Crypto exchange user lost almost $ 12 million in a few minutes due to a fake notification

Crypto exchange user lost almost 12 million $ 

A user of the largest US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase lost $ 11.6 million in less than 10 minutes. This happened after he received a fake notification from scammers, Business Insider clarified. After buying bitcoins, the man received a message that his account was blocked following a complaint from the US prosecutor's office. He decided to call the indicated number and lost everything.

The incident happened back in April. A Coinbase user bought 200 bitcoins. Immediately after the purchase, he received a notification that his account was blocked in accordance with a complaint from the Los Angeles prosecutor's office.

The man decided to call the phone number indicated in the notification. He was sure he was talking to a cryptocurrency exchange support representative. The scammer who answered the call asked for several account changes, including allowing remote access to the account.

“After granting access to the victim's account, UI-1 (unidentified person) increased the daily transaction limit, and also tried to deactivate certain notifications and alert settings on the victim's account,” the assistant prosecutor said.

In 8 minutes, the user lost $ 11.6 million of virtual currency. This money was transferred to several accounts. According to the prosecutor's office, 10.2 bitcoins were credited to the account of the Huobi Global exchange. Investigators filed a confiscation notice to return the user at least $ 600,000.

Now it is being investigated how the scammers found out about the American's transactions in Coinbase. The suspects have not yet been identified.

Earlier, "Secret" said that hackers stole cryptocurrency from the accounts of 6,000 Coinbase users. The exchange promised the victims of the hack to reimburse the stolen funds.