A South Asian man has been sentenced to five years behind bars for defrauding a few hundred Coinbase users of $20 million using a fraudulent copy of the cryptocurrency exchange’s website.
In an Oct. 17 statement, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina said Chirag Tomar, 31, an Indian citizen, and his co-conspirators had been operating a fraudulent version of the Coinbase Pro website since at least 2021.
Once users logged onto the fake Coinbase website, the scammers stole their login credentials and authentication information, gaining access to victims’ crypto wallets.
Scammers posed as Coinbase employees
In some cases, users were tricked into providing their login and authentication information used on the real Coinbase website or allowed fraudsters posing as Coinbase employees to execute software allowing them unrestricted access to victims’ computers. Users were also referred to fake customer service representatives who convinced them to allow the scammers remote access to their computers.
After gaining access, the scammers transferred out all of the victim’s crypto to wallets under their control.
In one instance, a victim in the Western District of North Carolina logged onto the spoof website in 2022 and was told his account was locked. He was then prompted to call a certain number linked to a fake customer service representative to unlock his account. After providing his two-factor authentication (2FA) to the fraudulent representative, he lost the balance of his Coinbase wallet, which was worth over $240,000.
According to authorities, after Tomar received the stolen crypto, he converted it into another crypto, then into cash, which was distributed among scammers who used it to fund lavish lifestyles.
Tomar bought luxury watches and cars, such as Lamborghinis and Porsches, and traveled to locations abroad, such as Dubai and Thailand.
Tomar was arrested at the Atlanta airport on Dec. 20, 2023, while trying to enter the United States. On May 20, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.
Two men arrested for $230M crypto theft
In a similar case in September, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced two men were arrested and charged for allegedly stealing $230 million worth of Bitcoin from a Washington, D.C. resident thought to be a creditor of Bankrupt crypto exchange Genesis.
Authorities say the two suspects, Malone Lam and Jeandiel Serrano, used online aliases and sophisticated methods to access the victim’s accounts.
The pair allegedly posed as Google Support via a fake phone number to compromise the victim’s personal accounts. Then, they called, posing as Gemini exchange support, claiming the account had been hacked and convincing the victim to reset their two-factor authentication (2FA).
The victim was also persuaded to run screen-sharing software, exposing his private Bitcoin keys.
Malone and Jeandiel have allegedly been transferring and laundering the stolen loot since August, using the funds to fund lavish lifestyles, including international travel, luxury vehicles, jewelry, designer handbags and rental homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
