Consumer complaint received 2021-02-04
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: VA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
At approximately XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I logged into my Coinbase account from my laptop to download my XXXX tax records. I use my Coinbase phone app frequently to view my cryptocurrency balances, and to occasionally execute cryptocurrency transactions. I rarely use my laptop to access Coinbase, except for activities like downloading transactions for tax records. As expected, when I supplied my Coinbase userid/password to my laptop, Coinbase prompted me for XXXX XXXX authentication, asking me to provide the code from my phone 's XXXX XXXX app to the laptop browser. As soon as I authorized my laptop using XXXX XXXX authentication by verifying the 6-digit code on my phone to confirm that my laptop was authorized to access my account, I noticed my Coinbase balance shown on my laptop was {$9000.00} instead of {$610000.00} which was still shown on the Coinbase app on my phone. I thought that was odd, but assumed that perhaps I was seeing the price of some coin, or the amount of a transaction, rather than my balance. Since my phone still showed $ XXXX, I moved on to my task at hand, downloading my tax transactions from Coinbase on my laptop. I clicked on the tax documents area. While I worked to figure out where and how to download tax documents ( I hadn't done it in a year ), I began receiving emails from Coinbase that " My ETH was now available. '' I received seven of those emails from Coinbase, and four more which said that I had " just sent ETH. '' I read the emails and realized that these transactions had all happened within minutes ( between XXXX and XXXX ), and I had not initiated any of them. I was still trying to download tax documents during that period. I then frantically attempted to contact Coinbase, only to see that all they have is an electronic service that lets you report your account if it's compromised, and they will freeze it, which I did. Now I no longer have access to my account, since it's frozen and when I attempt to recover it, the Coinbase message says " We have received your account recovery request. After reviewing it, your account changes should be active within 48-72 hours. '' I have logged a case with Coinbase case XXXX in their online reporting facility. 
In reviewing the Coinbase confirmation emails in detail, the thieves converted all my USD $ and other coins into ETH, then made four transfers of ETH out of my account to a single wallet ; the recipient address is shown in these messages : XXXX " You have successfully sent XXXX ETH to XXXX '' XXXX " You have successfully sent XXXX ETH to XXXX '' XXXX " You have successfully sent XXXX ETH to XXXX '' XXXX " You have successfully sent XXXX ETH to XXXX '' I have worked in technology since XXXX and have been a software developer and database expert, among other roles. I protect my passwords and devices using best practices and tools. 

This is likely to affect many more people, now that they've mastered how to do this, and now that they've been rewarded with over $ 600k in stolen funds. 

I am looking for cooperation and responsiveness from Coinbase, since it's fairly obvious that the Coinbase platform has been compromised.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation