Coinbase is the top brand to exploit among attackers who specialize in Web3 phishing.
Coinbase is the most popular crypto brand among fraudsters who specialize in phishing. This finding was reported by Mailsuite, which highlighted that the company’s brand was used in 416 registered phishing attacks over the past four years.
Phishing in the cryptocurrency sector is a type of scam where attackers create fake websites that mimic legitimate crypto platforms and create fake social media accounts that post phishing links leading to these fake sites. These links are also distributed via user comments, email campaigns, and other methods. The goal is to gain access to personal user data, such as wallet passwords and access keys.
Mailsuite analysts examined confirmed phishing attack data available on PhishTank. The sample included attacks from January 2020 to March 2024, exploiting 256 real brands.
In total, the analysts studied over 1.14 million phishing attack reports. In more than 27.93% of cases, attackers impersonated well-known IT and tech brands. Brands related to finance and banking were used in 24.57% of cases.
Meta is the leader among tech brands and the most popular American brand used by phishers, featuring in at least 10,457 registered phishing fraud cases over the past four years. In banking and finance, as well as among international organizations, Japanese brands lead — payment company JCB and mobile operator au by KDDI were used in 18,964 and 14,907 cases, respectively.
It’s noteworthy that Coinbase is the only Web3 brand mentioned in the report. Phishing remains one of the most common types of attacks on crypto users. Reports of phishing-related breaches appear almost weekly. One significant example is the recent hack of MailerLite, an email marketing service, followed by a phishing email campaign. The emails used addresses from major Web3 companies, causing over $580,000 in damages.
