ZachXBT Exposes ‘Haby,’ a Canadian Social Engineer Flaunting Stolen Crypto
On-chain investigator ZachXBT has detailed a year-long investigation into a Canadian risk actor often called Haby, additionally known as Havard, who he claims has stolen greater than $2 million by way of Coinbase assist impersonation scams.
As per his newest findings, ZachXBT mentioned Haby used social engineering techniques to trick Coinbase customers into handing over entry to their funds, earlier than spending the stolen cash on uncommon social media usernames, bottle service, and playing.
Coinbase-Related Theft Network
According to the investigation, Haby overtly bragged about his actions in personal group chats. On December 30, 2024, he allegedly shared a screenshot displaying a theft of 21,000 XRP, price round $44,000 on the time, taken from a Coinbase person. Just a few days later, on January 3, 2025, he posted one other screenshot from his Exodus pockets that included hyperlinks to his Telegram and Instagram accounts.
ZachXBT mentioned he matched historic pockets balances to those screenshots and linked the XRP handle to 2 different Coinbase-related thefts. This introduced the entire traced quantity to roughly $500,000. The investigator added that Haby commonly swapped stolen XRP into Bitcoin utilizing instantaneous trade companies. By analyzing the timing of those swaps, he managed to establish a Bitcoin handle related to Haby.
Further affirmation got here in February 2025, when Haby reportedly confirmed off a pockets stability of $237,000 in a group chat, which matched the historic stability of the recognized Bitcoin handle. Upon tracing transactions from that handle, he discovered three further Coinbase impersonation scams, which added greater than $560,000 to the entire stolen.
The publish additionally consists of a leaked video that allegedly exhibits Haby actively social engineering a sufferer, throughout which his e-mail handle and Telegram contact have been uncovered. ZachXBT noticed that Haby ceaselessly flaunted his life-style on Instagram and Telegram, usually ignoring fundamental operational safety whilst he was repeatedly warned by others to cease “flexing” his scams.
Based on open-source intelligence from his social media posts, Haby is believed to be positioned in Abbotsford, close to Vancouver. ZachXBT mentioned Canadian regulation enforcement could already concentrate on him attributable to a number of swatting incidents linked to his private particulars, and urged authorities to take motion, whereas citing the big quantity of publicly out there proof and Haby’s obvious lack of regret for victims.
Social Engineering Attacks
Social engineering assaults are one of the critical threats going through crypto customers. An earlier report by ZachXBT revealed that at the very least $65 million was stolen from Coinbase customers between December 2024 and January 2025 after attackers impersonated buyer assist utilizing spoofed emails and cellphone numbers.
Victims have been tricked into transferring funds or approving fraudulent pockets addresses.
Separate studies present the issue extends past a single platform. In the primary half of 2025, over $2 billion was stolen throughout the crypto sector, and greater than 80% of losses have been tied to social engineering and insider-related assaults.
One current case saw a single sufferer lose 783 Bitcoin, price about $91 million, after scammers posed as pockets assist. Security specialists warn that leaked private knowledge and more and more convincing impersonation techniques are making these scams more durable to detect.
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