![]() ![]() “I went through all of the protocols they have in place,” he said.īen’s complaint isn’t unique. Another scan immediately following the unauthorized withdrawals also uncovered no threats, he said. He said Coinbase’s explanation that his funds were taken during a remote takeover of his computer seem puzzling because he used two-factor authentication to access his account, while running antivirus software on his desktop. ![]() Then came the devastating news: Coinbase said it was unable to reverse the transactions, attributed the loss to a “remote takeover” of his desktop computer, and advised him to report the matter to law enforcement. The rapid-fire transactions in Ben's case consolidated all of his virtual currencies - including bitcoin ( BTC), ethereum ( ETH-USD), litecoin ( LTC-USD), zcash ( ZEC-USD), augur ( REP-USD), stellar ( XLM-USD), dai (DAI), and chainlink ( LINK-USD) - into bitcoin cash ( BCH-USD), then exported the funds to an external account, he said.īen notified Coinbase, which he said prompted a series of frustrating reply emails that appeared to have the hallmarks of bot, rather than human communications. And in those nine minutes, there were four minutes with 18 separate transactions.” ![]() "From the time I logged in, to the time I deactivated, it was nine minutes. “I watched in real time as my portfolio went down and down in value,” Ben said. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, he described scrambling to deactivate his account following what he thought was a typical sign-in using two-factor email authentication generated from Coinbase’s email address. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)īen is still knocking, and like many cryptocurrency investors, to no avail. These practices stem from “absolutely horrible” laws, arbitration clauses, and virtually zero law enforcement, according to Max Dilendorf, a lawyer who represents cryptocurrency investors.Ĭoinbase Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong attends Consensus 2019 at the Hilton Midtown on in New York City. legal and regulatory system does little to compel Coinbase as well as other exchanges to adopt even stronger safeguards for consumer accounts or to refund stolen account assets. ![]() He added, "Coinbase acknowledges that these are terrible crimes that can have a significant impact on consumers and believes more awareness and education on how to protect online accounts is critical." Victims knock on 'every possible door' "It has become harder and harder for people to protect their online accounts, given the amount of personal information that has become available to bad actors," Coinbase chief information security officer Philip Martin acknowledged in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance. In 2020, just 0.004% of customers experienced transactions where their email accounts were taken over, SIM swaps attacks occurred on their cellphones, or other personal information unrelated to Coinbase was breached, according to Coinbase. Moreover, Coinbase says, unauthorized transactions are rare. While its popularity may make it a target, Coinbase is not the only cryptocurrency trading platform with consumer accounts that have been hacked.įor its part, Coinbase emphasizes the trading platform itself has never sustained a breach by hackers. Ben's loss is one of dozens reported over the past five years concerning breached accounts on the popular trading platform, which started trading publicly on Wednesday, April 14, and has become the world's most popular exchange for buying and selling digital currencies. ![]()
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