A phishing scam netted a fraudster luxury cars and foreign vacations, and then a prison sentence.
Indian citizen Chirag Tomar has been sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding Coinbase users with websites that spoofed the cryptocurrency exchange, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina announced. Tomar pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in May.
Tomar and co-conspirators created a website imitating the Coinbase Pro site and used it to steal users’ login credentials and authentication information. In some cases, users were referred to fake customer service representatives who convinced the victims to allow them remote access to their computers.
The result in either case was the loss of the cryptocurrency in the victims’ Coinbase accounts. In one incident, the victim, located in western North Carolina, lost over $240,000.
