An Indian nationwide pleaded responsible to wire fraud conspiracy for stealing over $37 million via a pretend Coinbase web site used to steal credentials.
Chirag Tomar, 30, was arrested on the Atlanta airport on December 20, 2023, following investigations by the  U.S. Secret Service with help from the FBI in Nashville.
Stealing Coinbase credentials
Tomar and his co-conspirators created a pretend web site to imitate the Coinbase Professional web site in June 2021 utilizing the “coinbasepro.com” area.
The location was created to trick respectable Coinbase clients into coming into their login credentials and two-factor authentication codes, considering it was the precise web site.
Coinbase Professional is a now-defunct platform designed for skilled cryptocurrency merchants and traders, providing superior options like real-time order books and detailed charting.
The platform was finally shut down on November 9, 2022, with its performance and options being built-in into the essential Coinbase platform in a consolidation transfer by the service.
Throughout that point, Tomar engaged in phishing Coinbase accounts, assuming management of different folks’s cryptocurrency wallets after which transferring their funds onto wallets below his management.
The phishing course of concerned social engineering, with a pretend login error prompting the victims to name a supposed Coinbase consultant, who then breached the sufferer’s pc utilizing distant entry software program.
“Other times, victims were tricked into allowing fake Coinbase representatives into executing remote desktop software, which enabled fraudsters to gain control of victims’ computers and access their legitimate Coinbase accounts,” reads the DOJ’s announcement.
“The fraudsters also impersonated Coinbase customer service representatives and tricked the users into providing their two-factor authentication codes to the fraudsters over the phone.”
One case highlighted within the U.S. Division of Justice announcement entails a North Carolina-based sufferer shedding $240,000 value of digital property to Tomar and his co-conspirators.
“As Tomar admitted in court today, Tomar controlled several cryptocurrency wallets that received hundreds of transactions of cryptocurrency stolen from victim accounts at Coinbase, totaling tens of millions of dollars,” the Division of Justice describes.
“After Tomar received the stolen cryptocurrency, he would quickly convert it to other forms of cryptocurrency or move the funds amongst many wallets controlled by Tomar and others.”
“Ultimately, the cryptocurrency was converted into cash which was then distributed to Tomar and his co-conspirators.”
Tomar used the stolen funds to help a lavish life-style, buying luxurious objects akin to Rolex watches, Lamborghinis, and Porsches and journeys to Dubai and Thailand.
The fraudster now faces a most jail sentence of 20 years and a positive of $250,000. The dates of the subsequent hearings and sentencing have but to be decided.
