One experienced crypto trader who avoided a Coinbase phishing scam reported a new one. Scammers are becoming increasingly adept, especially with new AI tools.
Crypto investor and entrepreneur Jacob Canfield informed his 107k Twitter followers of a Coinbase fraud on June 14.
Canfield reported that a text message suggesting a modification to his Coinbase 2FA initiated the scam.
He received three Coinbase “customer support” calls. They asked if he was traveling abroad and requested the change.
To avoid a 48-hour account suspension, the suspected scammers revoked the change request and referred the consumer to the “security team.”.
“They had my name, my email, and my location and sent a’verification code’ email from help@coinbase.com to my personal email.”
Canfield stated that he changed his password without help. They subsequently locked the account for 7 days “due to a lack of verification unless I provided the code.”
This was when they realized it was a sophisticated phishing scam.
“After the first text, I immediately logged into my Coinbase and changed the password and 2FA, and I caught on that it was a scam almost immediately. But I doubt that 98–99% of people who get this will realize it and have unlocked their Coinbase accounts.”
His 2FA code was the one they sent, he said. While we were on the phone, they “logged into my account to drain it,” yet they sent it from their own email.
The official Coinbase Twitter account did not contain any notifications or warnings.
“It appears like this is an ongoing social engineering/phishing scam,” commented digital detective ‘ZachXBT.’
Canfield claimed ignorance about his target’s motivations and methods. He clarified that it could have resulted from a third-party data leak or was unrelated to dark web cryptocurrency.