NYC Scammer Swipes $4M from Coinbase Users in Daring Social Engineering Heist

Hang onto your hats, folks, because blockchain sleuth ZachXBT just dropped a bombshell! A slick New York-based scammer pulled off a mind-blowing heist, snatching over $4 million from Coinbase users through a crafty social engineering scheme. This is the real deal, no fluff!

As cybersecurity gurus hustle to fortify Web3 software, crypto scammers are zeroing in on the human factor. On Monday, June 23, ZachXBT laid it all out, complete with call recordings, showing how this scammer masterfully tricked victims into spilling their wallet secrets.

1/ An investigation into how the New York based social engineering scammer Daytwo/PawsOnHips (Christian Nieves) stole $4M+ from Coinbase users by impersonating customer support, bought luxury goods, and lost most of the funds gambling at casinos. pic.twitter.com/7PsP8ymPtO

The mastermind behind this audacious scam? None other than Christian Nieves, aka "Daytwo" or "PawsOnHips" online. This guy lived large, splashing out on luxury goods and showing them off on social media like it's no big deal. ZachXBT spilled the beans, revealing that Nieves pulled off this lifestyle by running a slick phone scam.

Get this: Nieves set up a fake support call center and even picked up the phone himself, pretending to be a Coinbase rep. His crew targeted unsuspecting users, sweet-talking them into setting up Coinbase wallets with seed phrases the scammers provided. Once the funds hit the wallets, boom! The scammers drained them dry.

Scammer Swipes $240K from Elderly Victim, Gambles it on Roobet

Here's where it gets even crazier: one elderly victim got scammed out of $240K, and it was all caught on Discord. Daytwo took some of that loot straight to the betting site Roobet, while converting the rest into the privacy coin Monero (XMR).

ZachXBT did some serious digging and found that the Roobet username "pawsonhips" belongs to none other than Nieves. That deposit address? It's linked to over 30 suspected thefts, totaling around $4 million. And get this—Nieves was out there betting with his buddies during Discord calls using the same account. Bold move!

What's wild about this case is how brazen these scammers were. Unlike your typical hush-hush operations, Daytwo and his crew were all over the place, showing their faces on calls and openly chatting about laundering strategies. That big mouth is what helped investigators track them down.

While blockchain tech keeps evolving, crypto remains a prime target for these shady characters. It's open-access and lacks the usual banking safeguards, making it a playground for bad actors. ZachXBT hit the nail on the head—this kind of scam often involves these not-so-savvy scammers, whose carelessness eventually brings them down.