Fake Coinbase Scam Busted: India Blocks Assets Worth $4.8M

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Fake Coinbase Scam Busted: India Blocks Assets Worth $4.8 Million

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: August 07, 2025

Key Takeaways

India’s ED froze ₹42.8 crore in assets linked to Chirag Tomar, jailed in the US for a crypto scam;
Tomar’s group ran fake Coinbase sites to steal user credentials and access crypto wallets;
Nearly ₹600 crore in stolen digital assets were laundered and turned into Indian currency.

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Fake Coinbase Scam Busted: India Blocks Assets Worth $4.8 Million

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India’s financial crime agency has frozen assets worth about ₹42.8 crore (around $4.8 million) connected to Chirag Tomar, an Indian national currently serving a prison sentence in the United States.

Tomar was convicted of running a fake website scheme that tricked people into giving up their cryptocurrency.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on August 5 that it had blocked access to 18 properties in Delhi and several bank accounts. These accounts belong to Tomar, his family members, and people he worked with.

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In October 2024, Tomar was sentenced to five years in a US federal prison. His group created fake websites that resembled the crypto exchange Coinbase $1.82B to collect login details from unsuspecting users.

Once people entered their information, they were shown fake error messages and told to call a helpline. The numbers connected them to fraudsters pretending to be Coinbase staff.

Victims were then misled into giving out security codes or allowing remote access to their devices. This allowed the scammers to steal funds from their crypto wallets.

Officials said the scam operated for over two years. The group used tricks to make their fake websites appear above the real Coinbase site in search results.

Investigators also found that nearly ₹600 crore (roughly $72 million) in digital assets moved through various trading platforms before being converted into Indian currency.

Recently, two men from Southern California were charged with sending artificial intelligence (AI) computer chips to China without following US export rules. How did the case unfold? Read the full story.