Brooklyn Man Gets Up to 12 Years for Coinbase Phishing Scam

A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for his role in a $16 million phishing scam targeting Coinbase users. Ronald Spektor, 23, posed as a representative from Coinbase and convinced victims that their accounts were under threat from hackers.

Spektor then socially engineered them into moving their cryptocurrency to what they believed was a secure new wallet, which he controlled. He laundered the funds through swapping and mixing services and crypto gambling sites, with some victims losing $1 million or more.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office investigated Spektor, tracing his digital trail and linking his home IP address to several of the victims' wallets. They also found that he recruited accomplices on online forums and bragged about his thefts on a Telegram channel under the handle '@lolimfeelingevil'.

Spektor pleaded guilty to all 31 counts, including first-degree money laundering and grand larceny. He must forfeit over $500,000 in assets and pay nearly $16 million in restitution.