Recently I came into some crypto money and I wanted to exchange it. As I was new to this, I made some experiments and learned by trial and error.

First I tried Yobit. I have deposited a small amount of money to the address they gave me. Etherscan showed many block confirmations within minutes.

It's been more than two weeks now, and no sign of my money. Support doesn't respond. Looking back, not a big surprise given that it's a shady Russian site. They have a nice little show going, complete with live chat, but no substance.

Then I tried another site, Changelly. It looks legit with Forbes mentions and whatnot, but guess what? The outcome is exactly the same, only there was a response from support:

> We have forwarded your question to the technical department. They will investigate the matter and contact you as soon as possible. Once your issue is resolved, you will be informed!

That was two weeks ago and I followed with another email, radio silence this time. Investigating, I came across this post:

"I'm just gonna come out and say it - Minergate is associated with Bytecoin and is therefore a scam" https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/4bx1td/im_just_gonna_come_out_and_say_it_minergate_is/

Frankly, I have no idea what minergate was, I just know the outcome for me: money sent into the black hole.

After these two I wised up a bit and used ShapeShift (smooth sailing) and Bittrex (very anal but works).

To sum up, I suggest you learn from my mistake and use a reputable exchange.

P.S. There is an opportunity here for investigative journalists to test various exchanges anonymously with small amounts of money and see which are legit. I thinks it's currently Wild West / Jungle mode in the crypto ecosystem and so the public could use some transparency.