How Zachxbt Exposed A Coinbase Impersonation Scam Using Onchain Clues (2026)
How an onchain investigator linked a Coinbase impersonation scam to $2 million in losses and why social engineering remains the real risk.
A convincing “Coinbase support” impersonation campaign was linked by onchain investigator ZachXBT to roughly $2 million in stolen crypto.
The attribution relied on corroboration across multiple signals, including onchain activity and Telegram or social media footprints rather than a single “magic” transaction.
Coinbase says its real support team will never ask for your password or 2FA codes or request that you move funds to a so-called “safe” address.
These schemes are part of a broader fraud wave. The FBI reported more than $16 billion in internet crime losses in 2024 based on 859,532 complaints.
A caller claiming to be “Coinbase support” can sound polished, patient and strangely urgent, which is exactly the mix that makes smart people move too fast. In a recent case, onchain investigator ZachXBT said this kind of impersonation campaign netted an alleged scammer roughly $2 million in crypto from Coinbase users and that the suspect’s own online footprint helped connect the dots.
Indeed, some of the biggest threats in crypto are not smart contracts or zero-day exploits, but routine social engineering. These are the same low-tech pressure tactics appearing across the internet at scale. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says reported cybercrime losses in 2024 exceeded $16 billion, and many schemes begin with nothing more than a convincing message or a spoofed call.
Did you know? In 2024, the FBI said people aged 60 and older were hit hardest overall, reporting nearly $5 billion in losses.
The case ZachXBT flagged was an old-school confidence trick dressed up as “customer support.”
According to ZachXBT, an alleged scammer posed as a Coinbase help desk worker and used social engineering tactics to convince victims he worked for the exchange, with losses totaling roughly $2 million over the past year.
Source: CoinTelegraph
