A recent hack compromised around 2,000 Robinhood Markets accounts, suggesting the attacks were more widespread than previously realized, Bloomberg reported.
After the attack last week, Robinhood only disclosed a few details, saying "a limited number" of customers had been affected and their emails outside of Robinhood had been the way they were hacked, Bloomberg reported. Some victims protested, saying that their accounts had been taken over, their positions liquidated and their proceeds stolen.
Bloomberg said the only response from Robinhood initially was a statement that the company was referring the matter to its fraud investigation team, which would take "a few weeks" in order to get back to them.
Social media saw a deluge of complaints about the attacks, Bloomberg reported. Investors said they'd tried in vain to contact the brokerage app, which doesn't have a customer service phone number. Robinhood has over 13,000 users and, according to Bloomberg, is now considering adding a customer service number along with other tools.
In response to the attack, this week the company sent emails to users advising them to turn on two-factor authentication to help protect their finances, and it plans to send out more security advice in the near future, according to Bloomberg.
But some victims said their accounts had been hacked even though they had turned on two-factor authentication. Others, Bloomberg reported, didn't find any evidence that criminals had accessed their email accounts as opposed to their Robinhood accounts. Some users reported not hearing back from the company for multiple days.
Robinhood has seen other snafus, including outages beginning in March that jeopardized users' deals. Day trading on the popular platform increased during the pandemic as people mostly stayed home and had the time to use the app, and the outages often happened on days when trading was hitting new levels.
