Thieves Drain Crypto Wallets in Sophisticated Phishing Scam

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Aarp, Fraud, Society & Culture, Scam, Crime, Bobsullivan

4.5 • 980 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After several years of investing in crypto, Glen has built up a sizeable nest egg. The money means security and the ability to buy a home. One day, when trying to log in to Coinbase, he realizes that his account is locked. Seconds later, he receives a call from "Coinbase support." The customer service agent explains that due to a major data breach and the high volume of hacks, they are now being instructed to reach out and assist customers directly. He walks Glen through the account recovery process, which is reassuring, but within a day, Glen's account is drained of $180,000.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This week on The Perfect Scam.
0:04.0	I called my friend Matt and I said, listen, you've always asked me in the past if there's any shady business with your crypto, emails, phone calls, give him a call first before I do anything.
0:19.0	So I just called him quickly. I told him what had happened,
0:22.7	and he immediately said, open your Coinbase account right now. So I opened it up, and it was nothing
0:30.6	but zeros. I could see everything had been drained. And then Matt just said, Glenn, I'm so sorry.
0:45.4	Welcome back to the perfect scam.
0:47.4	I'm your host, Bob Sullivan.
0:51.4	It seems like everyone is talking about cryptocurrency.
0:56.2	Again, you've probably heard about the wild swings and value that crypto coins have gone through. Up, down, way up, way down. Buying crypto remains a very
1:03.3	risky proposition, but when the criminal element is factored in, well, things get really
1:10.1	dangerous, as you'll see in today's story.
1:13.3	Meet Glenn Fishman from Denver, a real estate agent and a very early crypto enthusiast.
1:20.7	I first heard that cryptocurrency in 2017, and I heard about it from a meetup group that I saw online and the meetup group had a
1:35.2	time and location to educate anybody that had an interest in learning about it. So I went to that
1:42.1	meeting, met several people, including the host that had been,
1:48.9	that was very well versed in crypto. His name is Matt, and I've been in touch with him
1:54.8	ever since I went to the meeting. And from that day forward, I don't remember the exact date
2:00.6	in 2017, I started buying cryptocurrency.
2:07.1	Okay, did you dip your toe in right away? Did you go full force? How did you get involved?
2:11.2	I started off on the recommendation of Matt, the experienced crypto investor, investing in XRP, which is one
2:23.9	cryptocurrency, I bought some Ethereum, and those were the two that I purchased probably within two weeks of going to that meeting.
2:37.7	And those early investments pay off nicely.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from AARP, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of AARP and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.