Online investigator ZachXBT has revealed how a New York-based scammer stole $4 million from Coinbase users before gambling most of the funds away on crypto betting sites.
In a post on X, ZachXBT, whose real name is Zachary Wolk, accuses Cristian Nieves of scamming Coinbase users through a fake call center. Nieves, who goes by the names daytwo and pawsonhips online, reportedly tricked at least 30 victims into transferring funds by pretending to work for Coinbase.
Nieves then gambled much of the funds away on Roobet, an online crypto casino, as well as splurging on luxury items such as cars. The detailed thread by ZachXBT, who has run a series of similar investigations that trace crypto scams, reveals how Nieves failed to hide his identity. An Instagram post showing a purchase of a Corvette linked back to an account that revealed both his face and real name.
The investigator commented, “It’s rare we see a social engineering scammer with such blatant disregard to mask their identity while flexing stolen funds all over social media. As Daytwo is not a minor it’s a rather easy case for law enforcement to pursue.”
Scam Involved Multiple Individuals
It appears that Nieves did not work alone, and the thread alleges that another individual, identified only as Justin, also stole funds from victims through a pseudonym “Paranoia”.
ZachXBT posts a video showing the theft of $240,000 from an elderly victim in November 2024. The funds were then split into two Monero (XMR) accounts, with the rest deposited to Roobet.
It was through this theft that ZachXBT was able to trace back over 30 more cases where scams occurred. The thread states, ” I traced out his casino deposit address which links onchain to 30+ suspected thefts. I expect there’s many additional victims I am unable to directly link. While there’s potentially overlap between multiple threat actors the vast majority of activity pertains to Daytwo.”
The posts go on to state how Nieves has a problem gambling at online casinos and show conversations on Discord where he seemingly refuses to pay accomplices a share of the profits from the scams.
Latest In Series Of Uncovered Scams
The X account @ZachXBT has been active since 2021, investigating scams through blockchain technology. His bio states that he is a “scam survivor turned 2D investigator”. He bought into several NFT projects around 2018 which proved to be scams where project creators dumped tokens after raising funds. He is believed to have lost around $15,000 on the scams.
Last year, he worked with law enforcement to uncover a $243 million bitcoin theft, which was reported to be the biggest ever crypto heist targeting a single victim. In this case, ZachXBT apparently received a commission, but usually depends on donations to continue his investigations. He receives around $1.3 million a year in donations.
Critics of cryptocurrencies say the anonymity of payments is ripe for scam artists and criminals. Crypto casino Stake was itself the target of a hack that stole $41.3 million back in 2023.
In this case, Nieves is not believed to have been arrested as yet, but may soon be hearing from law enforcement given the detailed description of the scam by ZachXBT.
Adam is an experienced writer with years of experience in the gambling industry. He has worked as a content writer and editor for five years on sites such as Oddschecker, CoinTelegraph and Gambling Industry News, bringing excellent knowledge of the world of sports betting and online gambling. Adam focuses on emerging stories in the ever changing landscape of betting in the US. Read the latest on prediction markets, changing legislation, and sweepstakes.
