I am posting this in case other people may confront the same situation and could possible avoid it. Also check out what a role coinbase is playing here.
I have a bitcoin account on coinbase and was not able to login however I tried. I got my password correct, but coinbase did not allow login by saying that it was a new device. Coinbase just kept sending me an email for me to verify the new device through the link. Nothing just happens after that and it was a loop of communications leading to nowhere. I tried the verification process by pretending that I do not have the 2-factor verification and try to provide my driver license to verify my account. It accepted my information, but still no result after two week's waiting.
There was no phone number that I could see in this whole process. Today, I tried googling "coinbase phone number". It popped up with two numbers. The first one was authentic, but it will ask you if your account is compromised. If yes press 1. My account was ok at that time and I kept waiting. Then the voice said the volume is high and hanged me off not allowing me to continue to wait. After several times of calling the first number without success, I continued to try the second number (888-4551155) and it went through after several minute's wait.
So I called to solve the problem. The tricky part is that they were able to help me log in! I have NO IDEA how they are able to log in! We were back to the page where the coinbase said that I was a new device and need to verify through email. Then the hackers had some code that claimed to be the "coinbase secrete seed". I do not know why they have such code and why this code could help me log in. I have been so desperate in the recent months and was so happy that finally I got into the system and see my account. Then they took control of the account and sent my coins to their own address. The transaction could be seen here.
https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/tx/f0ae7669a0115b53129657d4a2b0ca2f9c730b0835e4848e8cea7743ffb1f7e8/ The bitcoin address that they used was 19n12cDwyfmf6ZpjxGJVvRuZL9BEPdq6Xy
I know I am stupid to be scammed, but there is one question I have no answer: while I was not able to log into coinbase myself by trying all the options that is provided by coinbase, the hacker were able to log in by using some secrete seed. I do not know what that is, but he should have some partial security information about coinbase. I called coinbase about this, it seems they are redundant to take responsibility for the fact that they are allowing other people to help me login. The funny thing is that when I called them, they ask me to press button 1 if you think your account has been compromised. So this time of course I pushed 1 and finally get through after one hour wait on line. Now the true customer service picked up, and after checking my balance to be zero and just asked me: "do you want to close your account?". They do not really care to know what happened!
Hope they can investigate this, because the hackers will do it again. If they can log in coinbase for me, they can do it again and again. When you google "coinbase phone number", their number is still showing up.
===========================================================================================
======================================My Reply on thread #46======================================
===========================================================================================
Thank you to all you guys for the comforting, suggestions and sharing your thoughts. Obviously part of the reason for this to happen is that I am not cautious enough to be alerted about the fake coinbase support. My experience with coinbase was so desperate over the past two years with these email loop and the call to the real coinbase support being hanged off by them for so many times.
There is one big questions still remains unanswered: how could these guys log in? My conjecture is that these guys should have access to some information of coinbase server. Otherwise, it just does not make any sense to me. Some mentioned the fake website that the hackers were using, yet that still does not answer the question. Right now, coinbase is still kicking back the standard information like "the transaction of bitcoin is not reversible", "the coinbase support will never ...", etc. I think it is in everyone's interest to know the answer for this. If you agree with this, please support by replying this thread so that they may finally pay attention and allocate some resource to investigate the possible bug.
Below are some extra information of myself in response to most frequently mentioned comments based on the replies.
1. Never store the bitcoin on a exchange.
I did bought a hard wallet, but I already lost access to my account on coinbase at that time point. I only got the change to log in for one time last Wed and take a peak of my account for half hours before the bitcoins are all gone.
2. I should not give away information to the hackers.
I am not sure if this is the right way to say it or not because I did not give these information to them. I typed the information in my own computer and got stuck at the page telling me about the new device issue. They stepped in and helped me log in. More importantly, to me, they were customer support to me. Especially the moment when you helped me log in, I just taking him to be my life saver rather than a threat. Most importantly, at the worst case scenario that I give away all my information to them: my driver license, my ssn, my birth information, user name & password, my phone in their hand, etc. The question still remains: How could they log in?
3. How did I still keep the cool.
It is not because I am rich. This 7 bitcoins is a huge amount for me. But getting freaked out does not make things any better, does it? I have been facing big losses (not necessarily in terms of money) for enough number of times to learned to calm down and work on the situation at the current moment instead of the past.
Again, thanks for reading. If you have further comments, suggestions and questions, feel free to add them to the thread.
