Pwnedbase

Coinbase's customer support line rings. The voice sounds legitimate, professional, concerned.

"We've detected suspicious activity on your account."

They know your name, your recent trades, that ETH deposit from last Tuesday.

Too bad you're already exit liquidity. You just haven't realized it yet.

While Coinbase focused on regulatory battles, scammers drained $65 million from Coinbase users' pockets in just two months.

Behind each theft lurks an organized playbook - leaked personal data, spoofed phone numbers, and support tickets that gather dust faster than a forgotten hardware wallet.

The official numbers? Just the tip of a very ugly iceberg floating in crypto's dark waters.

Web2 security guarding Web3 money - who could have predicted this disaster?

Social engineering doesn't need smart contracts to empty your wallet. Sometimes all it takes is a phone call.

The playbook reads like a masterclass in digital sleight of hand.

First, the spoof - scammers armed with leaked personal data call from a number matching Coinbase support.

Your caller ID betrays you before you even pick up.

Next comes the hook - a well-crafted phishing email slides into your inbox, complete with a case ID that would make compliance officers proud.

The attacker's attention to detail would be admirable if it wasn't so profitable.

Finally, the trap snaps shut. A cloned Coinbase login page, pixel-perfect down to the latest UI update, harvests your credentials faster than a MEV bot on an NFT mint.

The grand finale? You "verify" your account by sending funds to a "secure" wallet.

Spoiler alert: It's about as secure as using "password123" for your seed phrase.

Want to see where your crypto really goes after the curtain falls?

The Money Trail

ZachXBT's investigation uncovered the surgical precision behind these attacks.

His analysis exposed a single address - coinbase-hold.eth - connecting over 25 victims in a methodical drain of user funds.

The scammers' operational efficiency puts most DAOs to shame.

The stolen funds enter a washing machine that would make your local laundromat jealous.

Funds get swapped, bridged, and mixed until they're cleaner than a Genesis wallet.

The real kicker? These aren't just basement-dwelling script kiddies armed with YouTube tutorials.

Two major players run this circus: "The Com" - Telegram's finest crypto redistribution experts, and organized fraud rings operating out of India with the precision of a Fortune 500 company.

When scammers run a tighter ship than your security team, maybe it's time to update more than just your terms of service?

Security Theater

While scammers perfect their craft, Coinbase's security measures look more decorative than defensive.

Known theft addresses operate freely for weeks, processing millions in stolen funds while support tickets gather dust.

Their anti-fraud measures move slower than ETH gas fees during an NFT drop, and their response team seems permanently AFK.

The security holes read like a greatest hits album.

Their "read-only" API keys turned out to be more "read-write-and-help-yourself."

A verification code bug let attackers send 2FA codes to any email address they fancied.

The $15.9M Coinbase Commerce exploit gathered dust in the corner while a cool $38M from the BTCTurk hack strolled through their front door and out the back.

But hey, at least their compliance paperwork is in order. Priorities, right?

While users hemorrhage $300 million annually to these scams, Coinbase is busy pressing regulators to let banks outsource crypto custody to them.

Nothing says "ready for traditional finance" quite like losing millions to spoofed phone calls.

Competing exchanges - Binance, Kraken, OKX - somehow dodge this particular brand of chaos.

Their security teams don't seem to use "thoughts and prayers" as a first line of defense.

When your competitors' security actually works, what's your excuse?

The Fixes They Won’t Fix

Coinbase's leadership has all the tools to stop this bleeding. They just can't hear the screams over the sound of their compliance budget.

The solutions aren't exactly quantum physics.

Verified users could ditch phone numbers when using security keys.

Beginner accounts could block withdrawals to new addresses.

The bot army could be replaced with actual humans for fraud response.

They could even take legal action against US-based scammers whose OpSec is worse than their grammar.

But when you're swimming in trading fees, what's a few rekt users between friends?

The company that promised to make crypto accessible to everyone succeeded beyond their wildest dreams - they made it accessible to scammers too.

Until real changes happen, Coinbase users will keep playing Russian roulette with Web2 security.

The chamber's loaded with social engineering, and everyone's trigger finger is itchy.

Remember anon, when "Coinbase Support" calls, they're not sending their best.

They're sending their scammers, their fraudsters, and some, we assume, are good people.

Touch grass. Not the fake support button.

So the biggest threat to centralized crypto wasn't the SEC after all - just some spoofed phone numbers and a customer support team moving at the speed of Ethereum 1.0?

Sixty-five million dollars in two months vanished while Coinbase perfected their SEC defense strategy.

Their users' phones keep ringing, support tickets pile up, and scammers craft ever-more convincing ways to drain accounts.

The company that promised to onboard billions to crypto succeeded spectacularly - they've onboarded plenty of scammers too.

Each passing month adds fresh victims to the pile, their losses dissolving into crypto's dark waters faster than Coinbase can hit "reply all" on their latest security breach template.

Meanwhile, competitors somehow manage to keep their users' funds intact without relying on Web2 security from 2014. Strange how that works.

Special thanks to ZachXBT, whose relentless investigation exposed the full scope of this systematic failure.

If you've fallen victim to these scams, reach out to zeroShadow or SEAL911 - they're actually doing something about it.

Coinbase's security team? Still working on that transition.

While Coinbase drags their feet, on-chain sleuths like Zach continue doing the real work of protecting users.

The tools exist. The solutions are clear. The only missing ingredient? Giving a damn.

When your exchange becomes exit liquidity for scammers, maybe it's time to admit you're in the wrong business?

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