Over the past year, users of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase have lost between $100 million and $150 million to phishing and social engineering scams, according to on-chain investigator ZachXBT.

Have not seen numbers publicly reported anywhere before but I estimate Coinbase support social engineering / phishing scams have resulted in $100M-$150M stolen in just the past year from its users.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 23, 2024

These findings were shared in response to a tweet by MistTrack, who recounted an attempted scam involving a fake email purportedly from Coinbase support.

“These scammers are getting increasingly sophisticated. I almost fell for it, but I always double-check the sender’s address,” MistTrack noted.

Lack of Reporting and Regulatory Issues

ZachXBT stated that he has not seen any official reports from Coinbase regarding these incidents and based his estimates on data from affected users.

“This is primarily the fault of the US government for weak consumer data protection laws, such as those concerning phone numbers. Exchanges outside the US rarely face this issue on such a scale,” he said.

He also stressed that Coinbase should take stronger measures to protect its users and hold negligent service providers accountable.

Recent Scam-Related Incidents

In a recent case, Chirag Tomar, an Indian national, was sentenced to five years in prison for organizing a $20 million scam involving a fake Coinbase website.

In June, Coinbase was listed among the US companies most frequently targeted by phishing attacks, according to Mailsuite.