Robinhood blasted after customer accounts hacked, cash and crypto stolen
Last Updated on 10 October 2020 by CryptoTips.eu
Social media platforms Twitter and Reddit were flooded with messages of angry Robinhood users who said their accounts had been hacked and their money stolen. The popular trading app, which is used in the US, was blamed for non-existing customer service and not responding to email tickets.
The story was especially frightening for one particular user who said he used KuCoin before and then switched to Robinhood. In both occasions in the past weeks, the accounts were emptied after a hack.
Robinhood users say their accounts were hacked, with thousands of dollars withdrawn. But there was no one at customer service to call. @antoniabmassa @sooo__phiehttps://t.co/8LbPoG8Lth
— Sarah Ponczek (@SarahPonczek) October 9, 2020
Customer Service complaints
The newest Fintech companies share the same customer service base as, for example, Uber does, meaning you can send a help email but there is no one to call. In case of an emptying of your account because of a hack, a terrifying user experience of course. As Americans are used to having good customer service at most of their brick and mortar shops, the introduction to the non-existing customer service of a new Silicon Valley company is quite something else.
Not only do I use KuCoin which was hacked but also Robinhood.
— CryptoChief (@_cChief) October 10, 2020
An anonymous user on Reddit stated:
My Robinhood account was also hacked. I received a bunch of notifications that all my stocks were sold. Shortly after, I received another notification that $—- was withdrawn by a company (I don’t recall the name except for the last part of it was “digital”) I can no longer access my account and Im not even able to reset my password to get access to the account again because nothing is coming through my email from them. I’ve sent an email to them but Ive yet to hear back.
Robinhood confirms it has been hacked https://t.co/KH35wZbFnp
— PageOne.ng (@PageOne_NG) October 10, 2020
Revolut
The company, which has popularized trading in both stocks and crypto for first-time entrants into the market in the US, has in the meantime admitted the breach, but states that the hack did not occur on their platform but rather because of an email hack at the customer’s email accounts themselves.
A limited number of customers appear to have had their Robinhood account targeted by cyber criminals because of their personal email account (that which is associated with their Robinhood account) being compromised outside of Robinhood.
Bloomberg reports that some #Robinhood users had their accounts hacked and investments liquidated. But the company itself wasn’t hacked. https://t.co/e9a1TP9qIC
— The Mac Observer (@MacObserver) October 9, 2020
On Bloomberg, a man from Connecticut named Bill Hurley, stated that his Robinhood account had been emptied and that stock and Bitcoin had been transferred to Revolut, a London based exchange, in September already. He also spoke of Robinhood’s poor customer service, which only contacted him two weeks later, stating:
They’ve had more than enough time to deal with this.