CFPB Soliciting Complaints about Digital Currency (Aug. 12, 2014)
It isn’t just complaints about prepaid card products that the CFPB is trawling for. The bureau announced yesterday it’s also accepting complaints about digital currency products and services, and the CFPB also has issued a consumer advisory, “Risks to Consumers Posed by Virtual Currencies.”
While decentralized digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, offer the potential for innovation, they also come with risks, according to the bureau. For example, digital currencies are targets for hackers who have breached security systems to steal funds, and fraudsters are capitalizing on the hype around digital currencies and cheating consumers with bogus opportunities. The CFPB also claims digital currencies can cost consumers more to use than credit cards or cash when exchange rates are factored into transactions.
Just a few weeks earlier, the CFPB opened the door to accepting complaints from consumers who’ve experienced problems with prepaid card products, including gift cards, benefits cards and general purpose reloadable cards. The CFPB also proposed expanding the amount of information consumers may provide as part of their complaints about financial services by adding a narrative section to the complaint form. Late last month, the bureau extended the comment period for its complaint narrative proposal to Sept. 22, 2014, from the original due date of Aug. 22. The extension provides 60 days from the date the proposed policy was published in the Federal Register.
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