The suit names Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) and up to 50 as-yet unnamed executives and employees as defendants over data breaches by Coinbase which the suit says led to consumers losing their digital assets to hackers.
The plaintiff bringing the suit is Adam Alfia, a trader who was the victim of a hack which led to $50,000 worth of Ethereum purchased using his account without his knowledge. Coinbase’s response was to lock Alfia out of their platform for two months—a pattern of behavior that has become common to Coinbase over the years.
The suit accuses Coinbase of breach of contract, negligence, fraud, negligent misrepresentation.
The breach of contract claim relates to Coinbase’s failure to adhere to the terms of their service agreement, both the express and implied provisions contained therein.
The negligence claim accuses Coinbase of failing to fulfil their duty to customers to “properly secure Plaintiff and the putative class’s private information and cryptocurrency from unauthorized transactions and dissemination.”
The fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims are offered as alternates to one another. In other words, the plaintiff is accusing Coinbase of falsely claiming that it “maintains appropriate physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of the personal information” of its account holders—either knowingly or negligently.
“[The customer’s complaints] reveal a pattern of account takeovers, where users see money suddenly vanish from their account, followed by poor customer service from Coinbase that made those users feel left hanging and angry.”
The suit comes just days after it was revealed that Dr. Craig Wright had sent warning notices out to a number of digital asset companies, Coinbase included, over their use of the Bitcoin name and database. Coinbase, which is a publicly listed company, never disclosed the pending legal action to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which itself may be grounds for further class action suits.
Some people are of the belief that their Social Security Number (SSN) is the most valuable number. In reality, your mobile phone number is even more valuable to hackers and scammers.
Take the recent data breaches as an example. Scammers can use the breach data to SIM Swap your number and become you. Once the scammer and hackers have control of your number it is a matter of minutes to hours before they reak havoc on your entire life These scammers and hackers, now that they control your number, can gain access and steal all your bank accounts, crypto, social media, and other accounts. We take for granted how much our mobile controls in our lives.
It is time you protect yourself today and get SAFE secured.
