Report reveals Coinbase as the crypto brand most frequently mimicked by scammers

A recent survey has revealed that Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange is the most targeted brand by scammers and malicious actors in the Web3 space.
Out of all the crypto firms in the United States, Coinbase was the most impersonated in phishing attacks. Phishing attacks are online scams designed to deceive investors into sending digital assets to the scammer’s crypto wallet.
Over the past four years, the Coinbase brand was unlawfully used in 416 reported phishing attacks, as per a Mailsuite report shared with Cointelegraph. The report, which examined more than 1.14 million scams, indicated that over 249,000 of these incidents involved attackers posing as a company or organization.
Coinbase, the world’s second-largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX), has a daily crypto trading volume exceeding $1.8 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. The platform boasts a perfect trust score of 10/10 and attracts over 40.9 million monthly visits, according to CoinGecko data.
Despite Coinbase being the most impersonated among crypto firms, other traditional finance and technology brands have also fallen victim to scams on a larger scale. Bank of America faced 645 phishing attempts, while Mastercard was targeted in 1,262 such incidents.
Surprisingly, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was the most impersonated brand by scammers, with at least 10,457 reported scam incidents in the past four years. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service followed closely behind, with 9,762 reported scams using their name.
Crypto scams and exploits continue to be a significant concern, with nearly $19 billion in crypto stolen over the past 13 years through 785 reported hacks and exploits, as per a Crystal Intelligence report shared with Cointelegraph. The largest single crypto theft case remains the 2019 Plus Token scam, where attackers made off with $2.9 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
These incidents highlight the ongoing challenges facing the crypto industry in terms of trust and adoption. Despite efforts to combat these crimes, the first quarter of 2024 saw a 42% increase in stolen funds compared to the same period in 2023, indicating that crypto hacks and exploits remain a significant obstacle in the industry.