Consumer complaint received 2017-09-01
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Coinbase, Inc. (IL)

On X/XX/17 I fell victim to a scam through a fake phone number claiming to be coinbase helpline, ( let me start back farther ... the reason I was trying to reach a helpline was because I had a needed to immediately transfer money for a payment, that is supposed to be a standard ability when using coinbase services, but was not being allowed to, and only receiving a message that said " something went wrong. Try again. '' over and over and over for an entire day. Jeopardizing a potential financial opportunity. So coinbase was violting my ability of commerce at that point, so I needed to immediately reach them to fix the problem. ) and my Coinbase account was bilked for a {$170.00}. As I looked into I found that approx. XXXX bitcoins ( around {$400000.00} in value at that point had been stolen from Coinbase customers through this same scam. I attempted to report this to Coinbase online, and through their phone number listed with the BBB. When you call that number you reach an answering machine they say is to report fraud. It tells you to leave a message and you will be contacted within 4 hours to deal with it. It also gives you an online address that it asks you to go to and report fraud through, which when you try takes you to nothing but a page of frequently asked questions, none of which actually even address fraud or how to handle it. So I leave a message about discovering this $ XXXX and also, asking someone to call me, also informing them that if it 's not stopped, the scammers set up a withdrawal from my bank which is going to overdraw me. No return call nothing. I leave another message later in the day, telling them someone must call me. Again explaining that their is an ongoing scam stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from their customers, and my bank is going to be overdrawn. Asing " do they not care? '' " why have n't they called? '' Nothing, not a reposnse. I have emailed, and left multiple messages attempting to explain things. Instead of responding, all they have done is lock me out of my account, while holding my funds from me, and refusing to respond in any manner. When I try to sign in it says contact support, which is again back to frequently asked questions or what they say is live chat, which is just a robot program giving you phrases from their frequently asked questions, and telling you, that you can email ( which also gets you a robotic reply, and tells you they are too busy and you may get a reponse days later ). All the time while keeping my account locked and my funds from me, for trying to report fraud, hoping tey might be concerned enough to actually try and stop it. now in the meantime, my bank has now been overdrawn by coinbase, and even the number listed that is given to the bank to call about charges is a fraudulent number that reaches no one and refers you to their " help page. '' Also if you look through even their own community discussions, this has happened to many, many, many others, an a daily basis. This is continual and ongoing fraudulent, potentially criminal behavior of which they are FULLY aware, and being informed about by many customers on a daily basis.