One of the ways that online hackers and scammers try to get information from customers is through phishing.
Phishing is a fraudulent practice that can happen via different means of communication, including emails, SMS texts, social media posts and fraudulent URLs. These attackers will brand themselves and pretend to be Coinbase in order to obtain sensitive information, such as passwords and 2FA codes.
To help identify what these may look like, here are some examples of different phishing scams.
When hovering over the hyperlink in this email example above, you will find that it directs you to a page that is not Coinbase.com. This is an immediate red flag – do not engage with these emails.
Emails from Coinbase will always have the coinbase.com domain name at the end of them.
Examples include, but are not limited to:
support@coinbase.com
help@coinbase.com
contact@coinbase.com
no-reply@coinbase.com
compliance-kyc@coinbase.com
We also send emails from Coinbase sub-domains.
Examples include, but are not limited to:
contact@updates.coinbase.com
info@cb.mail.coinbase.com
@mail.coinbase.com
Regardless of sub-domain, we cryptographically sign all of our emails using DKIM and protect our domain against unsigned email with DMARC.
Website
Take note of the URL: www-coinbase.com. The landing page may look familiar, but the dash between “www” and “coinbase.com” in the URL signifies that this is not www.coinbase.com. Scammers can create fake websites asking for sensitive information to gain control of your accounts.
Coinbase employees will NEVER ask you to share your password, 2-step verification codes or private keys. If someone claiming to be from Coinbase asks you for this information, it is a scam.
Tip: Utilising your browser’s bookmark function to access Coinbase websites is a good way to safeguard any URL typos.
SMS
If you receive a text message reporting that you’ve received digital currency that you did not authorise, it is probably a phishing attempt. Coinbase does not send out texts to verify transactions. Notice that the links here do not direct you to www.coinbase.com. Do not click these links.
Reporting phishing
Report phishing to Coinbase
Please report any Coinbase phishing sites you encounter.
If you are a victim of a phishing attack, please immediately take action to secure your account by changing your email and Coinbase password. If you have further questions or suffered a financial loss due to this attack, please contact our support team.