How to Spot and Analyze Fake Coinbase Emails? Explained
The surge in cryptocurrency platforms, such as Coinbase, has led scammers to target users via Coinbase scam emails. In this technique, scammers send fake emails to users regarding confirmation, a fake login attempt email, a purchase email, etc. These fake Coinbase emails often aim to target users to steal their user credentials, personal information, or access to a crypto wallet. If you also receive such an email. Then, do not worry, today in this technical column, we are going to explain to you the detailed guidelines to spot and analyze fake Coinbase emails. Before moving forward, let us understand some of the common scam emails sent by scammers to target Coinbase users.
Common Coinbase Scam Emails Often Sent by Scammers
Account Verification Scam: In this type of fake email, you may receive an email claiming that for a Coinbase account verification via a redirect link pointing to a fake domain. Using such a fake email, users try to gather your Coinbase account credentials or two-factor authentication code.
Fake Login Attempt Email: You may receive a scam Coinbase Inc email claiming for fake login attempt from an unknown device or location. Similarly, in this hacker tries to direct you to a fraudulent Coinbase login page, targeting to steal your Coinbase account credentials.
Purchase or Withdraw Confirmation Fake Email: In this type of Coinbase scam email, you might receive a fake purchase or withdrawal email. The main goal of scammers is to make you feel panic and redirect you to a phishing website to cancel the transaction. On the phishing site, the fraudsters try to capture your account credentials.
Technical Support or Refund Scam Email: Some scammers send an email to represent themselves as a support or refund agent from Coinbase. These emails usually contain malicious files or links to capture your wallet, bank account credentials, or recovery account phrases like phone number, email address, etc.
How to Identify Coinbase Scam Emails?
Check Sender’s Email Address: Always verify that the sender’s email address is from the Genuine Coinbase address. To verify this, you may look for @coinbase.com. Never trust any domain that is misspelt, unnecessary extensions are used after @coinbase, such as .org, .net, .xyz, etc.
Inspect Link Carefully: Do not directly click on any attached link from the email. Before clicking on any link, it is necessary to verify that the attached link is from the correct source. You may use the link verifier tool, like VirusTotal or Google Safe Browsing Transparency test, to check if the link is secure to click.
Look for Formatting & Grammar Errors: Cross-check that the received email is grammatically correct and does not use any wrong formatting. If it is present, then there is a chance that your email is a Coinbase scam email.
Check for Generic Greetings: The scammers use common greeting language to target users on a large scale. Coinbase never sends any email with common Greeting phrases.
Suspicious Attachments or Buttons: Coinbase never directly sends any software or attachments via email. Therefore, it is suggested to never download such files from such emails. These files might contain viruses or malware that may harm your system or steal your information.
Now, let us check how to verify that the received Coinbase email is a scam email.
Free Professional Tool to Investigate Fake Coinbase Email
If you think that the received Coinbase email is a Scam email based on the above-discussed pointers, and want to investigate further. You may use the Email Forensic Tool to analyze the Coinbase fake email from any source for free. This desktop-based tool can directly access your fake Coinbase email from any email server, email format, desktop client, cloud email service, etc. Now, let us look forward to what to check in analyzing the Coinbase email is fake using the professional utility.
How to Investigate Fake Coinbase Email?
- At the start, install and run the suggested application on your PC.
- Next, click on the Open button and select the email source where the fake email was received.
- Then, go to the folder and open the Coinbase scam email required to investigate.
- After that, click on the Header tab and look for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC mark pass.
- Next, find the sender’s address and the domain IP address and verify it using the WHOIS Lookup tool.
- Finally, if all the conditions and the domain IP address match the source from Coinbase, then the Coinbase email is legit; otherwise, it is a scam email and do not download or click on any link.
What to do If You Receive a Fake Coinbase Email?
- If you have full surety that you have received a fake Coinbase email, then do not interact with the email.
- Another step you need to take is to report the Coinbase scam email to Coinbase via security@coinbase.com.
- Immediately mark the email address as a phishing email in your email service provider.
- Change your Coinbase password immediately if you have clicked on something from the original website. You may also use two-factor authentication for added security.
Concluding Words
In conclusion to the above blog on the topic of how to spot and analyze a Coinbase scam email. We have started this blog post by understanding the common types of email used as fake Coinbase emails. Secondly, we have discussed a few pointers to identify that the email is a fake Coinbase email. Thereafter, we have seen how to examine the email header to be sure that the Coinbase email is a scam, not legit. Finally, we have discussed some of the necessary pointers to follow if your Coinbase email is a scam.
