Date Received: 2023-07-03
Issue: Fraud or scam
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Beloved, I ask you to get in touch soon. It is a very serious fraud from Coinbase towards me. I am at my wits end and have lost all my money due to Coinbase Fraud. Despite hard and serious facts, it is difficult for the police here in the XXXX to take action. My name is XXXX XXXX and I live in the XXXX. At the beginning of XXXX I met someone named XXXX. She advised me to invest in Coinbase. She said it was safe and easy. It started with small amounts until she started talking about Staking. After a deposit of XXXX USDT, both the customer service and this XXXX indicated to me that I had to deposit a minimum of XXXX USDT or I would lose my bet. After again transferring over XXXXUSDT to Coinbase Wallet, it was noticed that my money was being passed through Coinbase Wallet XXXX ( XXXX ) unsolicited. However, it didn't stop. Again I had to pay 20 % Tax to claim back the deposited money. However, this was sent to an external Wallet, but again from Coinbase Wallet. Then came the real blow and this is where the scam begins. Now, before XX/XX/XXXX, I have to verify exactly the deposited money of over XXXX USDT and verify my account with Coinbase Wallet otherwise I will lose everything. I would like to ask you to help me with this and recover my Money which was simply stolen by Coinbase. The police department consider Coinbase, XXXX and this XXXX works together. Coinbase paid this XXXX to get in touch with people and invest in Coinbase and after while then begins the Fraud.
Company Response:
State:
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-03
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-02
Issue: Other transaction problem
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Hello CFPB, All my XXXX were drained out of my Coinbase account. Some in XXXX XXXX and the rest in XX/XX/XXXX. I have been holding these for the long term and did not log on my account for over a year. I would like to obtain some help from your office regarding this case. Coinbase is not helping me so I contacted some attorneys but they do not want to take my case which is about {$35000.00} loss as they only take cases for loss greater than {$50000.00}. Also, small claims court only take cases below {$10000.00}. So, I am in a limbo as I can not get help from either side. I am hoping XXXX can apply some pressure on Coinbase to recover the lost Cryptos that I had entrusted to them for safe-keeping and was holding them for my retirement years, as I am already over 68 years of age. Coinbase asked me to check with my wireless provider to see if my phone was hacked. My wireless company ( XXXX XXXX ) has no record of my cell phone being hacked. Is there any government agency that would help smaller investors like me from getting ripped off by shady operations like Coinbase? Thanks and regards, XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, CA XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 95014
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-08-07
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-06-30
Issue: Wrong amount charged or received
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: On XX/XX/2022 at XXXX XXXX XXXX, an amount of XXXX XXXX was sent to my Coinbase account. The address to receive XXXX ( on the XXXX XXXX ) for my Coinbase account was XXXX. As you can see on the XXXX XXXX, wallet address XXXX, which is controlled and managed by Coinbase Inc., received the XXXX XXXX. The confirmation is here : XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX However, the XXXX XXXX has never been reflected in my Coinbase account. It has been six full months of attempts to work with Coinbase 's customer service ( Coinbase case XXXX XXXXXXXX ), including many emails and phone calls. They have acknowledged there is a problem on their end and they have promised they are looking to resolve it. However, after six months of working hard to recover my assets, they have still addressed that it will be resolved and my balance still shows XXXX in my Coinbase account. I do not know why they refuse to resolve the situation. Only Coinbase Inc. controls that wallet and the funds were correctly deposited to that wallet, which was the XXXX receiving address for my Coinbase account. I appreciate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 's support in receiving my lost funds.
Company Response:
State: PR
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-06-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-01
Issue: Other service problem
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: My account with Coinbase has been blocked by them since XX/XX/2023. I tried multiple times to talk with customer service, and their typical response was that the support team was reviewing the account. I have approximately {$2300.00} in crypto currency in their custody and they will not re-instate my access nor refund my funds. I even twitted to the CEO of the company in an attempt to get this issue resolved.
