Source: Cointelegraph
Original: “Retired Artist Loses $2M in Crypto to Coinbase Impersonator”
Retired artist Ed Suman became a victim of fraud earlier this year, losing over $2 million in cryptocurrency. The scammer impersonated a Coinbase support representative and tricked him into giving up his assets.
According to a report by Bloomberg on May 17, the 67-year-old Suman worked as a manufacturer in the art world for nearly two decades, contributing to high-profile works including Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture.
After retiring, he turned to cryptocurrency investment, eventually accumulating 17.5 Bitcoin (BTC) and 225 Ethereum (ETH), which made up the majority of his retirement savings.
He stored his funds in a Trezor Model One hardware wallet, a commonly used hardware wallet among cryptocurrency holders to avoid the risk of exchange hacks. However, in March, Suman received a text message that appeared to be from Coinbase, warning him of unauthorized access to his account.
After replying to the text, he received a call from a man claiming to be a Coinbase security personnel named Brett Miller. The caller seemed knowledgeable and accurately mentioned that Suman's funds were stored in a hardware wallet.
He then convinced Suman that there might still be vulnerabilities in his wallet and guided him through a "security procedure," asking him to enter his seed phrase on a website that mimicked the Coinbase interface.
Nine days later, another caller claiming to be from Coinbase repeated the process. After that call ended, all of Suman's cryptocurrency assets were gone.
This scam occurred after a data breach incident disclosed by Coinbase this week. Attackers obtained sensitive user information by bribing customer support personnel in India.
The stolen data included customer names, account balances, and transaction histories. Coinbase confirmed that the breach affected about 1% of its monthly trading users.
Among the affected users is Roelof Botha, managing partner at Sequoia Capital and a venture capitalist. There are currently no signs that his funds were accessed, and Botha declined to comment.
Reportedly, Coinbase's Chief Security Officer Philip Martin stated that the contract customer service agents at the center of the controversy were located in India and were fired after the breach.
The exchange also stated that it plans to pay between $180 million and $400 million to fix and compensate affected users.
Related: Coinbase Shares Drop 7% Due to Customer Data Breach and SEC Investigation of User Numbers
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