
Coinbase Multiple Charges - svdr
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xs1aq/update_on_multiple_charges/
======
g09980
One of those situations where software bugs may (temporarily) ruin people's
lives.

Many threads on this topic from people who had a relatively small amount to
their name in their bank accounts, it was linked to Coinbase, and they now
can't pay living expenses:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xot6y/freaking_o...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xot6y/freaking_out_coinbase_drained_my_bank_account/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xspus/what_happe...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xspus/what_happened_im_rekt_now_all_my_credit_score_is/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xs2zr/i_have_bee...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xs2zr/i_have_been_charged_double_for_all_my/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xsyf4/17x_charge...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xsyf4/17x_charges_nope_i_just_got_hit_with_50_count/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xrq4k/welp_offic...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xrq4k/welp_officially_broke_charged_17x1000_on_my/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xq3xc/you_draine...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xq3xc/you_drained_my_bank_account_and_now_i_have_nothing/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xrf02/3x_5x_how_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xrf02/3x_5x_how_about_12x_duplicate_charges/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xrfhs/double_cha...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xrfhs/double_charged_withdrawals_posted_what_the_fuck/)

Many more on that subreddit... and that's just from people who use Reddit.

~~~
sxates
Not to judge how people spend their money, but surprising how many people are
buying crypto while they only seem to have a few hundred dollars in their bank
account. Very risky putting in money it sounds like they can't afford to lose.

If it all comes crashing down at some point (which I don't expect, but is
possible) I wonder what the ramifications are if millions of people are
depending on whatever they have in their coinbase accounts to pay bills.

~~~
denlekke
the money being lost is not their bitcoin investment but their checking
account's balance. It doesn't make sense to me to keep large amounts on money
in checking because you don't earn any interest and it takes time to transfer
money from savings to checking. So it makes sense to me that some checking
accounts are being completely emptied or overdrafted...

Here's one anecdote of $67,000 being removed:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xsyf4/17x_charge...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/comments/7xsyf4/17x_charges_nope_i_just_got_hit_with_50_count/)

~~~
charlesdm
It also doesn't make sense for you to keep money in a savings account, by the
way. The difference in interest is minimal. I don't even bother.

But indeed, quite an annoying bug!

~~~
Alex3917
> It also doesn't make sense for you to keep money in a savings account, by
> the way.

The main point of a savings account is so that other people can't steal your
money, like they can if it's in a checking account.

~~~
2trill2spill
That's why you use a credit card for purchases and pay off that balance
immediately with your checking account. US citizens are generally not liable
for identity theft or fraud on their credit card[1]. This should keep your
checking account safe. With current interest rates no one should have a
savings account.

[1]: [https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/zero-
liability-...](https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/zero-liability-
fraudulent-charges-1282.php)

------
jboggan
They aren't still using MongoDB to handle USD deposits / withdrawals are they?
I know that was the root cause a few years back when this cropped up.

Edit: past context -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5428382](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5428382)

~~~
stingraycharles
You would be surprised to learn what Stripe uses as their backend for pretty
much everything then. And they appear to be doing fine.

~~~
jboggan
I am surprised, but maybe I should just be impressed that MongoDB has
progressed so far that this isn't a big deal all that often.

------
james_pm
Two weeks this has been going on, apparently. Nothing on their blog, nothing
on Twitter. No notifications to customers? Smells of an active attempt to keep
the whole thing quiet.

~~~
anonova
They just posted on Twitter about it:
[https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/964248915695448064](https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/964248915695448064)

~~~
thesimon
Referring to wrong charge categorization due to MCC changes, not multiple
charges though.

~~~
thephyber
> Referring to wrong charge categorization due to MCC changes, not multiple
> charges though.

Not exactly. They are referring to "some customers recently were charged
incorrectly". They identified the culprit as the MCC change which they call
"downstream" of them.

The only thing that makes me think the current MCC message might not be
relevant is that Reddit users seemed to be reporting multiple _ACH_ charges
against the same _checking account_. The previous MCC category change
messaging suggested it would only affect credit cards. Perhaps that category
change affects how the ACH API responds and the CoinBase system interpreted it
as a "needs retry" kind of state.

------
zaidf
TLDR: if you notice an unauthorized ACH charge, call your bank and dispute it
ASAP! Time matters.

The scary thing about ACH is that your total possible exposure is not limited
to the money in your account. Coinbase could do a $10,000 charge via ACH and
in many cases even if you only had $100, the charge would go through.

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO: for unauthorized ACH charges, every minute matters. If
you call your bank and report the charge within 12-24 hours, you’re likely to
have the charge reversed _fairly quickly_.

However, if it’s been more than 3-4 days since the charge, disputing and
getting resolution to an ACH charge becomes more laborious and time-consuming.

------
1812Overture
Gotta love using trendy non-ACID databases for financial transactions and
suddenly rediscovering why ACID databases were invented.

------
lasgsf
These guys are just crap now. Awful customer service as an example I have BTC
stuck in their vault for 4 months now with no response to move it out.

------
minikites
It's been interesting to see the users of regulation-dodging services like
Uber and Bitcoin slowly learn why those regulations came about in the first
place.

~~~
yetanotheruser
I read another comment on hacker news today that referred to a type of
regulation that is actually accountability.

Perhaps if we were able to classify regulation further it would be easier to
analyze the tradeoffs of certain regulations rather than saying all regulation
is bad or all regulation is good.

~~~
vec
But if we do that we have to accept that there are tradeoffs in the first
place. We have to recognize that reasonable people might disagree about which
tradeoff to make. We have to accept that even good decisions are likely to
leave someone somewhere worse off. We might even have to _gasp_ understand the
historical and cultural context in which the current system arose.

Applying a slogan is so much easier.

~~~
minikites
Uber et al should have thought about those tradeoffs. That's my point.

