The crypto market was heating up and Fred, who is in his 60s and lives in Connecticut, figured it was a good time to shift some of the positions he held in his Coinbase account. After encountering some difficulties with the website, Fred decided to call the company. He searched for Coinbase on Google and, at top of the page, he saw an ad that prominently displayed a customer service phone number. Upon calling it, a representative informed Fred that he had "one of the older accounts" but required updating. That's when the trouble began.
Less than 20 minutes later, Fred—who asked his last name not be used to avoid attracting unwanted attention—had been robbed of more than $100,000 of Bitcoin, Ethereum and cash. It turned out the Indian-accented representative he had called did not work for Coinbase at all but for scammers. In their short conversation, the rep not only persuaded Fred to share his Coinbase password but also to open his online banking portal—Fred only cut off the scammer upon receiving a call from Wells Fargo asking him about unusual activity.
