A serious scam report has appeared on the BitcoinTalk forum against the swap service Lizex. According to user mabji1, the service froze $18,000 USDC belonging to his friend and started pulling the classic scheme involving AML risks and a sudden KYC demand.

The situation followed the usual script: the author's friend successfully made a couple of small exchanges, but when he increased the amount to $18,000, the funds got stuck. Lizex support claimed that the coins received a high AML score and were blocked by their liquidity provider — the KuCoin exchange. However, the thread author didn't take their word for it and began his own investigation. According to user mabji1, he traced the wallet holding the stuck $18,000 and contacted KuCoin support directly. The exchange's representatives officially confirmed that this wallet does not belong to them. This means Lizex is blatantly lying: the money was never transferred anywhere and remains in their hands, while the fabricated "partner block" story is being used to hold the funds and force the client into impossible KYC demands.

In the comments, users quickly recalled the service's history. According to user UserU, Lizex had previously promoted itself aggressively on the forum: they had an official thread and a paid positive-review campaign with escrow of nearly $5,000. User un_rank pointed out the bait tactic: several successful small transactions to lull the victim into a false sense of security, followed by a freeze once the amount is large.

According to user Trêvoid, who runs a directory of no-KYC exchangers, Lizex is a known scam project. They had previously been caught committing fraud on the SimpleX Chat messenger and selectively freezing customer funds. User Coyster expressed bewilderment at how anyone could entrust such large sums all at once to custodial swap services with zero liquidity of their own. And according to user Shishir99, sudden KYC demands are the bane of today's dishonest exchangers, so it's worth checking a service's reputation before making large transactions.

As of now, Lizex's official representative has not appeared on the forum for more than two weeks, ignoring the proceedings. This story once again proves that purchased reviews and polished forum threads do not guarantee the safety of your funds.