With many businesses trying to secure customer loyalty through a range of perks and mini handouts, Crypto promotional schemes are an old hat in the industry.
After the BlockFi mistakenly paid out oversized rewards in Bitcoin (BTC), its latest promotional offer was described as topsy turvy.
A staggering 701.4 BTC was received on Friday by one BlockFi user. BlockFi had offered Bitcoin rewards for clients trading a set volume in United States dollars between March 18 and 31, under the terms of the original give away. With rewards due to have been credited to accounts by May 31, BlockFi warned users already on Friday:
Just under 100 clients are thought to be affected, according to a BlockFi representative. Yet a small furor over the exchange’s allegedly threatening tone to clients who don’t comply instantly with its directives to return the funds has already erupted on social media.
One user has reportedly posted a photograph of an email allegedly from BlockFi notifying them that “failure to return the erroneously received assets by 5.00 PM EDT today (May 18th, 2021) may constitute a crime and will result in BlockFi taking legal action.” The company has also offered clients a $500 payout in Gemini Dollars (GUSD) as compensation for “any trouble this may have caused.”
Another Reddit user in the r/blockfi thread has alleged that “2 days after their blunder, I made a withdrawal of USDC which I had deposited a month earlier. Completely unrelated to their claim. Now they send me an email accusing me of withdrawing funds that aren’t mine saying it’s fraud and a crime they will act on if not returned in the next 2 hours.”
The user continued to criticize the platform, claiming that BlockFi “can’t even look through the records to verify what they are talking about. My account with them is only one month old.” “Great way to treat a new customer,” the user wrote.