Scammed out of $130K via fake Google call, spoofed Google email and auth sync

Re:Scammed out of $130K via fake Google call, spoofed Google... by davidscoville on Tuesday September 16, 2025 @06:16PM (#45268933)

I did have saved passwords in Chrome password manager but they were old. My guess is that the attacker used Google SSO on Coinbase (e.g., "sign in with Google"), which I have used in the past. And then they opened up Google's Authenticator app, signed in as me, and got the auth code for Coinbase.

By enabling cloud-sync, Google has created a massive security vulnerability for the entire industry. A developer can't be certain that auth codes are a true 2nd factor, if the account email is @gmail.com for a given user because that user might be using Google's Authenticator app.

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Re:Scammed out of $130K via fake Google call, spoofed Google... by ratorx on Tuesday September 16, 2025 @06:30PM (#45269092)

Hmm, I see what you mean, although technically this is still a 2 factor compromise (Google account password + 2FA code). Just having one or the other wouldn’t have done anything. The bigger issue is the contagion from compromising a set of less related two factors (the email account, not the actual login).

Specifically, the most problematic is SSO + Google authenticator. Just @gmail + authenticator is not enough, you need to also store passwords in the Google account too and sync them.

Although, this is functionally the same as using a completely unrelated password manager and storing authenticator codes there (a fairly common feature) - a password manager compromise leads to a total compromise of everything.

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Re:Scammed out of $130K via fake Google call, spoofed Google... by blactuary on Tuesday September 16, 2025 @09:51PM (#45270630)

You used Google SSO for Coinbase?

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