Shocking news has emerged from the crypto industry, with reports of Coinbase exchange users falling victim to scams and losing their money. Apparently, scammers have been posing as exchange employees and targeting Coinbase users after the Coointracker breach event.
According to reports, one victim claimed to have lost $1.7 million. Tegan Kline, co-founder of Edge & Node, stated that a fraudster had deceived a “good friend” into revealing part of their seed phrase, leading to the loss of $1.7 million from their self-custody wallet.
To appear legitimate, the fraudster pretended to be a member of the Coinbase security team and contacted the victim through an email that appeared to be from Coinbase.
According to reports, unauthorized Coinbase transactions occurred because the victim’s wallet was “connecting directly with the blockchain.” An outgoing transaction was displayed in another email that seemed to be from Coinbase as well.
Next, to halt the transactions, the con artist led the victim to a webpage where they had to input their seed word. The victim input part of the seed word without submitting it, even though they knew it wasn’t safe, but hours later, their wallet was empty of $1.7 million.
Crypto hacks rise in the first half of 2024
The Coinbase hack comes at a time when crypto hacks and scams have been on the rise in the first half of 2024. According to research by TRM Labs, hackers had taken over $1.38 billion in cryptocurrency by June 24, 2024, up from $657 million over the same period in 2023. Based on the data, the median theft was 1.5 times higher than the previous year.
At the same time, TRM Labs raised a very important question regarding the safety and security of the crypto sphere. As of right now, TRM has not discovered any appreciable variations in attack vectors or attack volume during the first two months of 2023 and 2024, nor any fundamental shifts in the security of the cryptocurrency ecosystem that could account for this increased trend.
Nonetheless, compared to last year’s period, the average token price has climbed dramatically over the last six months, which probably helped explain the rise in theft rates.
