CEO of CoinGecko warns about a fake crypto conference scam impersonating Booking.com

Bobby Ong, co-founder and CEO of the CoinGecko data platform, has just warned the community about a new phishing scam targeting crypto users.

This trick uses a spoofed email that looks exactly like Booking.com, inviting the recipient to attend an “Exclusive Crypto Travel Conference” in Dubai — an event that does not exist at all.

Bobby Ong## Sophisticated phishing invitation

The phishing email, publicly shared by Ong on social media, is presented as an official conference announcement, claiming that Booking.com and Coinbase have “established a strategic partnership” to launch a crypto travel service.

The invitation also lists an impressive lineup of speakers, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, with the event scheduled to take place in November 2025.

A noticeable unusual detail is that the deadline for registration to attend (RSVP) is stated as September 30, 2025 — which is in the past — indicating that the content of the letter may have been copied or hastily drafted.

The official recommended that anyone receiving similar emails should delete them immediately, while calling on Booking.com to quickly escalate the matter to the security department. Subsequently, Booking.com's official account responded under Ong's post: “We are sorry to hear about these phishing emails” and requested him to send detailed information via private message for further investigation.

The constant threat in the crypto world

This incident is not an isolated case, but part of a growing wave of fraud in the crypto space. In September, Binance issued two separate warnings about different fraudulent schemes.

In the first warning, the platform stated that there were impersonators of “listing agents” promising to help projects get listed for a fee. Just a few days later, CEO Richard Teng continued to share about a phone scam, in which impersonators of customer support staff guided victims to change their account API settings — allowing the fraudsters to withdraw all funds.

The online community responded positively to Ong's warning, with many expressing fatigue at the increasingly sophisticated level of scams. The account SkylineETH wrote: “Thank you for the warning, these scams are becoming more and more sophisticated.”

Another user, Kevin Lee, raised a common concern: is there a better way to secure emails so as not to accidentally click on 'unsubscribe' links in spam. He agreed, emphasizing that in the risky world of crypto, users need to be on high alert and carefully check every email received.

Thạch Sanh