Consumer complaint received 2024-05-01
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: ROBINHOOD MARKETS INC. (AZ)

XXXX was closing its crypto division on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I tried to transfer my cryptocurrency ( XXXX Bitcoin and XXXX Ethereum ) from my XXXX account to my Robinhood account. It was not going smoothly, so I called XXXX for further guidance. They explained that an attempt had been made on their end, so there must be some glitch on the Robinhood end of the transaction. I looked up the Robinhood Customer Information number on the internet and called. The customer service representative had an XXXX accent. He told me that he could help me, but I would have to download the app XXXX so he could access my phone. I told him this felt suspicious, and I wasn't comfortable with it. He explained that Robinhood requires the XXXX app for phone assistance. I told him that it felt like a scam, then he reminded me that I was the one who called him. He told me there were other ways to receive help from Robinhood : email or through the Robinhood chat feature. I accessed the Robinhood app on my phone and found a different Robinhood contact number there. I called the Robinhood contact number listed on the app and was connected with a different customer service agent who also had an XXXX accent. I requested someone who specialized in crypto currency, and he transferred my call to a Crypto Specialist named XXXX. XXXX also had an XXXX accent. XXXX gave me the same instructions to download the XXXX app. This time I followed the Robinhood customer service representatives instructions. He explained that he was a crypto specialist and was able to see that someone else had been working on my case earlier that day. I explained that I had difficulty getting money to transfer, so he spent several minutes trying to figure out why it wasnt going through. He texted me an address to have XXXX send the cryptos to because they may be having trouble with the QR code. He said there was something weird going on with the Robinhood app, and they were expecting a system update soon. Until then he recommended that I convert all my Alt Coins to Ethereum to help their system. He told me if the money did not show up within the next couple of days, I could call him with any further questions. The direct number he gave me was XXXX XXXX. The cell phone number where we texted was XXXX. After two days of not seeing any of the crypto currency transferred into my Robinhood account, I reached out to XXXX again on XX/XX/XXXX, the day they were closing the crypto branch. I let them know that Robinhood was having some trouble, but they said I should expect to see the crypto transfer by now. They explained that they were now able to transfer the money, and all of the Ethereum appears to have been successfully sent that day according to my XXXX documents. However, I was never able to see the transfer received in my Robinhood account. I reached out to XXXX the following week on XX/XX/XXXX. I asked him if he could see any of the crypto transfer, and he explained that he was able to see the Ethereum but not the Bitcoin. I asked him why I could not see the Ethereum, and he explained that it might have to do with me having another crypto account elsewhere. I told him that I didnt understand why that would affect the ability to transfer cryptos from one account to another. He agreed that it was unlikely, but stated it might be a possibility. He explained that another reason might be because there was an upcoming update in XXXX. He could see the Ethereum but I couldnt until the update happened. He wondered why the Bitcoin wasnt visible to him, and he requested I reach out to XXXX again. I did, and they again tried to send the XXXX Bitcoins. XXXX was informed, but he reported not being able to see the transfer. XXXX requested that I have the Bitcoins sent one at a time. While reviewing the XXXX documents, it appears that each individual Bitcoin was sent separately. I was unable to see the transfer in my Robinhood account. XXXX was contacted fairly regularly. On XX/XX/XXXX he again explained that possibly the reason that I wasn't able to see it was because I had a XXXX account for approximately {$8500.00}. He recommended that I open a wallet and transfer to the coin base money to my coin base wallet. I did as requested. The next day I still did not see any change in my Robin Hood account, so he had me open a Robinhood wallet and changed the money from the XXXX wallet over to the Robinhood wallet. I asked why I'm still not able to see any changes, so after several days of us trying to figure out what was going on, he suggested that i transfer all the money out of my Robinhood account and put it in my Robinhood wallet. This took several days because there was a {$5000.00} transfer limit per day. At that point I had approximately {$50000.00} in my main account. All the money was transferred over, and I still didnt see any of the money from the XXXX account. After a few days of working with XXXX trying to figure out why the money wasnt visible on my end, he asked if I had any more money in cryptos anywhere else. I said that I did in my Bitcoin IRA. He asked me to see it on the XXXX app. I opened it up, and he asked me to make sure to send it to the Robinhood app, too. I told him that Robinhood does not yet have an IRA where you can purchase bitcoins, and he affirmed that they did. I corrected him, letting him know that they only do the Bitcoin ETF 's, but not the actual bitcoins. He wanted to argue this with me, and I told him that I would double check and get back to him the next day. He called me the following day and asked if I could get on XXXX again and we would walk through the transfer process together for Bitcoin IRA to Robinhood. I told him that I wasnt going to get on AnyDesk again and we were not going to touch my IRA. I then called Robinhood to let them know they had experienced a security breach and I had been scammed. Robinhood was contacted several times over the course of a week, from XX/XX/XXXX to XXXX. They sent me an email on XX/XX/XXXX saying they were not responsible for my loss and they were closing my case without any compensation. I reached out to them several more times, explaining that I acted in good faith that the phone number on their app was staffed by a Robinhood representative, resulting in the loss of my money. They responded by writing me two additional denial letters, one on XX/XX/XXXX and the other on XX/XX/XXXX.