Company Response:
State: TX
Zip: 75081
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-01
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-06-27
Issue: Fraud or scam
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: By XX/XX/2023. I transferred total of USD {$17000.00} from my bank to my Coinbase account for investment in cryptocurrency. - XX/XX/2023 : {$10000.00} - XX/XX/2023 : {$1000.00} - XX/XX/2023 : {$6000.00} Scammers have used professional site like XXXX and social media like XXXX and XXXX to make friend then to approach their schemes. Overtime, I interacted with multiple individuals and they were affiliated with different entities. Scammers presented investment opportunity with cryptocurrencies. The investment would be safe through these exchanges. They preferred and suggested Coinbase. The fund transferring can be done from personal bank to Coinbase, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, via wire transfer and ACH. Coinbase can send cryptocurrency funds to other exchanges ( centralized or decentralized exchanges ). I trusted Coinbase to handle the authentication in all transfers for both sending to and receiving funds from other exchanges. Coinbase have had all records for each transaction and would have known the identity of these exchanges overtime if Coinbase has followed SEC regulations. I relied on Coinbase for my investment protection and can collaborate with authorities to retrieve the lost fund from the fraudulent exchanges. At that time I didn't realized that Coinbase didn't register to SEC until the news came out on XX/XX/2023 that SEC sued Coinbase related to this issue. The investment opportunities were presented with high yield interest up to 20 % ( or higher ) and safe trading methods including spot and future contract trading. I have been given access to register, to open my account to deposit funds, to trade, to track my assets and profits on the trading apps running on my phone in either standalone mode or in web browser. I have done a small amount of fund transfer for my account transaction test on each entity and to allow Coinbase to detect any issue and to inform me. This also helped Coinbase to retain the records of the cryptocurrency transaction addresses. The initial test transactions with small funds were no problems. These successful transactions encouraged me to continue sending investment funds to the trading exchanges. The reason I have a few exchanges is to diversify funds to prevent total lost at once. However, when my fund amount including the profits are higher than the original funds in my accounts, I couldnt withdraw my funds. They kept my account frozen. I tried to contact via calls and online, but they didnt respond after few auto replies. Couple exchanges asked for adding more funds to allow unfreezing my accounts. This was a ransom type trick for more lost. I realized the fraudulent acts from these exchanges since then. I also contacted Coinbase to retrieve the funds after providing the evident of the fraudulent info. Coinbase refused the responsibility for transaction tracking and ability to identity the fraudulent exchanges to recover the lost. Coinbase also locked my access to the transfer and withdrawal functions in my account. From the information disclosed by news about Coinbase sued by SEC. I was shocked to know that Coinbase did not meet some critical requirements from SEC. I wouldnt lose or at least can recover my lost if Coinbase complied to SEC requirements. This could have allowed fraudulent exchanges to exploit the Coinbase issues to continue scamming investors in cryptocurrency investments.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 91307
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-06-27
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-06-25
Issue: Fraud or scam
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Please investigate Coinbase. They have told me i cant get access to my personal account and withdraw cash for 1 MONTH as part of their customer support and security policy. This involves interactions with Coinbase Customer Support phone and email services from XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX. I have been locked out of my account. I have provided the information requested to validate my account multiple times which is the last XXXX digits of my social, a photo of my drivers license, and a photo of my self to match to my drivers license both online and while on the phone with a Coinbase agent. In my first interaction the agent told me it was approved and to look out for an email telling me how to regain access to my account ( i found it odd they couldnt unlock the account - or give me access after resolving the issue with me on the phone as other FS companies do ). None-the-less, I went through the steps they suggested in the email, and it locked me out again. The last agent i spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX told me that i had been locked out of my account for security reasons and they would not be able to review my account for XXXX month. Given this is an account with my cash as well as securities that change value day to day, and I want to get cash out, this is not acceptable. There is no credible financial services institution in the world that would tell a customer they cant get access to their account for 1 month due to security protocols, or have it as a part of the customer service policy. My concern is that they are defrauding customers, and that my $ arent really in my account at this point. Please investigate Coinbase.
Company Response:
State: IL
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-06-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-06-24
Issue: Confusing or missing disclosures
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I tried to transfer {$200.00} with Coinbase. This has resulted in a hold on my bank account and the funds are not available through them. I asked them to refund the Interchange fees. They refused and were quite degrading.
Company Response:
State: IL
Zip: 60640
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-06-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-06-23
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Subissue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card
Consumer Complaint: I have a Coinbase VISA Card that is connected to my trading account. I used my Coinbase card only one time on XX/XX/XXXX, just to see if it works and activated it. Then I put the card in my safe and didn't want to use it because XXXX lost so much value. On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email saying a transaction was declined. I'd never received an email like this so I went into the account to see what is going on. To my horror, I saw there were over 50 charges to this card in other countries, mostly the XXXX. I immediately contacted Coinbase Global Inc. I was told that they are unable to assist me because they only investigate transactions that fall in the last 120 days. Interestingly enough all the transactions that fell in the 120-day period were either declined or refunded. Refunds were made to amounts that weren't even charged. So I have no idea what the refunds were for. I then when to my local law enforcement to report it. They looked through the statement and also agreed that it was very suspicious what was going on. Upon further investigation the found that all the transactions were from other countries that I'd never even been to. But at this point, their hands were tied because they do not have jurisdiction in these countries. I wrote a complaint to Coinbase and yet again they refuse to look into the situation. I then wrote to the SEC and they suggested I report this to the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) for further assistance. I could supply the statement for my card to you if needed. This is very suspicious to me and law enforcement and we believe that Coinbase might sell card info to criminals or they are using the info themself. I would really appreciate your help in this regard and if you can investigate Coinbase. Thank you XXXX XXXX XXXX
Company Response:
State: SD
Zip: 57401
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-08-03
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-06-23
Issue: Money was not available when promised
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Coinbase closed my account for a " violation of Terms of Service ''. I tried to appeal because I strongly believe I did not do any actions which violated their Terms of Service. They will not provide support to hear my appeal or work with me to understand their reason for this accusation. I believe this account closure was unfair and wrong. Not only that, but they send me an email that my account is closed but to " sign in to your Coinbase account to send any remaining balance offsite to an external address ''. However, when I try to sign in, I get an error saying that my account is closed and I can not access anything. I've attempted to reach out many, many times to their support but they mostly provide bots or agents who can not actually help. All of my savings are in this account so I am now dealing with incredible financial hardship since Coinbase will not work to get me access to my funds.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 90505
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-06-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-06-23
Issue: Fraud or scam
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I was approached on XXXX by a name claiming he was romantically interested in me and also wanted to teach me how to trade cryptocurrency. He was very persistent, forceful and manipulative. He pushed me to wire transfer large portions of my savings to coinbase where he then instructed me to send those funds to an address where I could then use my investment to trade on a fake version of XXXX called XXXX. He even showed me how I could transfer my funds back to coinbase to assure me that the process was safe and legitimate. I have screenshots of many of these and his XXXX is still in use. The handle is @ XXXX
Company Response:
State: MD
Zip: 20853
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-06-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A