Consumer complaint received 2025-11-04 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
This is a very traumatizing situation that just occurred a few days ago on Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX ( which is the same day as my first born daughters XXXX birthday ). It is regarding my life savings/ long term investment I had invested in crypto stocks on the Coinbase app. This money was my investment to help fund my childrens college education. 
It all started when I was having problems viewing my current shares previously purchase on my Coinbase app on my XXXX phone. I chatted with the coinbase AI help on the app for assistance but I didnt have any luck so I looked for a phone number on the app info to talk to a live person and didnt have any luck. Im not to tech savvy/ Im more old school. Im a local painter working hard in the field putting in long days/nights and weekends away from my family desperately trying to provide a brighter future for my family and children. My daughter is a first generation university student. I didnt have any luck finding a phone number to talk to a live person so I googled Coinbase.com and the first results that came up was a coinbase add and it included a customer support phone number. I clicked the customer support button which dialed the number displayed XXXX and spoke to an operator who answered with a coinbase introduction. The person/man I spoke to had an XXXX anccent. I explained my situation to him letting him that I was not able to see my information on the Coinbase app. He told me he was going to transfer me to the recovery department and a female XXXX voice got on the phone ( her number was ( XXXX ). She told me that she would be able to walk me through the steps to recover my account. She told me she needed me to download an app so that she can view my screen to walk me through the steps. ( Earlier that day when I tried speaking with the Coinbase app AI assistant I was told to send a screenshot of my screen so that they could better assist me. XXXX told me to delete any orders that I had on my app to fix the problem so I did and they mentioned that would take care of the problem. I was at the XXXX airport at this time ( XXXX ) I then boarded a plane with my daughter who turned XXXX XXXX XXXX that day. We were taking a trip for her XXXX birthday to XXXX XXXX Texas. 
When I finally landed and got settled in I decided to check the Coinbase app to see if the account had then been corrected so that I could view my investments. I noticed that the stocks I had invested in were turning a profit and I was highly considering pulling my money out to pay for some college tuition fees and put some money down on a real estate investment ( tangible investment ) When I checked the app I noticed that I still was unable to view any information on my investments so I decided to look into Coinbase a little further and find some contact information to talk to a live customer support.The customer support asked me when the last time was that I invested into the account and I replied with XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX. On those 2 days I made a new purchase transaction for more official XXXX XXXX shares in the total amount of {$6500.00}. One transaction I for the amount of {$2500.00}, {$2500.00}, and {$2000.00}. 

When ever the first so called Coinbase representative gentlemen I spoke to transferred me to the Coinbase recovery department the women I spoke to asked me to download and app called any viewer on my phone so that she could walk me through the process. She also asked if I had another device present. I didnt but my daughter who was right next to me did. She had her college laptop present. She then asked me to go to screenme.com on my daughters laptop device and she literally took over both of my screens controlling my daughters laptop screen and my phone. I noticed my daughters laptop screen was blank/black all I saw was a mouse moving around the screen and codes being entered. She started typing in some letters and numbers and asked me to enter some capitol letters assisting her with the codes she entered. After each code she entered she asked me to go back to my Coinbase wallet. 
