Jason Gewirtz, the Vice President of News at CNBC, narrowly avoided having his Coinbase account compromised last week after receiving a highly sophisticated fraudulent phone call. The incident, which lasted approximately 15 minutes, began when a caller with a San Francisco Bay Area (650) code identified himself as "Brian Miller" from Coinbase security.
The scammer immediately created a sense of urgency, claiming suspicious login attempts from Frankfurt, Germany, and unauthorized transfer activity. To bolster credibility, the attacker possessed Gewirtz's personal data, including his Social Security number, phone number, and email address, and falsely claimed to have a photo matching Gewirtz's Coinbase face scan.
The fraudster sent emails appearing to be from Coinbase, complete with correct confirmation codes and official logos, but from suspicious domains like "mail-coinbase.com via sportuel.com" and "info.coinbase via live-coinbase.com." The scam escalated as "Brian" pressured Gewirtz to set up a "Coinbase Hard Wallet" and actively discouraged him from changing his Coinbase password, falsely stating it would freeze the account for two weeks.
Suspicious, Gewirtz used Anthropic's AI chatbot, Claude, to analyze the email addresses, which identified the attempt as "almost certainly a PHISHING scam." He also contacted a former Coinbase employee who confirmed the company does not call customers directly. Coinbase's security team was alerted and confirmed the fraud within minutes.
In response, a Coinbase spokesperson emphasized the company invests heavily in prevention and detection, and stated unequivocally: "If someone tells you to move funds to protect them, it’s a scam." The company acknowledged that artificial intelligence is making such scams harder to detect, as attackers use bots and AI voice tools.
The incident highlights a dramatic surge in impersonation attacks. ZeroShadow, a crypto recovery firm, reported a 1,400% increase in impersonation scams over the past year. The firm's CEO, Casey G., noted attackers often recruit and train young men using scripts and voice modulation devices. ZeroShadow has recovered approximately $200 million for victims over the last four years, though tracing stolen crypto remains difficult and often requires local law enforcement.
