Elderly man loses hundreds of thousands of dollars to Coinbase impersonation scam via phone calls
Summary
A New York-based scammer named Christian Nieves, operating under the aliases "Daytwo" and "PawsOnHips," stole over $4 million from Coinbase users through a social engineering scam. The scam involved impersonating Coinbase customer support during phone calls and tricking victims into providing access to pre-compromised crypto wallets. The scam occurred between November 2024 and June 2025, with evidence including call recordings, Discord messages, and blockchain data published on June 23. Nieves used stolen funds to purchase luxury goods and gamble on crypto betting sites like Roobet under the username "pawsonhips." Some victims, including an elderly man, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nieves was not acting alone; accomplices helped manage the fake support center and track wallet inflows.
Sources
1This incident is documented by a single source. Source count reflects coverage in our monitored feeds, not the totality of reporting, and we do not evaluate publication quality.