It has been reported that a new scam is doing the rounds, based on what is known as coinbase phishing. It is said that scammers send highly convincing emails that look like they’re from Coinbase. These warn users of account restrictions or suspicious logins and the messages urge you to “verify your account”.
However, it is a trap, albeit a very well-disguised one.
The phishing campaign is said to be:
- Carefully crafted to trigger panic clicks
- Free of typos and grammar mistakes
- Well-designed with real Coinbase branding
- Designed so that once you click, you’re led to a nearly identical login page where your credentials (and potentially your wallet) are stolen
It has also been reported by Cyber News that an investigator, who goes by the name of ZachXBT, and is said to cooperate with another investigator, tanuki42, has claimed that “another $45mn was stolen from Coinbase users via social engineering scams in just the last week.”
He also commented: “Over the past few months I have reported on nine figures stolen from Coinbase users via similar social engineering scams. Interestingly no other major exchange has the same problem”.
What is Coinbase phishing?
According to Which?, Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange company, which acts as a platform for buying, selling, transferring and storing a digital currency known as crypto.
Which? goes on to say that, “scammers are always seeking new tactics to steal data and cash through phishing emails. Action Fraud reported that since 2020, more than 41 million phishing attempts had been reported to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service”.
Which? has noted these four examples of Coinbase scams which are all variations of the following format:
The message tells you that your account has been temporarily restricted in accordance with compliance requirements and asks you to verify your account by sending sensitive information. Which? goes on to say that, “all of the emails included a link to dodgy websites which ask for your Coinbase login details.”
Spotting and reporting scam emails
It has been noted that one way of spotting these scams and working out that these emails were sent by fraudsters is that they were sent from random email addresses not associated with Coinbase.
According to Coinbase, their official email addresses end in @mail.coinbase.com, @coinbase.com, @updates.coinbase.com and @info.coinbase.com.
Another way of spotting the scam is seeing that the links in the emails to the ‘privacy policy’, ‘terms of service’, and ‘support centre’ don’t work.
Which? says that if you receive a suspicious email that you’re unsure of, you should take these steps:
- “Check the sender’s email address to see who it’s really from
- Analyse the branding and look for poor spelling and grammar
- Hover over the link in the email body and the links at the bottom to see where they lead
- See if the email asks for personal information or bank details or tries to rush you into making a decision
If you have an account with the company the email claims to be sent from, log in to your account with that company to see if the details in the message are genuine.”
Coinbase scam texts
Other Coinbase scam texts are said to include requests that you confirm a withdrawal request. The advice given by mashable.com is that if you do get the text, do not click any links, do not call the phone number, and do not respond. You can simply delete the text and report it as junk.
Fake driving Licence websites
Another current scam is concerned with fake driving licence websites. It has been noted that “genuine government services can be found at gov.uk. Any other website that offers renewal services is not genuine, and you should be cautious about sharing your details with them”.
Fake jobs on Telegram
People have also been warned to look out for scammers recruiting for fake jobs on Telegram. The scam typically encourages people to take part in surveys or reviewing films, saying that they will be paid for doing so. However, what often happens is that people are persuaded to part with their own money and personal details.
Reporting scam emails
Scam emails can be reported by forwarding them to report@phishing.gov.uk.
If you’ve fallen victim to a text scam, you can report it to Action Fraud or the police if you live in Scotland.
Scam sharer tool
You can learn how to report scams and so help others to avoid them here.
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