Consumer complaint received 2020-10-05
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: GA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
XXXX by XXXX allowed my phone number to be reassigned to a different device in the middle of night and reverted it back to my original sim about 25 minutes later. My security on the account is a PIN - which was bypassed. As the fraudster now could get my text messages, they were able to click 'forget password ' on my CoinBase accounts and get the text verification codes to steal all my alt currency. Description of events below : Approx. XXXX ET on XX/XX/XXXX, my phone showed a " no sim card '' 'error ' and I called XXXX from my home phone. A few minutes into the rep looking to see what was going on, service was restored. 

Approx. XXXX ET on XX/XX/XXXX, my phone once again showed a " no sim card '' 'error ' and I called XXXX again from my home phone. The CS rep asked if I had possession of my phone - which I did - and she suggested taking the sim card out and reinserting it. That seemed to have worked. 

Approximately XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, I received 2 texts from XXXX that my autopayment of {$15.00} was successful. 

Immediately I called XXXX again to asked what charges were for. I was asked if I had just been in a store switching devices. I let rep know that NO, NOT ME. The rep said something looked 'odd ' or 'wrong ' as my PIN seemed to have been bypassed. They suggested I go to a local store to see if the change was in person and which store. That phone reps can't tell me, but a store could look it up. 

Meantime, I realized something was wrong and logged into my CoinBase accounts. Passwords were not correct and I had to reset them. Upon resetting, I logged in to find all my alt currency stolen!! As well, they transferred $ XXXX from my XXXX account ( CoinBase limit ) to buy more and then move to their account. 

I immediately contacted CoinBase to tell them fraud, but they don't have a person to talk to. The support number disabled my accounts. So I then emailed support. 

CoinBase responded it did appear fraudulent and they would investigate, but my money is gone. To unlock my account I needed to reset password again. ( Since I had no more money, why would I do that!? ). 

I ended up calling XXXX customer service at least one other time after I found the fraud and another agent confirmed something was strange as my PIN was bypassed to make the switch as well as my PIN appears to have been changed. 

I filed complaints with FCC, FTC, and IC3. I also filed a police report. 

XXXX was able to recover my $ XXXX. 

CoinBase refuses to reimburse stolen crypto. 

I went to a local XXXX store who looked up my account. They also said something was strange as my device was moved to an XXXX ( or XXXX  ) and looked like was done without ID verification. Then shortly thereafter moved back. 

After my FCC complaint, XXXX XXXX with XXXXXXXX XXXX office of the President reached out to me. She was not very helpful and just said they have their own legal team to investigate how this happened, etc. This team at XXXX  is known as XXXX. 

The detective on my case reached out to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX seemed to be cooperative and told him they'd keep him posted. However, as soon as they conducted an internal investigation, they stopped cooperating with local law enforcement. 
Detective XXXX then filed a search warrant about 5 weeks ago, and XXXX has not responded. Nor will they return his calls. 

XXXX 's response to the FCC was not helpful, but does seem to incriminate them a bit as they said, " on XX/XX/2020 at approx. XXXX PDT the sim card assigned to her line of service ending in XXXX was changed '' They then say, " It is important to note, as of XX/XX/2020, at approx. XXXX PDT reverted the SIM card on the line of service ending in XXXX ... ..letter to FCC that she XXXX not authorize or request the sim change '' XXXX XXXX  letter also states, " if necessary, XXXX  by XXXX will fully cooperate with any investigation undertaken by local law enforcement ... '' NOTE : They no longer return detectives calls nor have they responded to search warrant filed about 5 weeks ago. 

NOTES : I called CS 2x couple hours before they made the change complaining my phone wasn't working and I had a sim card error. I made it clear that I needed THAT phone ( with original sim card ) to be working. 
This should have been a red flag to BOTH CS reps. It was not until about 4.5 hours later my number was reassigned so proof it wasn't me. 

AND, why would XXXX revert the sim card back?? This doesn't say I ( or the person pretending to be me ) requested the change, rather that XXXX reverted it back. Did they know this was fraud and failed to tell me? 

As a result of XXXX  allowing my phone number to be reassigned to a different device in middle of night - and after I already called CS TWICE that I was getting 'no sim card '  errors, fraudsters were able to click 'forget password ' to then get verification texts on my CoinBase accounts and reset passwords and remember that device, etc. 

As a result of XXXXXXXX XXXX error of allowing my phone number to be moved for around 25 min in the middle of the night AFTER I alerted them of sim card errors, I'm out around {$6000.00} - {$10000.00}. As the price of crypto currencies vary, the value of loss varies. 

CoinBase confirmed seemed fraudulent and refuses to reimburse my crypto. 

As well, CoinBase confirmed my accounts were locked, yet they provided a breakdown of transactions to Detective XXXX AND COINBASE ALLOWED TRANSACTIONS AFTER ACCOUNTS WERE LOCKED! The fraudsters likely have the wallet IDs, but wallet is locked, NO TRANSACTIONS should be allowed. Heck, even I, the owner, can not access. Yes, I did reset the passwords on XX/XX/XXXX and changed from text verifications to XXXX Authenticator, but asked the accounts to remain locked. 

CoinBase confirmed via email that my accounts are locked. They have NOT responded to my questions of how is there activity post account lock. 

This complaint is against both XXXX and CoinBase. 

Important to note that a few weeks prior to this, XXXX had a nationwide outage that they claim was router related I think. I believe they were hacked and all customers information was hacked as well, but that they will not admit this is the case. The only way my sim card info with email address and phone number could get in wrong hands is if they have internal fraud or were hacked and FAILED to alert consumers. 

As XXXX is NOT cooperating with local law enforcement after their internal investigation, I suspect a cover up of wrong doing. And one that cost me, and maybe others money. 

I would advise any person with XXXX or XXXX who had any ID theft or bank/crypto fraud after their nationwide outage to call them to ask if their number was temporarily reassigned to another device around the time of fraud. 

Any help in recovering lost crypto funds is appreciated! And any help holding XXXX liable is also appreciated!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation