The Coinbase data breach and a fake-support loss

🆘
First major victims emerge from the #Coinbase data breach.

Ed Suman, 67, a former artist who helped build Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog, lost his entire $2M+ crypto retirement fund after falling for a fake Coinbase support call.

We’re telling you this so you stay cautious with your data - so that your 🚨 alarm bells go off immediately when someone like this contacts you.

– 17.5 BTC + 225 ETH gone
– Stored on a Trezor Model One (cold wallet)
– Phished via seed phrase input on a fake site
– Attackers had his full personal data from the Coinbase breach

Coinbase confirmed hackers gained access to sensitive customer info by bribing support staff in India.
Leaked data included:
– Full names
– Email addresses
– Home addresses
– Balances
– Transaction history

Attackers used social engineering, not code exploits. They posed as “Coinbase Security”, guiding victims to reveal seed phrases under false urgency.

Suman fell for it twice in March 2025. Nine days after the first call, a second “agent” repeated the scam. The result: full drain.

Coinbase:
– Admitted breach
– Says only 1% of monthly users affected
– Promised compensation for victims
– No payout confirmed for Suman

The same attackers also targeted:
– Roelof Botha (Sequoia Capital, ex-PayPal CFO)
– Kraken and Binance (attacks repelled)

This is the 8th-largest crypto hack ever (Elliptic)
– Estimated user losses: up to $400M
– Bybit lost $1.5B in a direct breach/ hack in Feb 2025

🚨 Important: Despite the data breach, the loss ultimately comes down to the wallet owner.
Ed Suman voluntarily entered his seed phrase - the single point of failure in #crypto security.
No one, not even Coinbase, can reverse that.

Suman:

> “They made it feel real. Coinbase failed. I was impressed how good the scammers were.”

He still believes in crypto. But now he uses multisig wallets.

Reminder:
NO legit support will ever ask for your seed phrase.
Even cold wallets can’t protect you from your own trust.

Stay safe. Stay your $MASTR of crypto

@coinbase

Thousands of people specialize in #crypto #scams - entire factories and call centers, especially in India. But that’s nothing new. Some run multiple scam "business units" at once: from fake Microsoft support calls, to phishing seed phrases, to launching and pumping memecoins before rugging. For them, this is daily business.

The only way to fight back is through awareness, empowerment, and knowledge - because for many, scamming is simply worth it.