Technical support scammers set up fake customer support phone lines and impersonate companies—including Coinbase—or regulatory bodies. They manipulate people into providing personal information that will be used for fraudulent purposes.
To help protect your information:
Never give support staff remote access to your computer. This effectively gives a scammer full access to your computer, online financial accounts, and digital life.
Never give out your 2-step verification codes or passwords.
Never accept calls asking for your confidential personal information. Scammers can spoof legitimate phone numbers when conducting outbound calls.
Only contact Coinbase through the phone number or email listed on our Contact us page.
Never send cryptocurrency to external addresses on behalf of alleged support agents. Coinbase staff will never ask you to send cryptocurrency to external addresses.
Coinbase customer service agents will never:
Ask for your password or 2-step verification code
Ask you to install software on your device
Remotely access your device to take action on your account
Access or move funds held in your account
If you’re asked for any of the above, disconnect the call and email security@coinbase.com immediately.
Note: If you’re disconnected from a customer service call, the agent will call you back within five minutes at the same phone number. Before continuing the conversation, the agent will re-verify your identity with a security question.
Pro tip: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Loader or load-up scams
Fraudsters frequently offer “loading” services on a variety of platforms. They claim to need Coinbase accounts with high limits, offering the victim a portion of the proceeds. These scammers use stolen credit cards on compromised accounts to perpetuate payment fraud. The end result is the victim is left with payment delinquencies after the legitimate card holder discovers the fraud, the scammer often steals any available cryptocurrencies and submits unauthorized charges on verified payment methods. Be aware, you are responsible for any payments submitted using your authentication credentials.
Never provide your passwords or security codes to third parties under any circumstances.
Report any “loaders” to Coinbase and to the platform where they are advertising their credit card fraud.