New Yorker Loses $6.5 Million to Scammers Impersonating Coinbase Support
Crypto Impersonation Scams on the Rise as Victim Deletes Their Social Media Accounts
A New York-based crypto investor has lost $6.5 million to scammers pretending to be Coinbase support agents. A supposed Coinbase support agent contacted the victim, who then lost their life savings after clicking a malicious link and entering their seed phrase.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT uncovered the intricate social engineering attack, uncovering the supposed identity of the scammer related to the attack
The victim’s first encounter with the scam was in October 2024 when he was contacted by an individual impersonating a Coinbase support agent. The fraudster used a spoofed phone number to gain the victim’s trust, directing them to a phishing website, “https://19960018-coinbase.com.” The victim was then coerced into clicking the malicious link. This ultimately drained them of their life savings to the tune of $6.5 million in digital assets.
Once stolen, the funds were quickly shuffled between Ethereum and Bitcoin wallets. From there, the scammers converted the assets into Litecoin and moved them across multiple platforms to obscure their tracks.
Ronald Spektor’s Alleged Scammers Involvement
ZachXBT’s investigation tied the scam to an individual known online as “Ronaldd,” identified as Ronald Spektor as evidence suggests he played an important role in orchestrating the attack.
According to the investigation by Zach XBT, shortly after the heist, Ronald allegedly flaunted a $3.1 million wallet balance on Discord.
“Further strengthening the connection to Ronald, a now-deleted Telegram channel in his bio associated with fraud shared screenshots of a wallet address only one hop from the $6.5M theft.” Zach shared on X
Public data breaches helped Zach close down Ronald’s identity and location. Data from the Flipd and OG User breaches linked his email address and New York-based IP addresses to the crime. Moreover, a TON blockchain address tied to his Telegram number backed the connection.
Spektor reacted quickly to the investigation as within two hours of ZachXBT publishing his findings, he deactivated his Telegram account.
Victim Left Devastated
The victim faced significant struggles after receiving poor advice to delete their social media presence. Following the theft, they deactivated their X account, making it more challenging to recover the stolen funds.
ZachXBT lamented the outcome, stating, “Unfortunately this case does not have a happy ending as the victim deleted his X account after receiving bad advice from a friend to not trust people who online.
Ronald’s accomplices in the theft remain unknown; the Ledger screenshots only show $3.1 million of the $6.5 million stolen.
Scammers impersonating exchange employees have become increasingly common. Just a few months earlier, ZachXBT revealed another victim lost $238 million in Bitcoin to similar tactics.
