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Coinbase is Erratically Overcharging Some Users and Emptying Their Bank Accounts
A growing number of Coinbase customers are complaining that the cryptocurrency exchange withdrew unauthorized money out of their accounts. From a report: In some cases, this drained their linked bank accounts below zero, resulting in overdraft charges. In a typical anecdote posted on Reddit, one user said they purchased Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin for a total of $300 on February 9th. A few days later, the transactions repeated five times for a total of $1,500, even though the user had not made any more purchases. That was enough to clear out this user's bank account, they said, resulting in fees. [...] Coinbase representatives have been responding to similar complaints on Reddit for about two weeks, but the volume of complaints seems to have spiked over the last 24 hours. Similar complaints have popped up on forums and Twitter.
It looks like a hack to drive up the price of Crypto. A new age pump and dump. Instead of banding with a group of friends, hack coinbase accounts to buy the coin you are trying to pump. Even if Coinbase detects it and returns the funds after a few days you have succeeded in pumping up the coin. Litecoin went up 30% yesterday while rest of the market was up 10%
**Life is too short to be serious**
Too funny.
At least you can plant a tulip and watch it grow into something beautiful.
This is good for bitcoin because
Shady bullshit from a cryptocoin services provider fucking over its userbase? We've NEVER seen that before!
I bought some tulips the other day thinking they would help me get laid, but so far all I got was a sore arm.
every scam isnâ(TM)t funnier and funnier
Irrelevant to this story, I recently had Amazon try to wipe me out with a ~$3000 price on an item that had been subscribed for > 1 year... guessing someone flubbed a price change or something. Dunno what's up with this :L
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
... everything in the cryptocurrency food chain seemed trustworthy.
... I set up a separate low-balance checking account just for less secure transactions. It can only get hit so hard, acting as a buffer to my household finances. I can transfer money in/out at my financial institution, but my household funds never get exposed to the world.
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
Buyer beware. I would never associate my primary bank account as a means to buy crypto currency. Create a separate account and only put in what you plan to spend. Don't purchase risky currency from the same account from which your rent check is withdrawn.
I am shocked, shocked that linking my bank account to some random website that deals in imaginary currency could have ill effects.
{Your pyramid scheme winnings, sir}
Thank you.
I see your problem right here. Don't link accounts. Make payments manually (either write a check or kick off a one-time electronic payment as required). Even if a screw up is due only to some institution's screw up (not intentional and/or malicious) you have little recourse to repair damages due to mandatory arbitration clauses.
Have gnu, will travel.
Since I never jumped on the crypto currency bandwagon, it is kind of fun to watch the entire crypto currency ecosystem implode.
First law of people: People are generally stupid.
I'd like to issue an apology for this mishap. Some accounts were incorrectly charged because browsers were using a cached version of the site. To fix this problem, flush your cache, then load the site and your bank account will be properly drained of it's funds. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Oh yeah, one of the basic functions of a blockchain :-/
What the fuck are they doing over there at CoinBase?
I tried to buy $500 worth of BCH when it first hit Gdax/Coinbase and my card was declined because my visa provider thought it was suspicious. Coinbase is technically British and a lot of fraud reports were coming from them etc so it was automatically flagged. Unfortunately my idiot card provider didn't notify me in any way that they locked my entire credit card. I tried to use it for a very important purchase later and it got declined, which naturally makes me look like an irresponsible idiot to that vendor. They didn't call me or send anything in the mail about how they, quote, "thought my card was stolen and being used for illegal purchases." You'd think that'd be worth a phone call or email perhaps. NOPE.
It's just asking for trouble. Even if you get your money and the fees back, your time is gone forever.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I just checked my account, and it hit me too. Three erroneous transactions yesterday and today, amounts match transactions from earlier in the month. Oddly, it was deposits to my account first, followed by withdraws. So they gave me money then took it back.
God I hope we hit peak cryptocurrency soon and I can stop seeing these goddamned fucking stories about how broken it is.
You wanted to play in an unregulated financial industry ... Well, you got it. Now shut the fuck up about it.
You're not dealing with banks, or real financial institutions, you're dealing with wannabe internet millionaires with no experience in the financial industry. If you get ripped off, this is precisely what you wanted when you said how awesome it was that it was free from government interference.
Awww, you mean you didn't know it was an unregulated financial market? Do your goddamned homework.
Do you people not understand that none of the protections you get from the actual banking industry apply here? You're in the wild west of crooks, thieves, idiots, and assholes.
I'm afraid my sympathy for people finding this out the hard way is pretty much exhausted. Now I just find it fucking hilarious.
It's just asking for trouble. Even if you get your money and the fees back, your time is gone forever.
LK
I know, right? and also you should avoid stepping in front of fast moving automobiles, and don't cut yourself with sharp knives
maybe soon you will learn how to ask your mother to let you go outside after dark
That's what you get when you buy something subject to wild price swings. :)
Oops, sorry, but in the 6ms it took to process your initial request the price of the currency doubled so we just need to sort that out. 6ms later, agh, drats, the price changed again. Just one more correction, that should do the trick, honest. 6ms later, dammit...
I figured with all of the Bitcoin exchanges that have been hacked or "hacked" (excuse for fraud), I made a separate bank account just for Coinbase transactions. There is only $10 in that account, so they aren't going to get much if they try to withdraw from it.
Coinbase isn't supposed to be "retail".
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
really? please show us the regulator frameworks they are operating under then in order for them not to be retail?
You can file a claim with your bank if an incorrect ACH charge occurs. The law says you will get your money back if it was not legit.
