Robinhood hit by hacking incident! Official without customer service hotline, slow response causing controversy

Five customers have revealed to Bloomberg that their stock and cryptocurrency holdings on the Robinhood platform were liquidated by hackers. Despite sending multiple emails to the official team for help during the withdrawal process by the hackers, the victims watched helplessly as their assets disappeared from their accounts.

Robinhood Users Fall Victim to Hacker Attacks

Robinhood, a stock trading platform founded in California, USA in 2013, known for its zero-commission strategy to attract young and retail investors, has been expanding steadily over the years with significant funding rounds. However, following the tragic incident involving a teenage suicide due to investment losses, the fintech company finds itself in negative news once again.

Five users reported to Bloomberg that their platform assets were stolen, with hackers making unauthorized withdrawals. These users continuously reached out for help via emails during the withdrawal process, but despite Robinhood claiming to have doubled its customer service team this year, the company's response was slow, lacking a dedicated customer service hotline, leaving the victims helpless as they watched their assets being stolen.

According to a report by Bloomberg on October 10, one victim, Soraya Bagheri from Washington, discovered that 450 shares of Moderna Inc. stocks were liquidated from her Robinhood account, with a pending $10,000 withdrawal request. When she reported her account being maliciously attacked, the company's response was disheartening, stating that they would "investigate and respond within a few weeks," leaving Bagheri watching her assets disappear.

Another victim, Bill Hurley from Connecticut, lost $5,000 worth of stocks and Bitcoins in this theft. Hurley noticed his funds being transferred to a Revolut account by hackers on September 21 and contacted Robinhood immediately, but received no response until Thursday. Hurley expressed his frustration, stating:

"They had plenty of time to resolve this."

Software engineer Pruthvi Rao from Chicago also fell victim on October 6 when his Netflix Inc. shares were liquidated. Rao sent over ten emails to Robinhood but received a similar response to Bagheri:

"We understand the sensitivity of your current situation and have reported this to our fraud investigation team. Please note that this process may take a few weeks, and the team handling your case will not be able to provide ongoing updates."

Rao expressed:

"I am under immense mental stress right now because this is all of my savings."

Remediation and Accountability After the Event

Victims stated that after their stocks were liquidated, the funds flowed to another London-based fintech startup, Revolut. A spokesperson from Revolut mentioned in an email on Friday that they were aware of the issue and conducting an urgent investigation.

Regarding the incident, a Robinhood spokesperson mentioned in an email that hackers did not gain access through internal platform vulnerabilities but through users' personal email accounts (associated with their Robinhood accounts) being compromised outside of Robinhood. A few customers' Robinhood accounts seemed to have been targeted by hackers, and the spokesperson stated that the company is actively cooperating with those affected to secure their accounts.

Furthermore, Bagheri and three other victims claimed to have reported this to regulatory bodies including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The SEC, upon being informed, requested more information from them but has not made any public responses as of now.