My mom just lost 300K in a Coinbase/Wallet phishing scam

Want to preface this by saying I have no interest in cryptocurrency. I just needed to get this off my chest.

This morning, my mom (50/F) comes to me (19/F) saying that she’s been on the phone with Coinbase for three hours, transferring her crypto from Coinbase to Wallet because allegedly a Chinese hacker almost gained access to her funds in Coinbase and they would be safer in Wallet. I wasn’t really paying attention, and like I said before, I have no interest in cryptocurrency, so this didn’t alert me too much. I also thought she knew what she was doing, but I guess not.

While she’s talking, she has the Wallet app open and they drain all the money from her account. She sits there numbly until I urge her to talk to a Coinbase agent through their website. She does and fills out their questionnaire.

I wanted to post this to provide a warning. If you call any number besides the official Coinbase number on their website, believing they are Coinbase, THEY ARE NOT COINBASE no matter how official it looks.

My mom is not a dumb person, but like almost all old people, lacks digital literacy to a certain extent. The email looked official with the Coinbase insignia and everything, so she just called the number on it, assuming they were Coinbase. They had a British accent, so she was additionally fooled by that.

What really gets me is the fact that she said it was God’s will afterward. I understand that she was trying to assuage herself and actually understands her mistake, but it still made me angry because God had nothing to do with it. If she had just stopped and checked with Coinbase’s actual number, this wouldn’t have happened. I think I’m also angry because these funds weren’t for personal gain. They were supposed to be used for my brother, me, and our cousins.

I also don’t understand how they were able to transfer her funds from Wallet to their account… If anyone is willing to explain, that would be great! I’m a crypto noob.