Consumer complaint received 2025-02-28 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: WA

Complaint narrative:
I was a victim of a " Coinbase Support '' scam on Monday, XX/XX/year>. It has been absolutely devastating. The total amount was {$26000.00} ( XXXX XXXX ). Admittedly I feel like an XXXX. I've never fallen victim to a scam. This scam built enough plausible believability over many months from alleged Coinbase voicemails indicating that suspicious activity was being detected on my Coinbase account. Not sure why I answered the phone on Monday, but they went through the automated to professional " all American '' sounding patient representative process that typically happens. Again, it felt plausible because at this point I'm thinking " well XXXX clearly my email/ # is leaked if Coinbase is contacting me about suspicious attempts to my account. '' For reference, the number they called from was XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I now know that official Coinbase support comes from a XXXX XXXX number beginning with XXXX and that Coinbase would never call you unprompted, even to alert you about " suspicious activity on your account. '' I was a victim of the XXXX leak last year where my airline miles were used by someone hacking into my account, so I was hyper vigilant and on alert about these " leaks '' and alleged " suspicious activity '' ( clearly in the worst non-vigilant way possible : / ) because of that. The " Coinbase security representative '' walked through all of the right steps, the elongated security process, the strong passwords, the multiple verifications, and ultimately the XXXX wallet exchange ( which made sense at the time because advice had been given to me to move my investment to a more secure wallet if suspicious activity was consistent, so my immediate thought was " great! 
Coinbase is on it '' : / ). Their " verification '' emails came from " coinbase.com '' domains. In retrospect there were probably signs, but as it was happening it " made sense. '' Again, I feel incredibly stupid. Perhaps I was having a bad week and was more vulnerable to duplicitous thievery? Not sure. Either way, this is the most money I've ever lost in my life and I am praying for some sort of recourse. I would like to assist with this investigation in any way I can. Do reach out if you need additional context or information. Ideally, I would love updates on general progress. I plan to reach out to my elected ocials and have made a complaint to the FBI 's Internet Complaint Center ( IC3 ) earlier today.

It would have been nice if Coinbase had a safeguard similar to other financial and banking institutions when someone is doing uncharacteristic activity such as transferring the entirety of their account! A simple " Are you sure you like to transfer all of your currency? Beware of scams. We would never call you about transferring your money '' that pops up when anyone conducts wire transfers with most banks would have gone a long way. This is the expectation for financial institutions. It is similar to what my bank did when I was in XXXX and needed to take money out of the ATM there. They blocked my attempt and immediately called me to verify that it was in fact me withdrawing money in a foreign country. Coinbase should be regulated and FDIC insured in the same way other financial institutions are. The fact that they are not and that they don't have these safeguards leaves their customers consistently targeted and vulnerable/susceptible to these sorts of devastating scams. If they're going to position themselves as the respectable and " safe '' crypto exchange, then they they should be held to the same standards as the traditional financial institutions.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation