Coinbase will not call customers to warn them that their accounts may have been affected. It is a common scam vector. Still someone tried it on me.
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The story
Last weekend called an unknown Californian song ME. A helpful gentleman told me that my Coinbase account was affected during the recent data breach and he was there to help me not lose my assets.
Oh no, the horror!
Why it matters
Okay, so this is clearly a scam. Immediately after hanging with this supposed help desk agent, I sent a SMS spokesperson to verify that at any time phone call A customer to tell them that his account was being affected. It is scam 101 – If you get a phone call, inquire that your Account is compromisedor with a crypto exchange, a bank, the IRS, whatever, It’s a scam. Do not share your personal information and do not specify passwords if you call if this call is called.
There were a few errors in the attempt to get me, presumably, to move my so -called compromised Coinbase account to a different address. But I hope that this can be a useful time for the nearly 70,000 people who have been affected by the recent disclosure of Coinbase, as well as someone else who receives a phone call that has been affected by their information. This is how this went.
Breakdown
Let’s start from the start. On Saturday, May 24, I received a phone call from a number that I did not recognize on my personal phone, not my public work number. It was a weekend, one in which I actually visited family in a different state, I did not pick up. Then the same song was called back and I still did not pick up (yes I know, compelling, but it is 2025 and you can leave a voicemail or text).
Ten minutes later I received a third phone call from another number that I picked up because I was curious at the time.
A rapid talking gentleman who called himself Riccardo told me that he was part of the Actions and Protection department of Coinbase and that he contacted because my Coinbase account information was affected and a new e-mail had just been added to my account.
I was pretty confused, for reasons I will income below. But I was also intrigued because there were immediately four red flags. For the sake of simplicity, from now on I will refer the caller as “the agent”, but to be absolutely clear, I doubt that he is a real customer service agent, representative or other Coinbase employee, and he certainly did not reach me as an authorized representative of the stock exchange.
First, the phone call itself is a large red flag. Coinbase will never call a customer about an infringement, but will sooner contact customers via e -mail, it earlier said in a tweet.
This is actually standard. The Website Federal Trade Commission Comments There is a wide range of scams in which someone will call you, and numerous other commend I have warnings that their employees will never proactively call a customer about account problems.
The agent with whom I spoke said that they would freeze my account for 24 hours to ensure that no money could be stolen (thanks, I think?) And that a supervisor would reach me (I will continue to wait until this supervisor would call). This supposed freezing on my account can be extended to three months if there are several failed login attempts.
To complete the call, he said he would send me an e -mail with a summary of all the details we had discussed. On Saturday evening I received an e -mail with the subject line “Your case will be assessed.”
The follow -up mail that this very useful representative of customer service sent was extremely informative.
Firstly, the e-mail address they had linked to my account is a public address, but is not the e-mail address that is linked to my actual Coinbase account (in honesty, I forgot that part until I tried to find my login details a few days later).
Gmail initially (correctly) marked this e -mail as spam. I moved it to my inbox, where Gmail then showed me that the sender (help@info-coinbase.com) was not the actual sender-the e-mail arrived via Learnindesian.online. Even the info-coinbase.com Part is sketchy – The Coinbase website is for example coinbase.comAlthough it sends e -mails from info@info.coinbase.com -Yet you would not expect a coupling sign in an e -mail domain for support. For another, the info-coinbase domain was first made in November 2024 (according to one Icann -lookup) And is not a real website.
The e -mail heads were also not super useful in terms of providing any form of identifying information, but they confirmed that the sender seemed to have tried to hide his information.
Strangely enough, the “Visit Coinbase” link appeared to link to the actual coinbase website and there seem to be no hidden incoduced images or other attached files in the Email. I’m not sure what’s going on there. A real scammer could have embedded a kind of virus in the E -mail or even a tracking pixel. Another common tools that can use is a phishing -link instead of placing a legitimate in an e -mail, which means that the user goes to a website that is intended to steal their login data (this is not legally, technical or another type of advice; if you decide to lift someone you have taken it out of this newsletter, stop).
Although scammers may sometimes know how much their intended victims have in a wallet or account, the person who called me did not seem to have that information (because I have zero crypto in my Coinbase account).
I called the song on Friday to see what could happen. Nobody picked up. I think my account should now be safe.
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- SEC Task Force Chief says that crypto traders should grow, not cry until the government: SEC commissioner Hester Peirce told the Bitcoin 2025 Las Vegas audience that it is great to invest in speculative assets, especially if there is no federal regulator with close supervision, but those investors cannot ask for a rescue operation when the prices sink.
- US House Republicans officially introduce a crypto market structure account: Huis republicans have formally introduced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the market structure account, only a few weeks after the circulation of a discussion concept.
- Crypto -deployment does not violate the American securities law, says SEC: The last personnel statement of the SEC looks at the result and how the securities ruler could evaluate that part of the crypto ecosystem.
- Sec files to reject a long-term lawsuit against Binance: The SEC and Binance have submitted a joint provision to drop the case of the regulator against Binance.
- Suspects in Crypto’s abduction of Manhattan, torture case do not argue as the investigation increases: The news was broken during the weekend that a crypto investor was kidnapped and tortured for his bitcoin tests. Two suspects accused of committing the kidnapping have been arrested and have not committed guilty.
- Trump’s Memecoin Dinner interviewed by Top Democrat in House Judiciary Committee: Jamie Raskin, the top democrat in the Judiciary Committee house, wrote a letter to US President Donald Trump who called him to publish the names of his guests during last week’s Memecoin dinner.
Friday
- 15:00 UTC (11:00 am et) A federal judge held a telephone list to assess the defense argument of Roman Storm that the Ministry of Justice may have withheld information. The judge ruled that in her opinion the DOJ did not have to revise its materials and had not withheld information that increased to the level of the influence of the procedure.
- ((The Washington Post)) The White House published a “Make America Healthy Again” report that quoted non -existent studies and references -with a significant signs that AI may have been used to generate at least some parts of the report.
- ((The Federal Reserve)) The Fed said that 8% of adults who responded to a survey said they kept cryptocurrency in the US, against 12% four years ago.
If you have thoughts or questions about what I have to discuss next week or other feedback that you want to share, feel free to send me an e -mail at nik@coindesk.com or find me on bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
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See you next week!