Who is responsible?

Annoyednewcastle

My Son who lives abroad has been waiting for 6000 dollars which was owed to him from Blockfi which deals with bit coin. Blockfi sent a MasterCard to his e.mail address with a code so he could spend that amount. Before he could use the code someone in South America somehow got the code and has spent the money. My Son has been in contact with MasterCard proving where he was when this money was spent. MasterCard says it's nothing to do with them and to contact Blokfi. Does anyone please know who is responsible and how can he get this money back if at all. He has obviously been scammed.

Keep_pedalling

BlockFi went bust in 2022 and no longer exist so I don’t see how they could send him anything. Did your son pay anyone to “release” his funds, because this sounds like a scam.

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6687291/who-is-responsible

I would have thought that Blockfi are the people to chase given that they issued the virtual card and code and it appears that it wasn't appropriately secured, but didn't they go bust years ago? Given that this is all part of what looks to me like a murky world of bitcoins and international transactions, there are lots of possibilities as to how this happened and unless he's got some sort of evidence that Blockfi acted negligently when sending an insecure code, I suspect he'll face a long and possibly fruitless wait for the money.

The first question Blockfi, their agent, or Mastercard might reasonably ask, is whether it was actually your son that spent the money. I don't think that in a world of VPNs and other digital tools, evidence of your son not being in South America is necessarily proof that he didn't access the funds.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6687291/who-is-responsible

As well as the Blockfi issue highlighted above, Mastercard themselves don't issue cards, so he'd need to pursue the card issuer, although 'sending' a card by email sounds like an accident waiting to happen…

Keep_pedalling

Some info on the recovery process on this link. Any recovery your son received should have come from a company named Kroll.

https://earnpark.com/en/posts/what-happened-to-blockfi/

Annoyednewcastle

Thank you everyone for your comments, I will pass them into my Son

QrizB

He has obviously been scammed.

FWIW it sounds as though the entire thing might be a scam. It's entirely possible there was no $6000, there is no-one in South America, and whoever is in contact with your son has nothing to do with Blockfi.