In the past year, users of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase have incurred losses ranging from $100 million to $150 million due to phishing and social engineering scams. This estimate was provided by on-chain researcher ZachXBT.
Have not seen numbers publicly reported anywhere before but I estimate Coinbase support social engineering / phishing scams have resulted in $100M-$150M stolen in just the past year from its users.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 23, 2024
The statistics were shared in response to a tweet by a user named MistTrack, who recounted a near-miss with a fraudulent email purportedly from Coinbase support.
“These scammers are getting better and better. Almost fell for it, but I never forget to check the sender’s email address,” he wrote.
ZachXBT noted that he has not seen any report from the company itself on this matter, and his estimate is based on the number of victims who have sought help.
“This is primarily the fault of the US government for very weak consumer data protection laws (phone numbers and such), as other exchanges outside the US usually do not face this scale of problem,” he stated.
The on-chain researcher opined that Coinbase should “fight for its users and legally pursue some unscrupulous providers.”
Earlier, Indian citizen Chirag Thumar was sentenced to five years in prison for orchestrating a $20 million cryptocurrency scam involving a fake Coinbase website.
In June, the bitcoin exchange was included in a list of American companies that scammers most frequently impersonate to deceive their victims. According to a Mailsuite report, from January 2020 to March 2024, Coinbase was used in 416 scam schemes and phishing attacks.