Coinbase SIM Swapping Scams: Victims of Crypto Theft Have Options

Coinbase customers may be at risk of SIM swapping scams, in which scammers maliciously obtain access to victims’ mobile accounts. If a fraudster stole cryptocurrency from your account through a SIM swap scam, Coinbase may be liable to you. Because customers sign a user agreement that requires them to resolve disputes through binding arbitration, you cannot sue Coinbase in court. To discuss your case with SIM swap attorneys[1] experienced in the arbitration process, please contact our law firm at 800-767-8040 for a free consultation. 

What Is SIM Swapping?

As Coinbase explains[2] in its Help Center, SIM swapping is a “phone-based attack” that occurs when a hacker induces their victim’s mobile carrier to give them access to the victim’s mobile device. They do this specifically by gaining access to the target’s SIM number, which is not physically tied to a user’s SIM card. In SIM swapping scams, the fraudster induces the mobile carrier to switch the card associated with a given SIM number, thereby routing calls and texts to the new card. 

How do fraudsters achieve this? “Through a variety of means,” Coinbase explains, “including identity theft and socially engineering mobile-carrier customer-support representatives.” In some cases, they deceive the mobile carrier into completing the switch; in other cases they might bribe an employee of the carrier. 

SIM Swappers Can Access Financial Accounts

Crucially, gaining access to the SIM card is only the beginning of the attack. Once attackers transfer a victim’s number to their own devices, they can initiate password-recovery processes on the victim’s other accounts. This gives them the ability to then log into the victim’s financial accounts, including any cryptocurrency accounts on Coinbase. 

Coinbase Users Fall Victim to SIM Swappers

Unfortunately, attackers have already targeted Coinbase users through SIM swapping scams. In March 2024, ABC News reported[3] on a Chicago-area family whose five phones were accessed by hackers. In addition to locking them out of email, Amazon, and social media accounts, the attackers also locked them out of investment accounts on Robinhood and Coinbase. “There were bank transfers that they attempted,” one member of the family said. “Luckily, we stopped it in time and they were able to stop that.”

Earlier this year, cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs wrote about[4] the victim of a SIM swapping attack who lost roughly $100,000 from his Coinbase account in 2021. The victim, a California healthcare worker, alleges in a new lawsuit that “thieves stole his bitcoin on Dec. 14, 2021, by executing an unauthorized SIM-swap that involved an employee at his mobile phone provider who switched Dellone’s phone number over to a new device the attackers controlled.” In addition to suing the (unknown) owners of the Bitcoin wallet that now holds his stolen funds, he has also named Coinbase as a defendant. He alleges that the platform “ignored multiple red flags, and that it should have detected and stopped the theft.” 

Contact MDF Law’s Crypto Attorneys Today

Coinbase may be liable to hacked users[5] whose cryptocurrency assets are stolen by SIM swap attackers. If you are the victim of SIM swapping, you have the right to pursue dispute resolution with Coinbase through binding arbitration. To discuss your case for free, call our law firm. We take cases on a contingency basis—clients only pay if they win, as opposed to hourly fees—and offer free consultations nationwide. Call 800-767-8040 for a free consultation today.