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Video ID Verification Requests — Account Frozen or Institutional Video Call Scheduling

Video ID Verification Requests — Account Frozen or Institutional Video Call Scheduling

Problem

Customers contact BitGo Support requesting a video ID verification call. The two most common triggers are: (1) retail/individual users whose accounts were frozen after too many failed 2FA reset attempts or failed photo-ID submissions during onboarding, and (2) institutional/custody enterprise users who need to schedule a video call for withdrawal verification, adding new video-verified users, or policy changes. The frozen-account notification email directs all users to email support@bitgo.com to "schedule video ID verification," which causes confusion because video verification is not available to non-institutional customers.

Diagnostics

  • Determine account type: Look up the user's account in the admin tool (bga user or equivalent). Check the enterprise entity (BitGo Trust vs. BitGo Inc) and the enterprise plan — individual (starter) / PayGo on BitGo Inc indicates a retail user who is not qualified for video call scheduling for trade/Go Account purposes; a named enterprise with a custody or trust plan under BitGo Trust indicates an institutional customer. Always verify both the entity and the plan before advising on video call or trade eligibility.
  • Check freeze status and reason: Confirm whether the account is frozen. The typical freeze reason is "BitGo froze your account due to too many failed attempts to reset your 2FA." Verify this in the user's account record.
  • Check for existing wallets and transactions: Determine whether the user has any wallets, wallet balances, or transaction history. Many frozen accounts belong to FTX settlement recipients who created a BitGo account solely to receive distributions and have no wallets, no transactions, and a zero balance.
  • Check enterprise video-verified users list: For institutional requests, inspect the enterprise's approvedVideoIdUsers array to see who is already video-verified and whether the Primary Contact / an Enterprise Owner is among them.
  • Identify the specific institutional request type: Is the customer requesting to (a) add new video-verified users, (b) complete a custody withdrawal verification, (c) expedite a pending video call, or (d) unlock/change enterprise policies?

Resolution

Scenario: video-schedule-verification-call#retail-frozen-2fa-reset

Trigger: A retail/individual (non-institutional) user's account is frozen after failed 2FA reset or failed photo-ID verification attempts, and they are requesting a video ID call to unfreeze.

Signals: account frozen, video ID verification, unfreeze, 2FA reset, failed photo submission, government-issued ID, FTX, individual, starter plan, retail

Steps:

  1. Inform the customer that video verification for 2FA reset is only available to institutional customers: "Unfortunately, Video Verification for 2FA reset is only available to Institutional Customers."
  2. Explain the manual 2FA reset process. Request the following ownership-verification information:
    • Date of BitGo email verification (instruct the customer to search for "Your BitGo Email Verification" in their inbox).
    • 3 transaction hashes either to or from their wallet. If they do not have transaction hashes, they must contact the exchange from which they originally received funds and request the TXIDs. If they have not made any transactions to or from a BitGo wallet, they should let support know.
    • Wallet balance in cryptocurrency (with the name of the wallet). If they haven't created wallets, they should let support know.
    • Alternatively, if none of the above is available, accept the first 8 characters and the last 8 characters of the BitGo Public Key from their wallet keycard (Box C). The customer should provide the name of the wallet the keycard info applies to.
  3. Cross-reference the information provided against the user's account record in the admin tool (e.g., signup date, wallet balances, transaction history).
  4. If the customer has no wallets and no transactions (common for FTX settlement recipients), verifying the Date of BitGo email verification alone is sufficient. Confirm the date matches the signup timestamp in the admin tool.
  5. If the date or other details provided are incorrect, ask the customer to double-check. Note: the verification email date corresponds to when they signed up their BitGo account, not any other date. Inform them: "The date you provided is incorrect. Please note the email should be sent on the date you signed up your BitGo account."
  6. Once ownership is verified, perform the 2FA reset and unfreeze the account using the admin tool (e.g., bga user resetotp followed by bga user freeze 0 to unfreeze).
  7. Notify the customer: "We have completed the process of resetting your Two-Factor Authentication. Please log back into your account, and follow the instructions to set up your Two-Factor Authentication again."
  8. If the customer's account freezes again after the 2FA reset (e.g., they fail the photo-ID step again on re-login), repeat the unfreeze process and advise them on successful ID submission.

Notes: Many of these users are FTX settlement claimants who created BitGo accounts solely to receive distributions. They typically have no wallets, no transactions, and zero balances. For these users, the email verification date alone is acceptable for ownership verification. Some later batch-closed FTX retail tickets were resolved en masse after confirming with internal stakeholders that the issues were already resolved.

"Unfortunately, Video Verification for 2FA reset is only available to Institutional Customers. Before we can initiate the manual reset, we need to verify your ownership of the wallet." "The date you provided is incorrect. Please note the email should be sent on the date you signed up your BitGo account. We require transaction details of the wallets you have in your BitGo account, not FTX. As mentioned, if you do not have any wallet in your BitGo account, we will only need to verify your BitGo account sign up date." "Alternatively, you may provide us the first 8 and the last 8 characters of your BitGo Public Key found on your wallet keycard (Box C)."

