Consumer complaint received 2021-07-09
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: NY
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I wanted to report a cryptocurrency theft involving a Sim swap attack to your office that I became a victim of. On XX/XX/XXXX, I first observed loss of my cellular service around. I tried using my wife 's phone when she arrived home around to call XXXX and they told me that they could not locate my restore connection and failed to provide me any further information. I went to a local XXXX store where I was provided a new XXXX  sim card. Later that afternoon, I could not access my email and I also could not access my Coinbase investment account. I found that my Coinbase account balance was almost wiped out by a transaction to an unkown XXXX XXXX and lost originally invested XXXX $ ( of which approximately XXXX XXXX  were in the XXXX amount and rest were in various altcoins ). My bank account funds were impacted which was attached to Coinbase, however protected by XXXX due to a timely freeze on my account. 
After later recovering some emails from my deleted folder, I learnt that my email password was reset on XXXX XXXX at XX/XX/XXXX using my attached cell phone number. Coinbase password was reset on on XXXX XXXX which was immediately after the change of my email password. I tried to call Coinbase promptly to report and stop these transaction but they had no live agent support available and I only got a bot response on email. I had written them further emails about the unauthorized activity on the account and I have requested refund for the fraudulent activity that I have not conducted since their company claims to be FDIC insured and insured with cyber protection. I have received no response or outcome. 
This crypto loss has taken place due to poor cybersecurity measures of Coinbase which made my account vulnerable despite 2-factor authentication in place. Coinbase has deceptively and intentionally promoted itself as the most trusted cryptocurrency platform, while failing to take reasonable and state-mandated steps to prevent cyberattacks. Coinbase is bound to maintain stringent anti-hacking programs that monitor and filter transactions for potential violations of the Bank Secrecy Act ( BSA ) and anti-money laundering ( AML ) statutes ; and implement measures designed to effectively detect, prevent and timely respond to fraud. They have eliminated providing a live agent support without notifying long time customers ( including myself ). None of the customary cybersecurity systems were in place to prevent such a crime, my assets were stolen from his account by a hacker who used an IP address and equipment, from a location never before used by me and also to an unknown Crypto key previously not verified by me, especially after a fresh password reset. A proper cyber security algorithm should have stopped this transaction by a simple lock out of the account requiring additional verification like some of the other exchanges such as XXXX, especially after a recent password reset. They self-advertise as FDIC protected and should cover for my XXXX  loss since I never authorized to buy the cryptoholdings made by the hacker and I believe my crypto losses should be covered under fraud protection insurance due to poor cybersecurity measures with Coinbase. This is not first such event. Coinbase has been previously named in lawsuits of similar nature [ XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX  ]. There are thousands of other victims of theft loss reported on the internet including profiles like XXXX, XXXX and complaint channels such as XXXX 

I and my family already feel devastated by this financial loss and a security threat to our personal information resulting in possible identity theft. I would really appreciate your help to recover financial damages that we have sustained in this case due to poor cybersecurity measures of Coinbase. Given the high impact of identity theft and growing cybersecurity fraud, a disciplinary action is warranted to prevent other American households to become victims of such fraudulent activity. If a company with multibillion dollar revenue cant afford appropriate security measures on the accounts of its consumers and cant provide a live agent support, then there is definitely an intentional internal scam which this company is intentionally overlooking and may be facilitating such crimes in the name of so called scammers.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation