Scammer told Casa CEO Nick Neuman, “We’re calling CEOs, CFOs, and software experts. We don’t call poor people.”
It appears that crypto phishing fraudsters are generating five-figure weekly incomes by impersonating Coinbase support and exploiting exposed data to target high-ranking crypto executives and software engineers.
Bitcoin self-custody solutions company Casa’s CEO and co-founder Nick Neuman recently had a call from a “Coinbase support” scammer, who revealed more than he had anticipated when he “decided to turn the tables on him and interrogate him about being a scammer.”
In a video posted on X on November 20, Neuman documented the conversation in which the fraudster claimed that a password change request had been revoked and a notification had been sent, thereby orchestrating the attack. Neuman inquired of the fraudster regarding the type of individuals who were susceptible to the phishing assaults after the “notification” included a harmful link.
“You would be astonished; it is individuals such as yourself, who are the CEO of Casa […] We are targeting software engineers, CFOs, and CEOs,” he stated before continuing.
“We do not contact impoverished individuals; the data we possess is sourced from a database that mandates a minimum income of $50,000.”
The fraudster further stated that “money or education is not a determining factor,” stating that they obtain information about their high-roller targets from the Bitcoin financial services company Unchained Capital.
“We operate the Unchained database under the assumption that individuals who are interested in cryptocurrency will have a Coinbase account. Consequently, this is the method we employ.”
The criminals claimed that they employ a “auto-doxxer” to obtain additional information about their targets prior to conducting deceptive calls. Additionally, they have the ability to counterfeit emails to make them appear to be from Coinbase.
The fraudster stated that the ultimate objective is not to obtain the victim’s password, but rather to induce them to transfer funds to a wallet that they possess.
They have utilized Tornado Cash to launder stolen crypto, as they are not located in the United States. Occasionally, they exchange it for the privacy coin Monero.
“The funds are no longer visible after you retain them in XMR for a few days.” When inquired about the process of converting to fiat, he stated that they do not utilize any KYC exchanges and instead rely on hardware wallets. He specifically mentioned Ledger, which has been the target of fraud assaults since its database was breached in 2020, before proceeding to use intermediaries to withdraw funds.
The fraudster claimed that it was effortless to access company databases and that cryptocurrency was akin to the “Wild Wild West.”
Web3 security firm Scam Sniffer reports that crypto phishing attacks resulted in the theft of over $127 million during the third quarter.
Also Read: Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson endorses Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong as the crypto-czar
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