Consumer complaint received 2023-05-14
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: MA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Money was not available when promised

Complaint:
This complaint against Coinbase Inc. results from a fraud/scam and the Company 's non-reimbursement to date of the lost {$6800.00} under my Account Protection Plan and other issues. The facts and claims follow : Subject : Coinbase Case XXXX XXXXXXXX Fraud/scamming report After discarding my XXXX for a new one in XXXX, I spent several days trying without success to access my Coinbase ( CB ) account. Unable to find a Customer Help telephone number on the CB website, I discovered the phone number XXXX for CB Customer Help on the XXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called that number and spoke to a " XXXX XXXX '' who identified himself as a CB employee who could help restore access to my blocked account. As with services such as XXXX XXXX, he asked for and received remote access to my account. Over the next several days he and his colleagues " XXXX '' and " XXXX XXXX '' spent countless hours up to and including XX/XX/XXXX, purportedly attempting to repair my authenticator connection and restore access to my CB account. In that process they ( or possibly someone else ) withdrew from my XXXX XXXX XXXX  ( XXXX ) checking account without my knowledge or consent and transferred into my Coinbase account the sum of {$2000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and {$3000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. On that latter date, " XXXX '' tried to persuade me to authorize a transfer from my XXXX account to CB the sum of {$25000.00} ( which he promised would be promptly returned to my checking account ). His stated purpose was to use that transfer as a " decoy '' to catch a hacker, who he said was hacking my account. At that point, I realized that the three " CB officers '' were in fact fraudulent hackers and scammers. In speaking with a real CB Customer Help officer ( XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX ( I only found her telephone number through a long series of chats the night before on the CB website ), I learned that the sum of {$6800.00} ( the entire amount of my CB holdings ) had been withdrawn without my knowledge or consent from my CB account and transferred to an unknown wallet. 
During the 7 or so days that the fake CB employees were " trying to restore my account, '' they made numerous calls to me from their phones as follows : XXXX : XXXX XXXX ( XXXX, NJ ) XXXX : XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, FL ) XXXX : XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX, FL ) In the days following XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX has made many calls to my home from telephone number XXXX apologizing for my loss and offering to help me recover it. I refused to engage him in conversation. 
Further to the incident description above, Coinbase has : 1. Blocked my account, claiming that I owe the company {$5000.00} for what they call " excess balance '' and " reverse bank transaction. '' 2. During the two months since my claim for reimbursement, the Coinbase Account Protection Plan for which I am billed {$29.00} per month, has neither reimbursed me for the $ XXXX that I lost in the fraud/scam nor confirmed that it will reimburse that sum within a reasonable time 3. Without my permission and consent, Coinbase has made successive withdrawals from my account towards paying the {$5000.00} that they say I owe, leaving me with only XXXX cents in the account. 

4. Coinbase charged me the {$29.00} Coinbase One membership fee ( which provides transaction fee discounts and account protection ) to my XXXX  bank account during XXXX and XXXX, when I had no access to my account. 

Accordingly, I demand : 1. Reimbursement of my loss ( $ XXXX ) under the Coinbase Account Protection Plan to which I am entitled under Coinbase One membership. 

2. Retraction of Coinbase 's illegitimate demand that I pay them the {$5000.00} ( less the amount of {$1.00} that they withdrew from my account with consent ). 

3. Reimbursement of {$89.00} the amount they have charged me for Coinbase One membership during the three months that my account has been blocked. 

Summary Coinbase Inc. has not paid the amount of my fraud/scam loss of {$6800.00} ( which is covered by my Coinbase One Account Protection Plan ) ; it has taken funds from my Coinbase account without my consent ; it is alleging that I, victim of the fraud/scam must pay {$5000.00} ( less the amount taken from my account ) on the unsupported grounds of " reverse bank transfer '' and " excess balance ; it has blocked my account since XX/XX/XXXX, the date of my reported fraud/scam ; it has continued to bill me for the {$29.00} monthly fee despite my lack of access to any of the benefits of that subscription ; it has cost me the historical gains of the coins held in my account ; and it has deprived me of the profits I could have made given the substantial increase in bitcoin value ; and it has cost me ( age XXXX ) severe mental distress over the past two plus months ( which is continuing ). 
Given the facts of the fraud/scam, it appears that the criminals may have had some attachment to Coinbase or its employee ( s ) in order to obtain access to my account. I could not have given anyone access to my account because I had no access to it myself. After the California State Attorney General 's office notified Coinbase of my complaint, the Company blocked my telephone access to both the Coinbase Customer Service and Security phones. Also, after I reported the scam/fraud on XX/XX/XXXX, Coinbase changed its fraudulent telephone number on XXXX to a correct one.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation