One Hundred Victims, One Fake Name

In December 2025, a 23-year-old man in Brooklyn was indicted for stealing nearly $16 million from approximately 100 crypto investors.

His method was straightforward. He posed as a Coinbase representative and contacted investors directly. He told them their accounts had security issues and that their funds needed to be moved to a new wallet he would set up. He asked for their seed phrases or directed them to transfer their crypto to wallets he controlled. Once he had access, the funds were gone within minutes.

Coinbase, like every legitimate crypto platform, will never ask for your seed phrase. No one who does is working for them.