Coinbase, the renowned cryptocurrency exchange, is the most impersonated brand by scammers in the Web3 space, according to a recent survey.
A Mailsuite report reveals that among all U.S. crypto firms, Coinbase’s name is used the most in phishing attacks. These schemes trick investors into sending digital assets to fraudsters’ wallets. Over the past four years, Coinbase was fraudulently used in 416 phishing attacks.
The report analyzed over 1.14 million scams, with 249,000 involving the impersonation of companies or organizations. Coinbase, the world’s second-largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) with a daily trading volume exceeding $1.8 billion, was a prime target due to its high trust score of 10/10 and 40.9 million monthly visits, according to CoinGecko.
While Coinbase led in the crypto sector, traditional finance and tech brands were also major targets. Bank of America and Mastercard faced 645 and 1,262 phishing attempts, respectively. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, was the most impersonated brand overall, with 10,457 scam incidents reported in the past four years. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service followed closely with 9,762 impersonations.
Despite the maturing crypto industry, scams and exploits are still rampant. Nearly $19 billion worth of crypto has been stolen in 785 hacks and exploits over the past 13 years, according to a Crystal Intelligence report. The largest theft was the 2019 Plus Token fraud, where $2.9 billion in Bitcoin and Ether were stolen.
Crypto hacks remain a significant obstacle to mainstream adoption and trust. With $542.7 million stolen in the first quarter of 2024 alone—a 42% increase from the same period in 2023—this trend shows no signs of slowing down.
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