Massachusetts complaint says scammers impersonated Coinbase support and stole 110,270 USDT from a local trader

A Massachusetts court filing says a crypto trader handed over Coinbase login details after believing he was emailing the exchange’s support team. The case is a clean example of account takeover, the sort of fraud that hits crypto platforms, bank portals, and social media with the same boringly effective playbook.

1. According to the complaint filed in a Massachusetts district court, the victim was tricked into sharing his login, password, and other confidential account-access information after receiving text messages from scammers posing as Coinbase support. He thought the conversation was happening by email with the exchange’s help desk.
2. Shortly after that, the stablecoins were withdrawn from the owner’s account. The original report does not specify the full breakdown of the stolen assets, but it does say the scammers took 110,270 USDT.
3. Investigators traced part of the stolen crypto assets to a crypto address on Binance. In August, law enforcement successfully seized those assets, which were valued at $47,000 at the time the complaint was filed.
4. US prosecutors said scammers often use account takeover schemes to gain unauthorized access to victims’ accounts on crypto platforms, online banking portals, or social networks. In the US, property and assets obtained through that kind of scheme can be subject to civil forfeiture, meaning the government seizes criminal proceeds and holds them for victims rather than keeping them for itself.
5. The victim can assert a claim to the property in court. The report also notes that Florida prosecutors previously helped return $5.4 million to victims of crypto fraud, where scammers had lured people through dating sites and social networks into sending funds to fake crypto investment projects.