Scenario: video-schedule-verification-call#institutional-add-video-verified-users

Trigger: An institutional/enterprise customer requests to add new video-verified users to their enterprise, or needs initial video verification for an enterprise that has no verified users yet.

Signals: add video approvers, video verified users, enterprise, institutional, initial video verification, Calendly, primary contact, enterprise owner

Steps:

  1. Ask the customer to explain their use case for the video verification (e.g., adding new video-verified users, initial enterprise verification, removing a departed user). Do not schedule the call until the use case is understood.
  2. Look up the enterprise and check the approvedVideoIdUsers list to identify who is already video-verified.
  3. Confirm that the request is coming from (or will include) an already video-verified user or the Primary Contact / Enterprise Owner. If the enterprise has no verified users yet, the Primary Contact must be present on the first call.
  4. If adding a new user and someone is already verified: any approved video-verified user can join the call to authorize adding the new user. If no one is verified yet: the Primary Contact listed on the enterprise must join the initial call.
  5. Send the customer the Calendly scheduling link: https://calendly.com/bitgo-client-delivery/videoid
  6. Instruct the customer to have their government-issued photo ID ready and to reference their ticket number when scheduling.
  7. If the new user to be added is not initially verified by BitGo, advise: "If you are not initially verified by BitGo, please bring the person on the call who has already verified and can authorize your identity."
  8. Note that video verification records are done separately per enterprise. A user verified under one enterprise is not automatically verified under another.
  9. After the video call is completed, the trust team processes the verification. Confirm completion to the customer.

Notes: To remove existing video-verified users (e.g., departed employees), a remaining Enterprise Owner must be available on the video call to authorize the removal. Removal and addition can sometimes be handled in the same call session.

"Any of the approved video verified user can join the call to request to add Jordan and Tomas as additional verified users... Please use the following link to schedule a time to meet with us and verify the request: https://calendly.com/bitgo-client-delivery/videoid" "Video verification record are done separately per Enterprise... since no one is verified for this enterprise yet, we need [the Primary Contact] to join the call, then I can do the video with both of you and add you both as verified." "As the Primary Contact of the Enterprise, we must first successfully conduct a Video Verification with [the Primary Contact], before we can continue to add you as a Video Verified User."

Scenario: video-schedule-verification-call#institutional-custody-withdrawal-verification

Trigger: An institutional customer needs to complete a video ID call to process a custody withdrawal (e.g., withdrawal to a new whitelisted address exceeding thresholds, or triggered by policy).

Signals: custody withdrawal, video call, pending approval, transaction verification, expedite video call, withdrawal verification, selfie liveness check

Steps:

  1. Ask the customer to explain their use case for the video verification (e.g., withdrawal authorization, policy change, new whitelisted address). Do not schedule the call until the use case is understood.
  2. Confirm the pending transaction details (Transaction ID, Pending Approval ID, Policy Evaluation ID) provided by the customer.
  3. For custody withdrawals, whoever is registered as a video-verified user for the enterprise will conduct the scheduled video recording.
  4. If the customer is requesting to expedite a video call (e.g., the next available Calendly slot is too far out), escalate internally to the Client Delivery or Trust team to see if an earlier slot can be arranged.
  5. Direct the customer to schedule via the Calendly link if not already done: https://calendly.com/bitgo-client-delivery/videoid
  6. After the video call is completed and approved by the Trust team, the transaction will be processed (typically within a 48-working-hour window).
  7. If consolidation transactions are incorrectly triggering video ID requirements, escalate to the engineering team — this may be a bug that engineering needs to fix so consolidation transactions do not trigger the video ID policy.

Notes: Default BitGo-enforced policies trigger a video ID call for withdrawals greater than $250,000 USD in a rolling 24-hour period and a Selfie Liveness Check for withdrawals to a new whitelisted address for the first time. These thresholds can be customized. If the enterprise has no video-verified users registered, they must complete the initial verification before any custody withdrawal video calls can occur.

"One of our withdrawals requires a video call but soonest available time was not for another 1.5 hours, since this is just a penny test before we send more is there any way we can have the call sooner to get this one processing?" "Our engineering team has fixed the issue and the consolidation transactions should not trigger the video ID now."

Scenario: video-schedule-verification-call#ftx-retail-batch-closed

Trigger: The ticket is from an FTX retail user requesting video ID verification, and internal confirmation indicates the issue has already been resolved (e.g., batch-closed by internal team after confirming with stakeholders).

Signals: FTX, retail, batch closed, already resolved, Nandish, Michelle Liu

Steps:

  1. Check internal notes for the ticket. Many FTX retail video-verification tickets were batch-closed after internal confirmation that the underlying issues were already resolved.
  2. If the ticket matches this pattern (internal note: "Nandish Closing FTX Retail tickets after confirming with Michelle Liu - these issues are already resolved"), the ticket can be closed with no further action required.
  3. If the customer replies after closure indicating the issue persists, reopen and follow the retail frozen account 2FA reset process (Scenario: retail-frozen-2fa-reset).

Notes: This applies to a large batch of tickets from the FTX settlement period. Verify current status before closing — if the customer still cannot access their account, proceed with the standard manual 2FA reset flow.

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