Coin-Ether Coinbase Ethereum Doubling Offer

Notice: This page is a freshly imported case study from the original repository. The original content was in a different format, and may not have relevant information for all sections. Please help restructure the content by moving information from the 'About' and 'General Prevention' sections to other sections, and add any missing information or sources you can find. If you are new here, please read General Tutorial on Wikis or Anatomy of a Case Study for help getting started.

Coin-Ether Website

What could go wrong with an "official" Ethereum give-away of 40,000 ETH? After all, it was accompanied by a video of an interview between Brian Armstrong and Vitalik Buterin and had a premium domain name. After several users sent a total of 6.003026 ETH, unsurprisingly they received nothing back.

About Coin-Ether Giveaway

The website coin-ether.net announced a giveaway of 40,000 ETH to celebrate the major upgrade to the Ethereum project. To participate, users needed to send 0.5 ETH to 500 ETH to the contribution address and they will immediately receive back 1 ETH to 1,000 ETH (x2) to the address they sent it from. The giveaway is a one-time participation event and the outgoing transaction is processed immediately to the participant's address. Users can use any wallet or exchange to participate, and late transactions will be immediately returned.

"We are launching a massive ETH giveaway to celebrate a major upgrade to the Ethereum project. Hurry up and take! Visit our website: coin-ether.net"

"Official Ethereum event 40,000 ETH. We believe that after the London hard fork EIP-1559, the Ethereum coin will cost $ 10,000 per coin. To speed up the process of mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, we decided to launch the distribution of 40,000 ETH. giveaway."

"During this unique event we will give you a chance to win 40,000 ETH, have a look at the rules and don't miss on your chance! You can only participate once!"

"To participate you just need to send from 0.5 ETH to 500 ETH to the contribution address and we will immediately send you back 1 ETH to 1,000 ETH (x2) to the address you sent it from."

"To make a transaction, you can use any wallet or exchange to participate!"

"Once we receive your transaction, the outgoing transaction is processed to your address."

"Once we receive your transaction, we will immediately send the requested amount back to you."

"Every address that is sent too late, gets their ETH immediately sent back."

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Coin-Ether Coinbase Ethereum Doubling Offer

Date	Event	Description
October 31st, 2021 7:43:22 AM MDT	First Transaction Sent	The first blockchain transaction is recorded.
October 31st, 2021 7:56:55 AM MDT	Second Transaction Sent	A second blockchain transaction.
October 31st, 2021 8:41:35 AM MDT	Largest Transaction Sent	The largest blockchain transaction is sent, for a total of 2.5 ETH. This is also the only victim from a self-hosted wallet.
October 31st, 2021 8:46:34 AM MDT	Reddit Thread Started	A discussion about the video is started on Reddit.
October 31st, 2021 9:11:14 AM MDT	Fifth Transaction Sent	The fifth and final transaction, approximately 30 minutes after the video was first reported on Reddit.
November 1st, 2021 4:39:18 AM MDT	Sixth Transaction Sent	Another victim sends funds from CoinBase. This transaction happened significantly after the others, suggesting that perhaps this person had left the site open for a long time, or perhaps this was part of a second iteration of the scam.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

A total of 6 transactions were made to the attacker's wallet.

Victim #	Time	Amount	Exchange	Additional Information
1	Oct 31st 7:43:22 AM MDT	0.505 ETH	Binance
2	Oct 31st 7:56:55 AM MDT	0.5 ETH	Coinbase
3	Oct 31st 8:38:43 AM MDT	1 ETH	Coinbase
4	Oct 31st 8:41:35 AM MDT	2.5 ETH	None	Self-hosted wallet.
5	Oct 31st 9:11:14 AM MDT	1 ETH	Coinbase
6	Nov 1st 4:39:18 AM MDT	0.498026 ETH	Coinbase

The total amount adds up to 6.003026 ETH. lost has been estimated at $26,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Reactions on Reddit

A thread was established on Reddit to report on the situation. Many users commented and reported the situation to YouTube and CoinBase.

"Please help to take down this scammers, currently live streaming by Cactoos in ethereum"

"This is on youtube but they wont do anything..."

They already got like 5 eth :(

I’ve seen tons of Youtubers getting their channels hacked in overnight getting taken over by these types of scams. When they reach out to YouTube support, YouTube will just paste them a canned macro response that is laughable at best.

One user decided to make a funny joke that he would "take it down" due to his alleged intimate relationship with Susan Wojcicki, YouTube's CEO at the time.

ok I will take it down..

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

General Prevention Policies

Know the common scam tactics. Always validate any information against official sources. Never make a rushed transaction to send any funds.

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.