More than $1 million drained from San Diego man’s crypto account

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A local business owner woke up to a nightmare scenario, more than $1 million dollars drained of his savings from his crypto account.

When Anwar Husain accessed his crypto savings account last Tuesday morning, he did a double take.

“I honestly felt numb. I don’t even know how this was possible. I still can’t process all the emotions,” Husain said.

More than a year ago, Husain and his brother emptied their savings into an account with the crypto exchange platform Coinbase, an account that suddenly lacks much of its value.

“That’s when I noticed $1.2 million was missing,” Husain said.

The disappearing act was confusing, highlighted by a dizzying amount of trades.

“There were 11,000 trades that happened in a 5-hour period,” Husain said.

Such high-volume transactions have been the hallmark of cryptohacks in recent years.

Husain says in the transactions that his high value coins were traded for less valuable coins.

Once converted to these lesser coins, experts say hackers can flood the market, dump the coins and manipulate prices for profit, or they can sell the lesser-valued coins to themselves.

“They could have just taken all the coins in my portfolio at a loss or discount,” Husain said.

However it was done, it seems the money is gone. Husain and his brother, who co-founded Smashtech, a downtown marketing firm for health and wellness brands, are using the funds to support the business.

“We thought it was safe … really took me for a whirlwind. It’s just been an absolute kick in the gut,” Husain said.

He says Coinbase told him they are looking into it, while the FBI has also contacted him in the past week.

“Just trying to maintain some composure through this, and the belief that a resolution will come from it eventually,” Husain said. “I also want others to know that this can happen to anyone.”

The FBI says it cannot comment on active investigations.

In a statement, Coinbase said its users’ API key was compromised, allowing third-party apps and services to access accounts to streamline trading.

“Coinbase takes extensive security measures to ensure our customer accounts remain as safe as possible. In addition to educating our customers on best practices for securing their Coinbase accounts, Coinbase has a dedicated fraud investigation team and policies to ensure specialized support for our customers We also offer global phone support for all customers, and instant messaging.

The user had Application Programming Interface (API) keys compromised. We have contacted the account holder and forwarded the case to a specialist to review the account for a refund under the Coinbase One Account Protection program.

You can learn more about the Coinbase One Account Protection Program here: [help.coinbase.com]

We recognize that these are horrific crimes that can have a significant impact on consumers. With more and more of our personal information available online, it is increasingly important for consumers to understand how to protect their personal information from unauthorized third parties.

We encourage all our customers to take important steps to secure their online accounts. You can see an overview below and all the details in our user support. [help.coinbase.com]

• Ensure all financial accounts and email are 2FA (two-factor authentication) enabled, preferably using a Time Based One-Time Passcode (TOTP) generator or hardware 2FA key (such as a Yubikey).
• Use a strong, unique password for each of your online accounts. Use a password manager like LastPass, 1Password or Dashlane to easily generate and securely store unique passwords for all your online accounts.
• Do not store API key data in a public space or forum.
• Make sure your mobile operator has additional security features enabled for your mobile account, such as your personal account PIN.
• Do not share personal banking information with unknown third parties

We recommend our users take the same protective steps for all their accounts.