A retired artist Ed Suman, lost all of his entire crypto nest egg-worth more than $2 million-after falling victim to an elaborate phishing scheme involving scammers posing as Coinbase support representatives.

Suman, who spent nearly two decades as a fabricator for high-profile art projects like Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog sculptures, had turned to cryptocurrency by pouring all of his life saving into the digital asset after his retirement, amassing a total of 17.5 Bitcoin and 225 Ether.

How the Scam Unfolded

Suman stored all of his assets securely in a Trezor Model One hardware wallet, thinking that it would help him repel against exchange hackers.

But in March, he received a text message that appeared to be from Coinbase, cautioning him about an unauthorized account access.

After responding, Suman received a call from a man identifying himself as “Brett Miller,” a purported Coinbase security staffer.

The caller appeared knowledgeable, correctly stating that his funds were stored in a hardware wallet.

He then convinced Suman that his wallet was still at risk and guided him through a so-called “security procedure,” instructing him to enter his seed phrase into a website that perfectly mimicked Coinbase’s interface.

Nine days later, a second caller claiming to be from Coinbase repeated the process. By the time the call ended, all of Suman’s Bitcoin and Ether were drained from his wallet.

Ex-Coinbase Employee Hacks and Extorts Firm

Suman’s ordeal comes inthe wake of a significant data breach at Coinbase, where a Coinbase employeed hacked and stole $400 million in user funds.

After which, the rogue employee, demanded another $20 million of shush fee, threatening to announce the news of the hack if Coinbase didn't comply.

Instead of giving in to the demands of the perpetrators, Coinbase offered the same amount of money to white-hat hackers who can help them catch those responsible for the scheme.

Shortly after the news broke out, Coinbase released a X post, where it assures that the break only affected less than 1% of Coinbase's users.

Unfortunately for these 1%, their customer names, account balances and transaction histories has been exposed.

Among those affected was Sequoia Capital’s Roelof Botha, though there is no indication his funds were accessed.

Coinbase’s chief security officer, Philip Martin, later revealed that the Coinbase employees behind the hack were customer service agents from Coinbase's India office, who have since been terminated.

The company also pledged to reimburse the users affected by the hack.