What to do when an exchange asks for a selfie with your ID after your swap is stuck

05 September 2026

Do not send the selfie. This request is almost certainly a scam.

Legitimate swap services do not ask for photo identification to unstuck a transaction. They use blockchain confirmations and transaction hashes. A stuck swap usually results from network issues, low fees, or a misconfigured destination address. None of those are solved by a selfie with your ID. The demand is a red flag. It signals that the platform is either fraudulent or has been compromised.

The scam works like this. You send funds. The swap never completes. You contact support. They tell you there is a "security verification" or "compliance issue". They ask you to photograph yourself holding your government ID. They claim the funds will be released after this step. In reality, the funds are already gone. The scammer wants your identity data for further fraud. They might use it to access your bank accounts, apply for credit, or sell it on darknet markets. Once you send that image, you have no control over it.

What should you do instead? First, stop all communication with the person or system that asked. Do not reply. Do not click any links. If the request came by email, mark it as phishing. If it came via a chat on the site, close the tab. Then go to the official website of the exchange. Verify the support contact through a trusted source, such as a CoinMarketCap listing or a community forum you have used before. Do not trust the email or chat number that contacted you.

Next, check if the exchange is known for this behavior. Search for the exchange name plus "selfie scam" or "stuck swap demand". If you find reports, you are not alone. If you do not find any, that does not mean it is safe. Small scams sometimes fly under the radar. In any case, do not comply.

If you sent a test deposit first, as described in the sibling page "How to test a deposit address with a tiny amount before sending the full swap", you may have only lost a small amount. If you sent the full sum, you must accept the likelihood that it is gone. Chasing it with your identity risks much larger losses.

A legitimate exchange might perform KYC (Know Your Customer) checks. But those happen before you deposit. They are part of onboarding. They do not happen after a swap fails. If a platform asks for KYC at the moment of failure, it is a bait-and-switch. The real purpose is to harvest your data.

The safest action is to write off the funds. Then review the hub page "Swapping crypto safely". It covers the checks worth making before you send money to any exchange address. Prevention is the only reliable cure. No amount of ID verification will get your funds back from a scammer who already has them.

If you are absolutely sure the exchange is reputable and the request is genuine - for example, you have used it for years and the support agent is verified through official channels - you can ask why. Question them. Insist on an alternative. Genuine services can often resolve stuck swaps by adjusting the transaction on their end. They do not need your face.

But in practice,

Back to perpetuals