In a recent development, Coinbase, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange, has reportedly dismissed a number of customer support agents due to their suspected participation in social engineering attacks against customers. These agents were primarily operating from India, as stated in a Fortune interview on May 15.
Philip Martin, the Chief Security Officer of Coinbase, reported that the company had identified customer support contractors who inadvertently provided scammers with access to user data. He hinted that these individuals might be Indian nationals. This revelation followed a series of phishing attempts using Coinbase user data, which the exchange estimates could potentially result in a loss of $180 to $400 million in terms of remediation and compensation.
Qiao Wang, a key member of Alliance DAO, expressed in a May 15 post that he could have been a target of such an attack. He narrated how a scammer informed him about a potential security breach in his Coinbase account. The scammer then asked Wang to confirm his personal details, which the fraudsters may have procured through the compromised agents, and urged him to transfer all his assets to a “Coinbase self-custodial wallet”.
Wang expressed his dissatisfaction with the scammer’s tactics, stating, “I told them they needed to up their game […] They claimed they had made $7m that day.”
As of now, both Martin and Coinbase have not responded to requests for comments. This is an ongoing story, and updates will be provided as more information becomes available.
