Coinbase users hit by $46M in suspected phishing scams — ZachXBT

2 months ago

Coinbase users whitethorn person mislaid arsenic overmuch arsenic $46 cardinal to suspected phishing scams implicit the past 2 weeks arsenic rising crypto prices proceed to pull atrocious actors to the industry.

Scams specified arsenic code poisoning and wallet spoofing involve tricking victims into sending assets to fraudulent wallet addresses that intimately lucifer morganatic ones.

According to blockchain researcher ZachXBT, aggregate Coinbase-linked wallets person been targeted this month. A screenshot from blockchain explorer Blockchair shows a suspected 400 Bitcoin (BTC) theft from a azygous wallet address.

“It is suspected a Coinbase idiosyncratic was scammed yesterday for $34.9M (400.099 BTC),” the researcher wrote successful a March 28 Telegram post. “After uncovering this theft I noticed aggregate different suspected thefts from Coinbase users successful the past 2 weeks bringing the full stolen this period to $46M+,” helium added.

“We are alert of ZachXTB’s claims and are investigating,” Jaclyn Sales, manager of communications astatine Coinbase, told Cointelegraph, adding:

“Coinbase volition ne'er telephone you oregon inquire for your login credentials, API cardinal oregon two-factor authentication codes. We volition besides ne'er inquire you to transportation funds.”

“If idiosyncratic contacts you claiming to beryllium from Coinbase and requests this accusation oregon asks you to transportation assets, bash not bash it. It is simply a scam,” she said.

Scammers proceed to impersonate apical brands

Scammers often impersonate ample planetary brands to make a mendacious consciousness of spot with victims.

In the crypto industry, Coinbase was the astir impersonated marque by scammers, but Meta was targeted by implicit 25 times arsenic galore scammers arsenic the cryptocurrency exchange, Cointelegraph reported successful June 2024.

Coinbase is the world’s third-largest centralized cryptocurrency speech (CEX), with implicit $1.6 cardinal of regular crypto trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap.

To support themselves, Coinbase users are advised to usage a dedicated email account, alteration two-factor authentication, acceptable up an code allowlist, and usage Coinbase Vault for further security, the speech said successful a February blog post.

History of phishing losses astatine Coinbase

Over $65 cardinal whitethorn person been stolen from Coinbase users betwixt December 2024 and January 2025 successful “high assurance thefts,” ZachXBT said successful a Feb. 3 X post. He added:

“Our fig is apt overmuch little than the existent magnitude stolen arsenic our information was constricted to my DMs and thefts we discovered on-chain which does not relationship for Coinbase enactment tickets and constabulary reports we bash not person entree to.”

Pig butchering scams are different benignant of phishing strategy involving prolonged and analyzable manipulation tactics to instrumentality investors into willingly sending their assets to fraudulent crypto addresses.

Pig butchering schemes connected the Ethereum web outgo the manufacture implicit $5.5 cardinal crossed 200,000 identified cases successful 2024, according to Cyvers.