Retired Artist Loses $2M in Crypto After Falling for Coinbase Scam

Ed Suman, 67, who once helped build Jeff Koons’ famous Balloon Dog sculptures, was tricked into revealing his wallet’s seed phrase earlier this year. After retiring from art fabrication, Suman turned to crypto and built a $2 million portfolio, including 17.5 Bitcoin and 225 Ether.

He stored the funds securely in a Trezor hardware wallet. But in March, he got a text, supposedly from Coinbase, warning of suspicious activity. Soon after, he received a phone call from someone claiming to be a Coinbase employee named “Brett Miller.”

The caller seemed convincing and correctly mentioned details about Suman’s wallet. Claiming it was at risk, the scammer directed him to a fake Coinbase website, where Suman unknowingly entered his seed phrase.

Nine days later, another scammer repeated the trick. Soon after, all of Suman’s crypto was gone.

This scam comes shortly after Coinbase revealed a serious data breach. According to reports, attackers bribed customer support agents in India and gained access to user data, including names and transaction histories.

About 1% of Coinbase’s monthly users were affected. Notable among them was Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha, though there is no sign his funds were taken.

Coinbase confirmed the breach and fired the involved agents. The company says it will pay between $180 million and $400 million to reimburse affected users.