Coinbase user loses over $11 million in 10 minutes to scam fake media

Posted:

November 1, 2021 06:24 GMT

The incident occurred last April, after a user of the platform bought 200 bitcoins and received a notification alerting him that his account had been banned.

A US federal judge approved an order in October to recover more than $600,000 in bitcoin from the Huobi Global wallet, after investigators discovered they were part of looting from $11.6 million stolen From a Coinbase account, reach Interested in trade.

Last April, after buying 200 bitcoins, a Coinbase user You get a notification alerting you that your account has been banned, says the complaint filed by the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles. The cryptocurrency exchange user, identified as GR, called the phone number listed in the warning, thinking he would contact the company’s customer service representative, according to court documents.

An unidentified person answered the call and asked GR to make a number of changes to the account, such as Allow remote access, as indicated in the complaint. “Once access is granted to the victim’s account, the unidentified person Increase your daily transaction limit And also try to disable certain alerts and alert settings on the victim’s account,” Deputy US Attorney Dan G. Boyle detailed in a document filed in September in the US District Court in the US Central District, California.

Within minutes, millions of bitcoins and XLM were withdrawn from the user’s account. “The total value of virtual currency transferred from the victim’s account between 2:02:40 PST and 2:12:41 PST on or about April 20, 2021, without permission from GR, was from Approximately $11,570,138“Prosecutors.

Then the funds were transferred by an unknown person through a series of transactions between different accounts. About 10.2 bitcoins ended up in one Huobi Global, one of the largest exchanges in the world, according to the data of investigators, who filed a forfeiture order to claim those bitcoins. In early October, Judge Dolly M.

“Huobi agreed to keep the funds frozen pending a decision to proceed with the forfeiture.“No one has been arrested or charged, but our investigation is ongoing,” Tom Mrozek, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles, explained. So far, Huobi Global and Coinbase have not commented on the incident.