What probably happened: too many people tried to cash out their crypto coins for real money, but Coinbase didn't have enough to cover it... so they pulled this stunt to quickly acquire enough real $$ to pay the people trying to convert.
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This is an example of someone with little money getting burned by doing this sort of gambling.
No trying to knock on the person in the article to which this happened, but if you get overdrawn with $1500 in charges, maybe cryptocurrency shouldn't be your go-to to flip a profit.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
That said I utilize crypto regularly although would not call myself an "investor" at least in crypto. I've done well, but have not put my money into crypto for the sake of getting a return on it. The value of crypto currencies is many. I like it because it puts the user in control rather than some third party that can be regulated (ie you can't exactly gamble online, purchase certain substances, or be blacklisted like porn star, wikileaks, etc) and while Bitcoin isn't anonymous the possibility for privacy and anonymity exists. Where some cryptos like Monero are pseudo anonymous (more so than Bitcoin- Bitcoin is/was just hard to track- sort of) Zero Coin (ie the math, not a crypto currency) has been a work in project for years and is the anonymity/privacy that cryptos have never had before. Zen Cash has adopted it and Zcash- so there are other advantages.
As a business owner I like crypto because you save on credit card fees and while prices can fluctuate the reality is if you utilize it effectively you've made more off the rise of crypto than you'll ever have "lost". When Bitcoin went from near $20k to under $10k I had $3-4k in Bitcoin. I didn't lose anything really because I spent that regularly on Amazon anyway via SaveAtPurse.com and was getting 33% discount on my purchases and the difference between the time I received said crypto from customers and was buying stuff off Amazon did not exceed a 20% decline. Even ignoring this factor I still was doing fine because I've saved $10s of thousands of dollars via SaveAtPurse not counting the 3% I've saved over credit card fees and the rise in Bitcoin over most of the past several years. Bitcoin will also eventually hit $30,000 so if you want to sit this one out because you bought at $20,000 give it another 2-3 years and you'll probably still do well. This is just how Bitcoin is today and it's little different than pre-1930 stock market where there was little or no regulation.
Anyone that has your bank account and routing number can immediately drain your account with no warning until you go to use the ATM or look at your bank statement. There is no security build in to the system at all.
Any time you give away these pieces of information to anyone, you just have to take it on faith that they won't drain your account.
This includes any time you write a personal check. The numbers are printed on the check. If you don't implicitly trust the person or the security methods of their organization, get a cashiers check.
Make a separate account if you want to do this. For instance, if you want to use PayPal, you need a bank account tied to it. The bank account I use for PayPal has exactly 1 dollar in it, until I want to send money to someone.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Coinbase allows for repeat transactions. It's built into the interface.
I'll "go" with any gmail app that gets rid of the shitty forced thread view. Gmail is so perfect for how I use email on my phone, I have just learned to live with this godawful "feature". I hate it so much and I can't be alone. They don't do it on the web based version, why is it forced on the phone app?
Stuff like this is why I just laugh every time some crypto-coin-kiddie starts prattling on about how 'banks are dead' and 'crypto(currency) is teh futurez.
It's a crap pyramid scheme and we all know it.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Distributed ledgers are some freakin cool technology, and a worldwide Internet currency feels straight out of the future.
Rose coloured glasses? I don't know... but slashdot users are not the same I remember from 15 years ago.
Top comments: cryptocurrencies are garbage and should burn. Like wtf?
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Dont worry i'm sure lots and lots of regulations are on the way.
Coinbase SUCKS BALLS. They take all your BTC and make you submit more info every time that you try to log in. I sent a picture of my driver's license and passport, and then they locked me out because I hadn't logged in for a few months. They insisted that the only way that I could log in again would be if I sent a copy of my birth certificate. This was all over something like 0.03BTC which is NOTHING. I just wanted to get my BTC out but decided to just let it sit there and bitrot instead. Sad.
I have not experienced the problem when it comes to overcharging my account, but two things I do know/or have noticed it ever since I started using their service.
1. The charges that they have are completely through the roof. To transfer 1 ETH is costs me $16 dollars, and that's after the high buy price. Not to mention the charge to buy one BTC. I decided to take the hit and transferred everything out into another crypto exchange.
2. I have noticed how bold they are when it comes to the graphs. All 4 crypto's seem to at times have the same patterns of lows and hi's. I'm not the only one that has mentioned this. My friends have mentioned that it seems like Coinbase is controlling their prices at times.
Coinbase is not new and should be reimbursing their customers that have been affected. I only use Coinbase now to purchase a coins and transfer them out to purchase ALT coins.
If only there was a type of money that could be sent over the Internet but you could control it like cash... We could call it ECash. Then no one could double charge you.
And linking it to a crypto token exchange is certifiably insane. These people deserve to have their bank accounts drained and overdraft fees levied. Call it an idiot tax or tuition for lessons learned by the school of hard knocks.
Allocate just enough, and no more, to each financial insitution you deal with. You might call it financial firewalling. How much to allocate is up to you, but always consider the forest as well as the trees. If the SHTF, you already know what can possibly unfold, and thus you will avoid surprises. If you can avoid financial surprises (of the bad kind), you are way ahead of everybody else. When bad things happen, you will be part of the tiny minority who has an actual plan.
Please revert back to me with details of your bank account so that we can fix this problem for you. Also, please send your brokerage account details. Well, just send all your details. We'll sort it out. Trust us.
Ya' know, generally I'm not someone who would blame the victim, but in this case, yeah, if you are stupid enough to give a crypto company your account details, you deserve whatever happens.
Now, excuse me while a pop out to hear a presentation on Martian time-shares.