I was on the phone with her for over an hour. I felt it was taking a long time so I asked her how much longer it would take, she said about XXXX more minutes. At the end of the conversation she said we were just about done, that all I needed to do was to upload my photo I.D . ( Both sides ) and take portrait/profile XXXX degree photo. As soon as that was completed the phone hung up. I immediately felt then and there that I had just been scammed by how fast she hung up on me. I called the phone number back and she answered the phone as if I were a new caller. She answered and said hello, I said I was just talking to you and you hung up. She said yes this is XXXX, she said she will call me back in XXXX hours once the Coinbase app verifies my identity. ( When she answered the phone this time she did not mention anything about Coinbase, it was very awkward ) I told her I feel like this is weird/a scam and she said no sir, this is not a scam, that it is just how the process works and that she would not be trying to help me if this was a scam. She said you reached out to us sir, for our assistance and thats what are providing and then hung up again. I immediately called my wife and explained the situation to her. My wife looked up Coinbase on her phone and sent me a screenshot of there customer support number. I hung up with my wife and called the number she gave me and spoke to a representative. I told them the situation and they told me, not to worry sir, they said they see my money is untouched and safe, that it is still there. I pleaded with them and told them to please put a lock on my account and do not let any transactions to happen with my account, that I do not want any funds being moved/sold/or traded. They assured me that my account is locked and they will not allow any transactions to occur. I told them that this is my life savings and if anyone tries to make any transactions that it is fraudulent. They said I had nothing to worry about. I definitely felt some relief. I then hung up with the Coinbase representative and called my wife back and my wife said that she looked up my online banking account and noticed that there was a {$5000.00} transaction and had asked me if I had purchased {$5000.00} more dollars worth of stocks today an md I told her no I did not. She said well somebody did because {$5000.00} had just been deducted from my account. I immediately hung up with my wife and called the chase bank phone number on the back of my bank card and told them that I noticed there was a {$5000.00} deduction on my account. I told them that was not me that made that purchase. They noted my account and told me they do see and believe that it was a fraudulent transaction. Luckily they were able to catch the transaction and they told me that the {$5000.00} will be put back into my account by the next business day which it was. 
I then called Coinbase back in panicked and told them that I had already been promised that my account was locked and that no money should be able to be moved around or withdrawn. They told me that my money is still there, that it had not been touched and I have nothing to worry about. I told them about the {$5000.00} purchase of new stocks that I did not make. I told them I believed somebody was scamming me and trying to pull my money out of my account. 
I told him how could there be a {$5000.00} purchase if more stocks if my account had already been locked and he said that it doesnt appear that the person I previously spoke to actually locked my account. He said, hold on a second sir I do see some activity in your account today. He said he saw XXXX transactions, XXXX for {$31000.00}, XXXX for {$8500.00}, and another for {$5000.00}. He said the money had been withdrawn and it is gone. I told him that shouldnt be possible as I was assured on a recorded line that my account would be locked and that my money was still there intact. He said it is fine and there is nothing they can do for me, and there is nothing I can do to reverse the transaction. My heart literally dropped as I broke down in tears in front of my daughter on her XXXX birthday pleading with the Coinbase representative to please put a hold on the transaction or reverse it. I told him to please let me speak to his supervisor or someone above him. He said there is no point as there is nothing they can do for me since I am the one who gave the ( fake Coinbase representatives my information ) I had never been through a similar situation like this before and since I am the one who typed in Coinbase.com to XXXX search and dialed the phone number listed - since I reached out to them I did not think in a XXXX years that these individuals were scam artists and that I was actually being scammed. I thought situations like this only occurred when scammers reached out to you. These scammer were totally quick, ready, and sophisticated. 

The next morningI went to the nearest XXXXXXXX XXXX and pulled the rest of my money out of my account. 
I changed all of the passwords on my phone and daughters laptop. I called and had all my credit cards replaced with new card numbers. I went to the police station to file a complaint. It totally ruined which should have been a great XXXX birthday weekend. I tried to make the best of it and not take away my daughters fun but I had beat myself up mentally all weekend. I literally have been waking up each night in cold sweats and bad dreams. I literally did not get to treat my daughter to the weekend she deserved which makes me feel so guilty. I have bills, XXXX XXXX tuitions, and investments now at risk. I am scared to even answer my phone or recieve emails/ text messages now do this crazy life changing situation. I have since contacted the fbi and filed a complaint since I am not able to speak to a live person there either due to everything these days needing to be filed online. I want to bring awareness to all hardworking legitimate people investing in there familys futures and retirements so that they do not go through similar horrible experiences like I have. Coinbase emailed me and told me they pinged the scammers address to the city of XXXX California. It was so hard to finally recover my Coinbase account and when I did I noticed another transaction of the last stock I owned in the amount of {$3100.00} missing and now the app says I am over drawn and now owe them {$1900.00} now putting me in debt as of XX/XX/XXXX. I know its a very long shot but I am in search of a lawyer to help me take action and possibly sue Coinbase and the scammers that literally robbed my and family and I of my childrens college education/future retirement/and peace of mind.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation