Phishing Scammer Sentenced to 4-12 Years Over $16M Coinbase Scheme

A phishing scammer behind a $16 million scheme targeting Coinbase users has been sentenced to 4-12 years in prison. The scam involved phishing attacks on journalists and other individuals, with attackers using device-code authentication and AI to automate reconnaissance and impersonation.

The compromised accounts were linked to smart wallets that settled advertising revenue in USDC through the Roundtable's DeFi media payment platform, which is powered by Coinbase. This allowed the scammers to access a large sum of funds without raising any red flags.