How my Coinbase account was almost stolen

In this article

Jason Gewirtz is vice president of news at CNBC. What follows is a personal account of his experience with a scammer.

Last week my cell phone rang. It was about 1:30 p.m., and the iPhone ID showed the 650 area code, which I recognized as the San Francisco Bay Area. The caller ID listed the number as unknown but labeled it as coming from San Francisco.

Given San Francisco’s position in the heart of global innovation and technology and that it’s the location of one of CNBC’s key bureaus, I picked up despite not knowing who was calling, something people rarely do anymore.

The voice on the other end introduced himself as Brian Miller from Coinbase’s