competition of the market. When such cases are detected in Paxful’s system by the moderators, the duplicate accounts will be automatically frozen 

Using a fake identity or falsified verification documents

The penalty for using a false identity or falsified documents to verify your Paxful account or trade requirements can lead to your account being frozen. Paxful’s system algorithm and observation team will be able to detect and identify these fraudulent account verification attempts.

Any account that is flagged for any suspicious activity stated in the company’s terms of service, would be locked or frozen to prevent any criminal action, as Paxful reserves the right to do so.

Having a pending trade dispute

The most common reason for a frozen account is having a trade dispute to be resolved. A dispute is any misunderstanding or conflict between two parties within a trade. On Paxful, when a dispute emerges, a moderator will step in to settle it. It is required that both parties should be online and active while the dispute is being settled. Contrarily, the users’ accounts will remain frozen.

Various fraudulent trade activities

Other forms of fraudulent activities that can lead to account restriction include:

  1. Vendors asking for termination of  the trade after the payment was completed
  2. Conducting a trade-off escrow
  3. Chargebacks or invalidating the payment after it has been processed
  4. Coin locking or holding a seller’s bitcoin in escrow without prior intention to make the payment.
  5. Unauthorized use of gift cards, such as  selling used gift cards
  6. Compelling or duping a trade partner to immediately release their bitcoin
  7. Manipulating to receive financial support through the unauthorized or improper use of funds.

The above points are the most common reasons why your Paxful may be frozen. You can also contact the Paxful help center for more assistance.