Scam Warning – Coinbase Users Are Being Sent Fake SMS Confirmations

Scammers are sending out fake emails and confirmation messages to Coinbase users in an attempt to lure them into revealing their account details. The exchange users are advised to be wary of such phishing attacks. 

When a New Login is Not What It Seems

Coinbase users raised an alarm about the SMS phishing attack on Reddit. In one of the messages, the recipient was informed that there was a new login to their account and the message included a malicious link for the user to disable the login. 

Out of panic, unsuspecting users, especially newbies, would easily fall for this trick, given that the malicious domain looks almost the same as Coinbase’s official domain. However, on closer inspection, one could spot the difference as the letter “a” had an odd dot below. 

Also note that the fake SMS can come with different messages, as another Redditor shared:

Today’s text was: ‘Here is your Coinbase withdrawal confirmation cxe867zd92d0p. If you did not authorise this transaction, click here to verify your account’.

How to Spot Fake Coinbase SMS and Emails

To begin with, Coinbase has already warned that it doesn’t send out texts to verify transactions: “If you receive a text message reporting that you’ve received digital currency that you did not authorise, it is likely a phishing attempt,” Coinbase cautioned. 

Emails or SMSs that claim to be from Coinbase without its official domain are probably fake. Often, the links in the message will point to another web address when you hover over them.

Fraudsters can also claim to be from wallet providers, as seen in the case of Ledger last week.