CNBC Got Under Fire Over Unfair Coverage Of Coinbase Hack Incidents

CNBC got under fire over the unfair coverage of the Coinbase hacking incidents as it published an article regarding the “terrible” customer service that the Coinbase users had over supposedly stolen funds so let’s read more in our latest Coinbase news today.

The US news channel CNBC got under fire after it interviewed a few SIM swap victims who voiced concerns over Coinbase’s handling of their situations. What’s more to it, the news outlet wrote that the issue is exacerbated by email being the main method of contact while phone support is not readily available and in the pressing cases, the unexplained loss of funds is a frustrating experience for those involved.

“Coinbase’s customer service has been primarily via email, and many customers say it is hard to reach representatives and that they have not been made whole for their losses.”

Coinbase commented that the high demand is stretching its capacity but that the company is working on rolling out more support channels to meet the demand. This includes the introduction of dedicated phone support for all users who suspect that they have been defrauded. Looking into the situation, the host of the Unchained podcast Laura Shin said that the biggest issue lies with the phone carriers and not coinbase. The CNBC detailed accounts from other victims like the Vidovic family whose account was drained of $168,000. Tanja Vidovic allegedly received alerts that access changes were happening on her account and then she was stunned to see almost all of the funds were gone.

Jared and Tanja Vidovic went into crypto in 2017 and they have seen a quadrupling of the funds but then Tanja tried to get in touch with Coinbase for a resolution and found she was unable to talk to anyone over the phone. Four months on, the matter remained unsolved. Another hacking victim named Ben suffered a $35,000 loss in March and Ben said he enabled two-factor authentication on the account. Coinbase told him that his computer was hacked and there was nothing they could do:

“There is no credible or supportable evidence that the compromise of your login credentials was the fault of Coinbase. As a result, Coinbase is unable to reimburse you for your alleged losses.”

Analysis revealed that Vidovics and Ben were the victims of SIM swap attacks which involves a hacker seizing control of the victim’s phone and SIM via their phone carrier. Shin tweeted that the piece blamed Coinbase for the hacking incidents and added that the mobile service providers are to blame for enabling unauthorized phone transfers but in some cases, the users are to blame for weak passwords.