{"id":232031,"date":"2026-09-24T19:15:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T19:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=232031"},"modified":"2026-09-24T19:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T19:15:29","slug":"brooklyn-man-sentenced-to-12-years-for-16m-coinbase-phishing-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=232031","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 12 Years for $16M Coinbase Phishing Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 12 Years for $16M Coinbase Phishing Scam<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

A scammer who went by the online name \u201clolimfeelingevil\u201d will face 12 years in prison after pleading guilty for playing his part in stealing $16 million in crypto from Coinbase users.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ronald Spektor, 23, from Brooklyn, New York, posed as a representative from America\u2019s biggest crypto exchange and told victims their accounts were under threat from hackers, according<\/a> to the Brooklyn District Attorney\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He then socially engineered them to move their cryptocurrency into what they believed was a secure new wallet. Social engineering<\/a> is when scammers manipulate victims into sending funds or handing over valuable information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spektor controlled that wallet, emptied it, and laundered the funds through swapping and mixing services and crypto gambling sites \u2014 with some victims losing $1 million or more.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Virtual Currency Unit painstakingly pieced together the digital proof that identified the defendant behind this sophisticated scheme, followed the money that he stole and compiled iron-clad evidence against him,\u201d District Attorney Gonzalez said in a Wednesday statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case should put crypto scammers on notice: we will follow the digital trail wherever it leads and aggressively pursue those responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigators with the DA\u2019s Virtual Currency Unit linked Spektor\u2019s home IP address to several of the victims\u2019 wallets. They also found that he recruited accomplices on online forums and bragged about his thefts on a Telegram channel under the handle \u201c@lolimfeelingevil.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recovered messages he claimed to have gambled away $6 million in crypto. After fraud allegations surfaced online, he got rid of a hardware wallet and bought a new one.<\/p>\n

Spektor pleaded guilty on September 2 to all 31 counts, including first-degree money laundering and grand larceny.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Justice Danny Chun imposed the promised sentence over prosecutors\u2019 objections, since they had sought seven to 21 years. Spektor must also forfeit more than $500,000 in assets and pay nearly $16 million in restitution.<\/p>\n

Officials reminded the public that Coinbase<\/a> will never call customers or ask them to move funds to a \u201csafe wallet.\u201d<\/p>\n

This post Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 12 Years for $16M Coinbase Phishing Scam<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Mathew Di Salvo<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 12 Years for $16M Coinbase Phishing Scam A scammer who went by the online name \u201clolimfeelingevil\u201d will face 12 years in prison after pleading guilty for playing his part in stealing $16 million in crypto from Coinbase users.\u00a0 Ronald Spektor, 23, from Brooklyn, New York, posed as a representative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":232032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/232032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}