According to Techub News, Edge&Node CEO Tegan Kline released a report on Twitter stating that criminals impersonated the Coinbase security team to launch phishing attacks on cryptocurrency users and defrauded $1.7 million.

According to the report, a scammer pretending to be from the security team of a cryptocurrency exchange contacted a cryptocurrency investor via Google Voice. The scammer, who falsely claimed to be named “David Brown,” contacted the victim to “confirm” suspicious transactions in their account.

The scammer claimed to need the victim’s seed phrase because their Ledger wallet was directly connected to the blockchain and he was “trying to disconnect it.” After directing the victim to a website, they argued with the scammer about the safety of this action, but ultimately entered part of the seed phrase.

A few hours later, investors received a CoinTracker alert. When checking their Ledger in real time, the victims discovered that Bitcoin, ETH, GRT, MATIC, and DOT had been stolen from their wallets, with a loss of approximately $1.7 million.