Looking for any help, tips, or advice.
My uncle called me earlier today saying “Comcast customer support contacted me because my computer’s been hacked …”
I immediately knew this was a scam and hoped none of his accounts were compromised. Unfortunately, back on Friday, Jul 19, per the scammer’s instructions, he had already installed AnyDesk and logged into his Coinbase account to check on some supposed fraudulent activity. My uncle had a huge amount in Coinbase, around $500k. His son (my cousin) is a huge crypto buff, so my uncle had been investing into crypto for years now.
After the scammer gained access to my uncle’s PC via AnyDesk, he instructed my uncle to “go check the modem to see if the lights are blinking for activity.” While my uncle was in the other room checking on the modem, the scammer converted all ERC20 tokens to ETH and withdrew to this address: 0x8a8D3Cd756a0E7A2672C0bE8b167F5467E9e7afb. The scammer also withdrew all BTC. (I can’t currently grab the BTC txn ID because Coinbase already locked the account, and we’re in the process of unlocking, which requires photo verification and manual review).
After draining the entire account on Friday, the scammer told my uncle Comcast would install some new hardware security device on Monday and they would call back. Today (Monday), they called back and instructed my uncle to log into his bank accounts. At this point, he finally called me. I instructed him to stop talking to the scammers and shutdown his PCs immediately.
We contacted Coinbase support, and they sent us a link to file a police report with the FBI here, which we already did. Coinbase of course can’t do anything to reverse the transaction. They just told us they’ll cooperate with the FBI.
As you can imagine, my uncle is completely devastated, and I’m devastated for him.
Anything else I can do here?
submitted by /u/cleverquokka
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