Buda, a Chile-based cryptocurrency exchange, has started
requesting selfie verification every time a user needs to withdraw funds
to a new bitcoin address. This new measure now introduces a new layer
of security for users to avoid getting their accounts hacked, but it
will only be mandatory for those that don’t have 2FA activated.
Buda Exchange to Request Selfie to Make Withdrawals to New Addresses
Buda, a Chile-based exchange formerly known as Surbtc, will now implement new security measures to protect
its users from hacking attempts. The platform will now require the user
to send a selfie verification every time a withdrawal to a new bitcoin
address is requested. However, this will only affect users that have not
activated their two-factor authentication (2FA) measures.
The measure was announced in a mail delivered to the customers of the
exchange on June 22, when it asked users to enable their 2FA option in
order to be excluded from having to comply with this new measure every
time a withdrawal is directed to a new crypto address. According to the
email, the decision to do this was motivated by a series of phishing
email scam campaigns targeting the company. The email explained:
These last weeks we have detected several pages that are
posing as Buda.com. It is similar to that fake SMS that comes to you to
obtain credit from the bank. This is called phishing.
Until now, there have been no reports of losses linked to these phishing attacks.
Banks Are Now Allies
While the exchange has had run-ins with banks in the past in Colombia
and Chile, where these institutions denied servicing it and even ran a
banking embargo
against it in June 2018, today the story is different. The exchange is
now part of the Colombian sandbox that enables and pairs cryptocurrency
exchanges and banks to test their joint operations.
As part of this new framework, Buda has now partnered
with Bogota’s Bank, offering its customers the possibility of making
direct deposits and withdrawals to and from the exchange respectively.
While these operations were already supported by Colombian banks, this
new alliance recognizes these ones as official transactions to
exchanges, liberating the users from any block or other measures that
the banking operator could take. This has happened with Binance and
several banks in the U.K.
